Candy-Colored Burano

Burano is an island of brightly colored fishermen's houses and hand-tatted lace in Venice's Northern Lagoon

The name of the game on tiny Burano is lacemaking, an antique art that can still fetch high prices in Venetian shops. Prices can be a bit more reasonable here; you can get an edged hankie for about $5.

You can learn a bit about the history of lacemaking at the Scuola di Merletti (tel. +39-041-730-761), but its main purpose is to keep the tradition alive, and on the second floor are women diligently at work learning this excruciatingly delicate craft. It's usually open Wednesday to Monday 10am-4pm (in winter, they often close if no tourists appear).

The island has as Tiepolo Crucifixion in the parish church of San Martino, but Burano's best attraction is itself, a village whose houses are all painted in bright primaries and pastels (with chshutters and doors in violently but pleasnatly contracting colors), with a leisurely pace of life tied to the rhythms of the tides and the coming and going of fishing boats along its diminutive canals.

Venice's Outlying Islands: Murano | Burano | Torcello