Burano and its humble houses in striking colors!

Burano island

In the northern part of the Venetian lagoon there is an island famous for lace-making and different from the rest of the other lagoon islands. Its outline is marked by its colored houses and by the leaning tower of St. Martin’s church, the only one ever built there in its main square.

The campanile and some houses

Burano has always been a fishermen’s village, where women stayed at home to repair nets while their husbands went fishing.

Houses flanking a typical canal on the island

Local people have always lived in simple houses divided in two floors: on the first floor a big kitchen and on the second one a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. Their facades have been painted with bright and striking colors that sometimes do not match since the 1500s as far as we know.

Striking colours

The reason why local people made the choice to paint them in different colours is very simple. When the fishermen left their homes for work during a foggy day, they could easily find their way back recognizing their bright-colored houses in the mist. There are other versions to this story but according to tradition this is the most credible one.

Find the door on the island

Many artists lived on the island and decorated their own buildings in a very creative way like you see in the above picture. Many of them painted beautiful landscapes of the surrounding lagoon.

Purple Artichokes from Sant’ Erasmo island: what a delicacy!

Sant’Erasmo

There are two types of purple artichokes one can eat in the province of Venice. They are grown in Chioggia and on Sant’ Erasmo, an island in the north of the Venetian lagoon, still considered the orchard of Venice. In fact since the Middle Ages it has supplied Venice with vegetables as it does today. Green asparagus, cauliflowers, different kinds of salads, peppers, white and brown eggplants and of course purple artichokes are sold at Rialto, the main market in Venice.

Artichokes plantation

From the mid of April baby artichokes, castraure in Venetian dialect, are available for a short time, just for fifteen days being the first ones of the harvest. They are cut in advance to let other artichokes grow from the same plant. Those second hand ones are called botoli and sottobotoli and at least eighteen to twenty pieces of those are produced by the same plant.

Risotto with shrimps and artichokes

Those vegetables are also famous for their tender taste with a light bitter aftertaste. They can be cooked in several ways such as deep-fried or added to mussels. One of the best recipes is shrimps with artichokes.

On the first half of May a festival dealing with artichokes takes place. At the Maximilian tower on the island the tasting of the artichokes is organized and local products are sold to the participants.

Malvasia, Calle, Campiello, Sotoportego della Malvasia:

in Venice many streets take their name from the aromatic sweet wine.

In the Middle Ages, Venice began its production of aromatic wine importedfrom a small town in Greece called Moni Emvasis, therefore it was called Malvasia.

Crete / Candia

After a while Venice shifted its wine production to Candia, Crete, where the climate was more favorable for the growth of wine. Moreover, the transportation of wine barrels from the island to Venice was easier.

Malvasia

By the 1500 Venice was still one of the largest Malvasia producers in Europe and maintained its monopoly until Crete was surrendered to the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Venice never gave up producing it as it was the only city that had a license to export it to Europe. In order to give an example of how important this commerce was it is interesting to know that England exchanged a bale of wool for a barrel of wine.

Rialto, Riva del Vin

All types of wine, like many other goods, were discharged at the Rialto market, in Riva del Vin, and then sold to wine bars, the so-called osterie. In those bars no meals or local wine were served, just the Malvasia. I

When banquets and special happenings were organized in Venetian palaces, it was served with biscuits prepared with egg cream. (zabaglione). The tradition changed when coffee and chocolate were brought to Venice and the Venetian aristocrats changed their customs.