Burano the island of colour

Many people know of the island just off Venice called Murano, but they are missing a trick because just a little further out is Burano and boy, this is a photographers paradise.

Murano is where glass is produced, but personally I find it rather dull, we changed boats at Murano as we had gone to the wrong bus stop, there are two ways to get here from the main island of Venice on public transport.  You can get a boat to Murano from outside the main train station, but then you have to walk a little way around Murano to find the stop for Burano.  Or you can go direct but you need to go to the bus stop at the far north of Venice (the route the airport bus comes, its just round the corner from the church called 'Chiesa dei Gesuiti', if you look on the map its the side of Venice that faces Murano.

Once you are there you are a bit of a captive audience, so warning about getting food, you don't have a huge choice and what there is can be over priced.  So either take a bit of a pack lunch or eat at the little coffee places, the one where the boats leave from do deep fried calamari snacks and it looked really good and warming.

Stories go that the reason behind the painted houses were for the fishermen to be able to see their cottage from out at sea.  Now probably more done for the tourists, the colours are incredible and every house has put in the effort to place cute flowers on the windows, colour match their mop and bucket and even their washing.

It really is so much fun just to wander through the side streets using the brilliant walls as backgrounds to photos and hunting down little vignettes of cute.

I found myself thinking about which of my friends would live in which house, especially some of my instagram buddies who are associated with certain colour pallettes. 

Strange thing was, I never did find the paint shop that stocks all these colours, you would think that they must be the busiest shop on the island.

This really is an instagramers paradise.

If you time your journey just right then you can catch the sunset on your return trip to Venice.  

I hope my dazzling array of photos gives you the idea of what to expect on Burano.

Next week we are back in the UK looking at Welsh pottery, quite the opposite!

See you over on instagram, love Janice 

Venice for photographers

Venice is a photographers paradise, the colours, textures, light and details, the main island presenting the most amazing range of subtle hues of terracottas.

The light will, of course, depend on the time of year and the weather, but I'm sure that whatever the conditions you will find your own palette of colour and hues. Even if it rains, take advantage of portraits with umbrellas and water on the pavement.

For me it was undoubtedly, all about blush pink.  I seemed to see it everywhere, the once orange tones of terracotta now decaying and fading into a paler shade, which produces this peachy tinted pink.

I haven't even touched on the history of Venice, so rich and elaborate for such a small place, you need to find your own interests here. Churches, architecture, printing, carnival, art, and food are here in abundance. For me though, it was all about exploring on foot and soaking up the exteriors.  This place typifies the concept of beauty in decay, and so for photographers who revel in the details and seek the imperfections, this is right up your street, or should I say, canal.

While most people will look for the classic shot of the Grand Canal, a sweep of buildings painted by Canaletto, gondolas punting mid stream, a photographer will also be absorbed by the minute details of creaky doors, ramshackle balconies, crumbling plaster and chipped paint. Here is is quite overwhelming.

For portraits there are brick walls and shutters as your backdrop, these can be as unique as the classic photo on a bridge.  In old Venice you will find all the subtle colours with the odd pops of rusty orange and yellow.  If bright bright is your thing then next week I will be showing the island of Burano, a complete contrast.

You could make a study here of so many different aspects, most notably reflections. My eyes seem to be drawn to shutters as I have a complete obsession with them. 

The earthy tones, so typical of Italy, are the perfect muse to the water, bringing the ying and yang into balance. On the side streets you will see so much of the brickwork exposed where the plaster is dropping off. You get the feeling that if you don't see it now then this place will soon just crumble into the water, there is little evidence of renovations.

The buildings are so huge that at times you will feel like you are in the land of the giants, particularly the facades of the churches, and as the streets are very narrow it is hard to get the right angle and distance from the subject without stepping back into a canal. 

With sunset coming before 5pm in January, you can witness some amazing skies so it's worth checking and planning so that you can be near a good location to capture this, I found a good vantage point to be the big wooden bridge which takes you over the Grand Canal on the way to the Guggenheim (ponte dell Acadamia).  So we planned to be at the Guggenheim for the afternoon so that we could catch the setting sun before we returned to our apartment.  

Once the sun has disappeared it is then the time to hop on a water bus and capture the Grand Canal at night, the reflections in the water silhouetting the boats is just pure magic. If you visit during winter you will want to stand on the open deck and this is pretty cold once the sun has gone, so scarfs round the face and gloves are a must.

My camera (Canon 5D MKIV) can handle night time shots without a tripod so it's possible to photograph in the dark when you are moving.  This won't be so easy for other cameras so if you are after night time shots, then you may want to take them when you are static and you can rest or support the camera on something so there is no shake during a longer exposure. As it's not very often that you find yourself in a situation where there are night scenes so breathtaking, then it's worth reading up on how to photograph at night for your equipment.

I hope my photos have helped you to soak up some of the atmosphere of Venice without focussing on the main attractions, and given you a small peak at some different elements.

Next week Burano ... it will be bright and most definitely for the colour lovers. 

Love as always, thanks for stopping by, Janice Issitt.  

Visit Venice and Vitality

It is an iconic landmark and so totally unique that everyone should visit Venice at some point in their life. However, it can sting your wallet quite considerably even if you get cheap flights and discounted hotels (as we did) as this place is expensive. It can also be a terrible temptation on the pasta and wine side if you're not careful.

