Burano -> Murano -> Le Vignole

Water-limousine!

Up as usual before the others, watching boat traffic between the islands of Mazzorbo and Burano. An unusually-shaped barge appears in the distance. I take out the binoculars to discover two cement trucks being towed across the water. An open boat passes, loaded with beer kegs, a faded Heineken logo painted on the side. We've seen water-taxis, water-ambulances, water-police, water-buses, garbage barges, telephone company boats, ice-cream delivery boats. Absolutely everything here goes by boat. 

I realize that I haven't checked my email for 5 days. This must be a record. I intended to get a 3G card for the iPad as soon as we arrived in Italy, but I didn't get to a phone shop on the Saturday, and everything was closed on Sunday. Since then I haven't seen a phone shop.

On Sunday I took a €9.00 "Pass Voyage Orange" for my phone that includes 30 minutes of voice, 10 text messages, and 2Mb of data, valid for 1 week. I need the data to get weather forecasts, and we might want to phone a marina. There haven't been any messages from work so I assume that everything is okay, but I still feel a bit guilty about not checking emails...

Out of the corner of my eye I see something moving on the wall beside the boat. I look over, but nothing's there. Look again, and see a small lizard sunning himself. As soon as Laura wakes, I show her the lizard, and she immediately spots several more that I hadn't seen. The weather is improving, it's a bright, sunny morning and they are soaking up the heat off the stones. 

What time is the train to Murano? "You mean boat?" That's what I said, boat... We're thinking about when we have to leave here in order to have sufficient time to visit Murano this afternoon. We are not allowed to moor in Murano so we'll stay at the RVF moorings on Le Vignole and get a vaporetto across. The very useful RVF documentation includes the vaporetto schedule between Le Vignole, Murano, and Venice. It's only a short 10 minute hop across. We decide to try to leave by 11:00. That will leave us a little bit more time this morning to see more of Burano.

Window shopping in Burano

After breakfast we try the church again, and this time there is nothing going on so we are free to visit. After that we do some window shopping. Lots of shops with lace of doubtful origin. We see a shop that proudly claims lace of Burano origin. We go inside for a look, and they even have a genuine Murano grandmother sitting in a chair making lace. Well, it's a family-run business after all! They have a huge selection, from small and cheap to small and expensive to big and extremely expensive. We buy a few smallish, not too expensive bits. More window shopping, and Laura is still very determined to buy earrings but we manage to convince her to wait for Murano where she is likely to get a better selection. 

By now we are running well behind schedule, so we head back to the boat and prepare to leave. The tide is falling. I walk out along the wet, slippery, slimy edge of the wall to undo the bow line. It occurs to me that nobody knows I'm out here, and if I fall in it might be difficult to get myself out again. Eileen and Laura are probably engrossed in brushing their hair and beautifying themselves, and wouldn't even hear my screams for help. If I'm lucky they might come out and take a picture! But seriously, I really should have waited until they were up on deck. I take it slowly and cautiously and thankfully don't fall in.

Eileen and Laura join me on deck, and while I'm coiling the bow line and day dreaming, the fast-flowing current catches the bow of the boat. Eileen calls to me that the bow is being pushed out. Oops, well this is as good a time as any to let go so we slip the stern line and motor off up the canal. Must pay attention! That is actually how I was planning to leave, but I wasn't planning on leaving at that precise moment!

Murano Faro, the lighthouse

We are not allowed to navigate the canals inside of Murano or moor there, but RVF recommends taking a little tour that does a bit of a "fly-by" of the island. We decide to try this. As we approach, several bell towers of Venice come into view. We're coming up to Murano now, and the water is getting busier and busier with traffic of all kinds. Boats are coming at us from all directions. Private boats, water-taxis, fishing boats, and vaporetti. 

We pass the lighthouse, continue on a bit between Venice and Murano, then turn back towards Murano. This canal leads right along the edge of the island, where several fornace (glass factories) are visible. It's much more industrial-looking than any of the islands we have visited thus far, and bigger too. Crowds of people are bunched up at the Faro vaporetto stop, waiting for a bus. Welcome back to civilization!

We head back down towards Le Vignole to find our berth. Part of the island is used by the Lagunari, an amphibious assault regiment of the Italian military. The right-most canal on our chart, the one that leads to their base, has a big red X through it. The island's canals join together at a big three-way intersection and as we head towards our middle canal, a big black rib comes out of the red one to the right and heads straight for us. I'm a bit unsure what to do, because normally we should pass port side to port side. Maybe they want to board us? Now they are crossing our bows! We see 8 or 10 marines on board as they go blasting past, off to scare some other unsuspecting boaters. 

