Friday, May 24th was our day to see the Cannaregio sestiere and Murano and Burano, two of the most important islands in the lagoon. After breakfast at the hotel we were joined by Owen and Brigitte and we set out walking. Our plan was to walk east and north across Cannaregio away from the train station and away from the Grand Canal, toward the church of Madonna dell'Orto and then to the vaporetto stop Fondamente Nove A. The Fondamente Nove is a long road along the northeastern shore of Cannaregio looking across the lagoon to the little cemetery island of Cimitero di San Michele di Venezia, and Murano is just beyond.
We were to take the Vaporetto #12 to Burano, which is the further of the two islands, and then to visit Murano on the way back to the city. This is because Lorna knew that she was likely to buy something in Murano and she didn't want to carry it all day.
Lorna was especially eager to see Murano because of her interest in art glass. Murano is synonymous with glass, but it's very different from the Czech glass that we saw a week earlier. Murano glass tends to be quite colorful and ornate, like this chandelier.
On our first visit to Venice in 2015, Lorna had bought a small Murano wine glass, and now she wanted something more. We certainly couldn't afford a chandelier, and we'd have no place to put it if we could afford it, but we did get some very nice cocktail glasses, both short glasses and Martini glasses, to set out when we have guests. I looked at some nice decanters, too, but it was still early in the vacation and I knew that I would wish I had that money later.
T
he walk was fun. Cannaregio has its share of shopping and dining, but it is also more residential than San Marco so we got to see more scenes of everyday Venetian life, away from the crush of tourists. Venice has a year-round population of a little over 260,000 people, most living in apartments above the ground floor (which are often occupied by shops and restaurants). There are many quiet streets, and quite a few fenced-in villas with private gardens.
During the walk we came upon a fruitseller where I found a Val di Non apple. We had passed through the Val de Non on our train journey from Innsbruck, and I had read that it is famous for its beautiful golden apples. Of course it was long out of season and months in cold storage had done nothing to improve the texture and flavor. I found it to be indeed beautiful, but in flavor it was much like a Golden Delicious, and the texture was somewhat mealy from cold storage.
We walked past the home of the great painter Tintoretto and to his local church, Madonna del’Orto. From the outside the church was uninteresting, but inside there were many paintings by Tintoretto. The great central pieces behind the altar were by Palma il Giovane and Ricchi from a much later date, due to damage to the wall over the decades. Even though those pieces were 100 years newer, and they seemed grayer and more faded than the vibrant, action-filled Tintorettos. I had read about the great Venetian painters of the Renaissance, and I wanted to get a good close look at as many of their works as possible, especially those of Jacopo Tintoretto, my favorite. This one is The Vision of St. Peter, from 1556.
Then we walked to Fondamente Nove A for Vaporetto #12 to Burano. When we arrived we had walked about one mile and a third, and crossed eight bridges! I think during our three days in Venice we crossed more bridges than exist in some US states.
Brigitte had been to Burano as a girl, so she was was able to tell us what to expect. Burano is a very pretty, very colorful island, and it was once the global center for fine lace-making. These days lace is almost all made by machines, but there are still lace makers on Burano and I bought a piece for home that is being framed as I write this.
We had a very fine lunch at Riva Risa: They had nothing on the menu for a vegetarian, but sooner than see five hungry tourists walking to a competitor, they promised a veggie special for Melissa. This was some sauteed vegetables on pasta and it was excellent. Lorna got grilled Sea Bream. Owen & Brigitte both got the Venetian classic Sarde in Saor.
I got a special hyper-local Risotto Buranello, also called Risotto di Go, celebrated by Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations, made from a stock of the ugly local goby fish, locally called Go fish, and the meat of some little local clams - it was perfect! One of my favorite parts of exploring like this is finding these very local and very seasonal dishes. Just since getting to Venice two nights ago, I had had the granseola crab and the moleche soft shell crabs, the local wines and grappa, and now the risotto di go!
Then we spent time and money on lace at Casa Blu, Emilia’s, and one other local lace shop. We did not see the Lace Museum because it was crowded and we wanted to get to Murano, so we walked (past a pirate wedding) back to the Vaporetto #12 to the Murano Faro (lighthouse) stop.
Murano is actually, like Venice, a cluster of islands and canals. It's world-famous for colorful glass of all types, drinking glasses and decanters, platters, whimsical figurines, glass clowns, and other objets d'art. Glass has been made on the island for almost 750 years, and from an early time Murano glass was exported all over Europe. Murano was an island like any other until 1291, when the city of Venice required all glassworkers to relocate to Murano, as a precaution against fire. Today it has scores of glassworkers and many independent shops, and a museum of glass. You can get there by vaporetto or by water taxi; of course the vaporetto is much less expensive and not much slower because there are no intermediary stops after leaving Venice.
Owen and Brigitte walked all over the island, especially visiting churches for architecture and to see some Bellini paintings. Lorna and Melissa shopped for glass while I waited at a canalside cicchetti place, relaxing and catching up on my notes for these articles. I got the last of their olive ascolane, a deep-fried meat-stuffed olive snack, a specialty of Abbruzzo, not Venice, but I wasn't sure of finding them in their homeland.
From Murano we took Vaporetto #4.2 to Fondamente A again, but we stayed on to go all around Venice’s shoreward side to the San Zaccaria stop, right next to the Palazzo Ducale and the Piazza San Marco.
Owen and Brigitte went off looking for a romantic dinner for two, and Lorna and Melissa went off in search of a couple of shopping sites that they had seen, while I toured the Palazzo Ducale. It was quite late in the day and the tourist crush was gone, I was able to walk right in and see everything at my own pace. The palazzo is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I focused mostly on the Tintorettos and Titians. I skipped the prisons, having heard about their horrors from Lorna and Owen, who had toured them during our 2022 visit. I was very happy to see that the excellent gift shop was open very late (until 9pm!) so I bought a guidebook and a cookbook of Venetian classic cuisine.
When I finally got out it was pretty late and my feet were about to fall off. I went off to the Rialto and up into San Polo to find Lorna and Melissa, who were at a humble little pizza place run by a pair of enterprising Indian fellows, and it was the best pizza of the whole trip! They were very friendly and the seats in the piazza were comfortable - a critically important feature at that moment.
Then I splurged on a water taxi back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.