I've visited this beautiful island a few times before so I was prepared for a lot of walking, and this is exactly why we chose to go as our early year treat.  January can be a hard month to get back into the swing of things, and after the over indulgence of the holidays, leave us feeling flat and fat, we decided to get over the hump and get walking.

My other half likes to walk in the Peak District despite having a dodgy leg from an accident.  Me, well I'm only interested in walking if I'm so distracted with my camera that I don't notice I'm doing it (I also like to stop for a coffee when I need one if my back is aching from carrying my really heavy camera but in Venice even that can cost a bomb if you don't watch out).

We stayed in a really great Air bnb, on a square between Rialto and San Marco, it was a large apartment and whilst it cost us roughly the same as a hotel, my main reason was to self cater.  I find that part of the experience of a place is to shop for food, all of a sudden a supermarket can be entertaining, a fruit and veg stall with unusual produce gets us quite enthusiastic to make our own meals. Simple salads bursting with flavour to accompany the most flavoursome parmesan I've ever tasted.

Like anywhere in Italy, the most basic food is top quality and the variety enormous.  The little man who stood at the fruit and veg stall in our square was there from dawn to dusk with some real rarities like black tomatoes (wow they tasted so sweet). I didn't even know what some of the things were but if you can cook and like to try new things then Italy is a great place for you. 

I think we could so easily live on tomatoes, salad, ham and cheese the parmesan and proscuto was to die for and that was just from a Co-op.  Annoyingly the amazing deli near our flat was discovered too late on the evening before we came home, a great excuse for a return trip. They sold fantastic looking olive oil, porcini mushrooms and truffle infused oil.

If you don't read the menu outside every cafe and restaurant you can be badly stung, it is not unusual to pay over 9 Euros for a coffee, and 40 Euros for two tiny portions of Gnocchi.  Yes we had a few shocks.  

I really would suggest self catering in Italy for the reasons of health and cost, and while the rest of Italy isn't as expensive as Venice, the pound against the Euro is terrible right now, so make sure you change money before you go.

We did a mixture of tourist sights but mostly tried to get off the beaten track.  The Guggenheim was stunning but cost 15 euros each to enter.  Water bus is also pricey, from the airport it is 15euros each and every individual trip is 7.50 euros each way.  You can buy a tourist pass which only run day to day, these are 20 euros for one day so I suggest you do all your water bus trips to Murano and Burano on the one day, with an evening going up the Grand Canal.

I didn't realise that it would be SO cold, it was -7 on arrival and most days it didn't get above 0 degrees, colder that Stockholm, but I felt that this had kept the hoards away, and it really wasn't too busy.  I can imagine in heat and crowds it can get very claustrophobic.

A few of my instagram friends had mentioned the bookshop Libreria Acqua Alta and it was so extraordinary it has to be seen.  The shop often floods, they have piled books in a gondola boat, a bath tub and made steps out of piles of books so you can see over the wall.
They have some nice cards and posters too.

Quite by accident, I was looking for one of the 'most beautiful churches' but instead found a vintage shop on the square behind it called L'armadio di Coco (Campo Santa Maria Nova).  They have a great selection of things, a good haul of cashmere jumpers, accessories and menswear.  On the 'beautiful churches' front, I thought that one of the best was Chiesa dei Gesuiti which is up near where the boats leave for Burano so worth doing en route. A lot of the churches charge money to get in so you may want to pick and choose which ones you visit. Pretty much they are all stunning.

We found that we ate out only at lunch times, as often we had walked so far we just needed an hour to rest and re-charge, then we enjoyed a good selection of fresh salads in the evening.  I love the way they sell rocket in Italy, just a big box full of it instead of those silly little plastic bags that we get. 

I'm not a fan of eating late in the evening and this way we could also do some gently yoga stretching at our spacious apartment to help our leg muscles from all those bridges!

While a lot of the clothes shops can be outrageously expensive, (and there are all the main designers here), the odd little independent can still be found like the little hat shop which has been there since 1901 and has beautiful bespoke hats for men and women. The owner is Guiliana Longo who sells everything from Gondolier hats to the maribou one that I bought, this miliner is a real artisan and such a sweet lady.  The shop is on a little alleyway called Calle Del Lovo near the church of San Salvador and she has proudly been making her creations here since the late '70s.

I also found a wool beret to match my blush pink cashmere jacket and leather gloves from the vintage shop, desperately trying to keep styling in the freezing cold!

I'm going to be covering Burano on another blog post as it was so photogenic, it deserves it's own space. I also still have to go through all my photos again so watch out on instagram for those and some of the snaps I took on my phone.  I will also post more photos showing some details and talking more about the colours and textures from a photographers point of view.

Visiting cities like this are right up my street, I love to explore, architecture, culture but mostly the opportunity to exercise more and eat healthy fresh food. Italy really has got all the boxes ticked for me and I really must try and get into the countryside there when it is warmer for the flip side of Italian lifestsyle. Off I pop now to www.to-tuscany.com   as the other half is now smitten with Italy and plotting our return

Until next week, ciao - Janice