San Francesco del Deserto: an island where peace and silence reign.

When St. Francis came back from the fifth crusade in the 1220s it is said that he stopped to pray on one of the Venetian lagoon islands. Immediately after he left the island was called Saint Francis after his name a group of Franciscan fathers settled there to continue his religious practice. Hundreds of years later because of malaria the island was abandoned for a while and for this reason the word Desert was applied to it.

The architectonic complex of Saint Francis, the pathway leading to the church

The island is considered a place for meditation and prayers as it is surrounded by a lot of vegetation and cypresses, typical trees of the lagoon islands and of the Mediterranean evergreen plants. A pathway with pebbles leads to the old convent, where a few friars still live today.

The church

The island was originally owned by a Venetian nobleman, Jacopo Michiel, who donated it to the friars. In 1228 a church was added to the oratory where St. Francis prayed. On its facade there is the representation of the saint in a small niche. The whole architectonic complex was built according to the Franciscan standards of respecting simplicity, so its inner and outer parts remain very plain.

Part of the garden surrounding the island

Following St Francis precepts the Franciscan friars found God in all the creatures and identified with them as brothers and sisters. Famous are his Canticle of the creatures and his Canticle of the Sun underlying the relationship between humankind and the creation.

One of his canticles is represented on the iron structure you see in the above picture. The hymn was dedicated to the birds who greeted him on his arrival on the island.

Burano lace: an art that is dying out!

Burano island and its houses in striking colors

The lagoon of Venice is surrounded by many islands that have their hidden treasures. Located in the northern part of this enclosed bay Burano is well-known for its lace production since the 1500s.

Lace museum

Thanks to the patient work of many women, who repaired their husbands’ fishing nets, lace making was invented by using a needle and a thread. From this simple work they copied and created a particular stitch that gave birth to a delicate fabric made by hand. The

techniques employed are still the same of the past and are known today by a few women, who are very old.

Fishing nets

When the design has been chosen it is copied onto transparent paper and then sewn together with pieces of cloth. With a needle and a thread the paper is pierced in order to follow the pattern.

Pattern

This type of lace is created using at least four stitches, the main one being the guipure one, followed by the so-called barrette stitch used to tie the work together. The last stitches that complete the work are the net and the relief one. When the piece of lace is ready the paper is cut off, the lace is washed, starched and framed.

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.