Burano

This weekend, I went with Caylen, Audrey, Natalie, and Dane to two of the islands in the northern portion of the lagoon, Burano and Torcello. It felt almost like a day trip out of Venice because it took us so long to get there. And once we arrived, it felt as if we really had completely left Venice. The main city was far enough away that I could just barely make it out across the water. Burano has a completely different feel from the main part of Venice. It is much more relaxed, due partially to being much more residential. Also, the colors on the houses are absolutely fantastic, very bright and vivid, they also serve to give the island a different tone from that of Venice, which is somewhat monochromatic, at least compared to Burano. There are also not nearly as many vaporetto that go all the way out there. However, Burano sees its fair share of tourists. The vaporetti that we were on, both going to and coming from the island, were completely packed, mostly with tourists. The lines to get onto the vaporetti reminded me very strongly of standing in line at an amusement park. That was one of the strong impressions which I got from Burano, that it was more "theme-park Italy" than even Venice is. Not to say that the island wasn't beautiful or that I didn't enjoy it, because it was very beautiful and I really enjoyed being there. However, as I said, it is a much more residential place with several very blatantly tourist spots. The main street which runs away from the cathedral, for instance, is simply lined with shops and, so it seemed to me, over-priced restaurants. Also, the shopkeepers were much more aggressive here than they are on Venice. Whenever we would enter a shop, we would be nearly harassed by the owner, who would want to point out everything and talk about how it was very high quality stuff, and then hover a few feet away while we looked at things. There was a sort of desperation in the attitudes of these shopkeepers, which I don't think is as evident in the main part of Venice. I believe it probably has something to do with the fact that in Venice, there is no lack of tourists. Shopkeepers are not so anxious for visitors to buy things because they know there will always be someone else right behind them who probably will make a purchase. However, on Burano, though the vaporetti were packed, it was still far less tourists than we are used to being around and the fact that the tourism industry, though by no means minuscule, is certainly smaller than on the main island of Venice, it would affect the way the shopkeepers behave because they still have to make a living, but they have less people on whom to ply their wares. Burano was an interesting mix, because while some parts were very "quaint" and strongly residential, other parts were overwhelmingly geared towards tourists. The mix made it clear that while people live on Burano, they must also make their living on Burano.