Venice, Italy

For 20 Euros you can take the 4½ hour round trip to Murano, Burano and Torcello... excellent value for money considering you're in Venice. The first stop-off on the tour is Murano - world famous for its glass blowing industry. This is all very interesting, especially the glass blowing demonstration but the tour is very much like the Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop". You alight from the boat via a jetty straight into the demonstration area and from there through the gift shop and back onto the boat. The "display" glassware is spectacular providing you have thousands of Euros to part with (I wouldn't want to be the parent of a small child, who knocks one over). Otherwise, the token trinkets are all you can really afford and not wanting to sound snobbish - tat!. All this in just 40 minutes and part 1 of the tour is over.

Back on the boat and off to the second stop - Burano. When we first visited in 2005 one of my lasting memories of Burano was finding a particular house with a blue gable end that had a solitary white framed window in it with a bunch of flowers on the sill and I hoped to find it again and make a better job of the photography. Unfortunately, we only had another 40 minutes on the island in which to capture all those richly coloured houses along the canals and hopefully find this particular house but more of that later in a future posting.

Not having the time to scout for shots it became more of a point and shot session as Mrs R and myself dashed around in search of interesting shots and the blue wall. Apart from our boat load of tourists, Burano is a quite a quiet place but people do live there and presumably fishing is still a major income as well as tourism. During our 40 minutes on Burano we came across a few locals and this upload I've entitled "Burano Lives". Our time here was all to brief and rushed for it was back to the boat for the third and last island visit - Torcello. If I had to cut a place out of a travel itinerary it would be Torcello as it's a long way by boat with very little to see and do. Most people from our tour stopped in the first restaurant they came across due to it being a very hot day as did we. If I do post one picture from Torcello it will only be a token gesture to record the fact we went there. If I had my time again I would take the direct boat just to Burano and spend a morning or even a full day there.

Tags:   Venice Italy Murano glass glassware glass-blowing gift shop Burano houses coloured bright locals lives Torcello tour boat Andy Rouse Canon EOS 5D MkIII

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Burano, Italy

One of my lasting memories from our first trip to Venice and Burano was a house with a gable end wall containing a small window with a white border and flowers on the sill. I took quite a few pictures of it but not knowing much about photography or composition at the time made a bit of a pig's ear of it. I always said to myself if I ever went back I would search it out again and try and make a better job of it.

Well the opportunity did arise this year and so we booked for the three island tour - Murano, Burano and Torcello. Unfortunately, our stay on each island was a mere 40 minutes, nowhere near enough time explore all of the canals and back alleyways. Alas I didn't find my window in the blue wall but during our search I did manage to capture these.

Tags:   Burano island search blue wall window flowers sill canals alleyways houses shutters colours Andy Rouse Canon EOS 5D MkIII

© All Rights Reserved

Venice, Italy

For 20 Euros you can take the 4½ hour round trip to Murano, Burano and Torcello... excellent value for money considering you're in Venice. The first stop-off on the tour is Murano - world famous for its glass blowing industry. This is all very interesting, especially the glass blowing demonstration but the tour is very much like the Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop". You alight from the boat via a jetty straight into the demonstration area and from there through the gift shop and back onto the boat. The "display" glassware is spectacular providing you have thousands of Euros to part with (I wouldn't want to be the parent of a small child, who knocks one over). Otherwise, the token trinkets are all you can really afford and not wanting to sound snobbish - tat!. All this in just 40 minutes and part 1 of the tour is over.

Back on the boat and off to the second stop - Burano. When we first visited in 2005 one of my lasting memories of Burano was finding a particular house with a blue gable end that had a solitary white framed window in it with a bunch of flowers on the sill and I hoped to find it again and make a better job of the photography. Unfortunately, we only had another 40 minutes on the island in which to capture all those richly coloured houses along the canals and hopefully find this particular house but more of that later in a future posting.

Not having the time to scout for shots it became more of a point and shot session as Mrs R and myself dashed around in search of interesting shots and the blue wall. Apart from our boat load of tourists, Burano is a quite a quiet place but people do live there and presumably fishing is still a major income as well as tourism. During our 40 minutes on Burano we came across a few locals and this upload I've entitled "Burano Lives". Our time here was all to brief and rushed for it was back to the boat for the third and last island visit - Torcello. If I had to cut a place out of a travel itinerary it would be Torcello as it's a long way by boat with very little to see and do. Most people from our tour stopped in the first restaurant they came across due to it being a very hot day as did we. If I do post one picture from Torcello it will only be a token gesture to record the fact we went there. If I had my time again I would take the direct boat just to Burano and spend a morning or even a full day there.

Tags:   Venice Italy Murano glass glassware glass-blowing gift shop Burano houses coloured bright locals lives Torcello tour boat Andy Rouse Canon EOS 5D MkIII

© All Rights Reserved

Venice, Italy

For 20 Euros you can take the 4½ hour round trip to Murano, Burano and Torcello... excellent value for money considering you're in Venice. The first stop-off on the tour is Murano - world famous for its glass blowing industry. This is all very interesting, especially the glass blowing demonstration but the tour is very much like the Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop". You alight from the boat via a jetty straight into the demonstration area and from there through the gift shop and back onto the boat. The "display" glassware is spectacular providing you have thousands of Euros to part with (I wouldn't want to be the parent of a small child, who knocks one over). Otherwise, the token trinkets are all you can really afford and not wanting to sound snobbish - tat!. All this in just 40 minutes and part 1 of the tour is over.

Back on the boat and off to the second stop - Burano. When we first visited in 2005 one of my lasting memories of Burano was finding a particular house with a blue gable end that had a solitary white framed window in it with a bunch of flowers on the sill and I hoped to find it again and make a better job of the photography. Unfortunately, we only had another 40 minutes on the island in which to capture all those richly coloured houses along the canals and hopefully find this particular house but more of that later in a future posting.

Not having the time to scout for shots it became more of a point and shot session as Mrs R and myself dashed around in search of interesting shots and the blue wall. Apart from our boat load of tourists, Burano is a quite a quiet place but people do live there and presumably fishing is still a major income as well as tourism. During our 40 minutes on Burano we came across a few locals and this upload I've entitled "Burano Lives". Our time here was all to brief and rushed for it was back to the boat for the third and last island visit - Torcello. If I had to cut a place out of a travel itinerary it would be Torcello as it's a long way by boat with very little to see and do. Most people from our tour stopped in the first restaurant they came across due to it being a very hot day as did we. If I do post one picture from Torcello it will only be a token gesture to record the fact we went there. If I had my time again I would take the direct boat just to Burano and spend a morning or even a full day there.

Tags:   Venice Italy Murano glass glassware glass-blowing gift shop Burano houses coloured bright locals lives Torcello tour boat Andy Rouse Canon EOS 5D MkIII

© All Rights Reserved

Burano, Italy

One of my lasting memories from our first trip to Venice and Burano was a house with a gable end wall containing a small window with a white border and flowers on the sill. I took quite a few pictures of it but not knowing much about photography or composition at the time made a bit of a pig's ear of it. I always said to myself if I ever went back I would search it out again and try and make a better job of it.

Well the opportunity did arise this year and so we booked for the three island tour - Murano, Burano and Torcello. Unfortunately, our stay on each island was a mere 40 minutes, nowhere near enough time explore all of the canals and back alleyways. Alas I didn't find my window in the blue wall but during our search I did manage to capture these.

Tags:   Burano island search blue wall window flowers sill canals alleyways houses shutters colours Andy Rouse Canon EOS 5D MkIII

© All Rights Reserved