The Redentore Day is one of the few Venice holidays that Venetians really feel as their own. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of July. During the Saturday evening and Sunday, the areas of Giudecca island, San Marco Basin and Zattere became a playground of lights, colors, music, audacity, good food, laughter and lightheartedness. The origins…
Santa Fosca The small church in Torcello is dedicated to Santa Fosca; the story took place in the early middle-ages, when Fosca, originally from the Middle-East, converted to Christianity along with her maid; after the baptism they were hunted down until they decided to face their trial; they were tortured, decapitated and their bodies thrown in the sea. A group of fishermen, moved by the death of such…
Mazzorbo and the Ponte Lungo Mazzorbo, which is connected to the island of Burano via a long wooden bridge called Ponte Lungo, is often considered as an appendix to Burano, and so is often ignored by tourists who are attracted to the latter’s famous brightly-coloured houses. Like many other islands in the north side of the lagoon, it once had a great commercial role and the society was…
Burano “Bussolà” Among Burano’s traditions, food is definitely up there, and at the top of that list are the Bussolà, the buranese biscuits. You will find countless shops selling them in all sorts of shapes and sizes; nowadays they cater for any particular flavour too, from limoncello, chocolate chip, and coconut, to raisin, cream and apple. The bussolà were first invented in their plain buttery…
San Martino Vescovo Piazza Baldassare Galuppi is the only real square in the whole of Burano, dedicated to the 18th century musician who was of course a proud Buranelo. The Church of San Martino which faces the square is shaped like a large hut with its rather simple-looking exterior. Inside, however, there are some unique works of art, most importantly an 18th century Crucifixion by Tiepolo. The leaning campanile is the symbol of…
Burano Island Burano Island is, next to the almost unpopulated Torcello, the one truly inhabitated centre of the northern lagoon. Known for its brightly coloured houses, it too was founded by refugees from the mainland escaping the barbarian invaders. It is far enough from Venice that the people of Burano feel like Buranei more than Venetians, and still strongly hold onto their accent, distinctly different from Venetian, and just as proudly they guard and…
The Canal Grande of Murano Although obviously not as famous or as important as its counterpart in Venice, the Canal Grande of Murano is rather splendid in its own right. Just like in Venice, the Canal Grande divides Murano into two sides, which are connected by three bridges, rather a lot considering the much longer Venetian Canal Grande only has 4. Along the Canal Grande rise the oldest glass factories and,…
The Faro of Murano The Faro, or lighthouse, you see was built in 1912 but ever since the middle-ages there had always been a wooden tower on Murano, even if more inland. Today, of course, the lighthouse is powered by electricity, but in the past a fire would burn at the top by night, and bouncing off the lagoon water, it created a bright shimmering of reflections,…
San Michele Island San Michele Island, recognisable by high leafy tress which stick out above the encircling walls, is also known as the Isola dei morti – the Island of the dead – as this is in fact the cemetery of Venice. Originally a monastery built in the 13th century, which was famous for its great library and scholars, San Michele only became Venice’s cemetery with the arrival of Napoleon, who in 1804 established a well-known decree which…
The Gondoliers It is said that Venetians only enter a gondola twice in their life: their wedding and their funeral. Until the 18th century, gondolas were once mainly owned by noblemen under whose employ gondoliers would work for rather low pay. They were essentially taxi drivers, and so always abreast of the gossip surrounding the city’s elite members, who went to brothels, gambling houses, or simply spent private time with their lovers inside…