Le Vignole

This island is mostly rural and sparsely inhabited. Both sides of the tiny canal are flanked by trees, with fields beyond. Since there is a low bridge at the top end of the canal, there is virtually no traffic here. As we get nearer the mooring piles, we see three or four other houseboats already moored. Plus a big old sailing barge. We decide to squeeze in at the back between the last houseboat and the sailing barge. I realize later that between us and the barge, we are probably blocking access to the tap that allows the boats to replenish their water supplies. We adjust the mooring lines and shut off the engine. It's wonderfully peaceful and quiet here, with only the sound of bird song and the odd barking dog. Who would have thought you could find yourself in the quiet countryside just 15 minutes from Venice! 

We get all our gear together (hats, water bottles, cameras, sun block, guide books, sun glasses, phones, etc.) and head up the path looking for the vaporetto stop. According to the map it's just past the moorings at the top of the island. We pass an entrance gate with a sign for "Agriturismo Zangrande". Is that one of those places where you pay a farmer to work his fields? There is also a trattoria, a few houses, and a tiny church. We cross the little wooden foot-bridge and find the vaporetto stop.

The vaporetto (actually a motoscafo, see here for the subtleties of Venetian public transport) comes right on schedule and takes us the short distance to Murano. Very convenient, punctual, and reliable, but not very cheap. It cost us €7.00 per person for a single journey. You can buy a pass for a day, 72 hours, week, etc. but it didn't seem like we would make enough use of it to warrant getting one. 

We arrive at the quay in Murano and push our way through the crowd waiting to get on. We wander a bit and soon come upon a quayside café and gelateria. Eileen and I enjoy a cappuccino while Laura has a gelato, of course. Right next to our table a guy is pampering his beautiful varnished taxi-limo. Up the canal, a sort of barge with a crane on it is pulling up a rotten pile. He succeeds in pulling the post, then puts his barge in reverse and heads rapidly for the exit of the narrow canal. I sense a bit of tension in the taxi driver, as he stops polishing and moves to the side of his boat. I have visions of the big old steel barge gouging up the side of the beautiful wooden boat. The barge passes safely and skillfully as the two men exchange friendly salutations. 

We continue strolling along the canals heading in the general direction of the glass museum. We spot a restaurant that's on my list, but there is a sign in the window in English saying "Sorry to our customers, closed for sickness". Whose sickness, the chef or the customers?!!! Just as we pass, a not-very-sick-looking man exits in a hurry, locking the door behind him.

Early evening along a quiet canal in Murano

We find the glass museum, and surprisingly it's not closed! It's located in the Palazzo Giustinian, which was built for the Bishops of Torcello after they moved here from that island. We spend an hour wandering around looking at the displays, and it's interesting to see how incredibly skilled some craftsmen were 2000 years ago. 

They also have a small collection of some incredibly impressive glass chandeliers. Coincidentally there is an exhibition of Venetian glass at the Musée Maillol in Paris at the moment, which we didn't get time to see before we left. Many of the pieces in that exhibition were loaned by the Murano museum, so we'll definitely have to go there when we get back! 

Next we head for the Santa Maria e San Donato church. Another beautiful brick building. This church is also very old (rebuilt in the 11th century) and has an amazing mosaic marble-tiled floor similar to Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello. It houses the remains of Saint Donatus, which were brought back here from Cephalonia in 1125, along with bones from the dragon he slayed. These large bones are displayed behind the altar, but unfortunately I only learned of this after we left so we missed seeing them.

Laura is still mad to find earrings. Stores are starting to close, and she's back in panic mode. I had read about some shops in Venice selling fake Chinese glass, so I insist that we shop that only sells authentic stuff. We find such a shop, which has a lot of beautiful glass, but no suitable earings. We convince Laura to look at the bracelets instead, and she comes away with lovely coloured glass bead bracelets for her and her friends. We pass another restaurant on my list, which is also closed.

Murano is bigger than Burano, but it is also swamped by visiting tourists during the day. And it also empties out at 18:00 as they all head back to their hotels in Venice. It's very pleasant to wander along the canals, with the beautiful light of the late evening sun, and no crowds. We find a canal-side restaurant that looks nice so we take an outside table. 

When the waiter comes to take our order he tries to convince us to have a shared seafood platter instead of the individual seafood starters that Eileen and I had chosen. We hesitate and so he gives us a minute to think about it. When he comes back, we tell him no. We'll stick with our chosen starters (spaghetti alle vongole for me and a pasta with scallop dish for Eileen). For main courses we have scaloppine al limone and scaloppine ai funghi. Mine are both quite good, but Eileen complains that her scallops could have been anything, and there were too many funghi in her scaloppine. I'm really getting into lemons for some reason. Laura has a hawaiian pizza, but again she can only manage half and we take the rest away. 

Every once in a while the chef comes out to stand by the front door and chat with the waiters. Then when someone passes by walking a dog, he pulls some dog food out of his pocket and feeds it to the dog. Hmm, I think I might know what was in Eileen's pasta with scallops...

We finish off with a limoncello and catch the vaporetto home in the dark. There are virtually no lit navigation marks, and once again I'm amazed how these guys do it. There are some fishermen with flashlights by the foot-bridge, isn't that illegal? I see a shooting star as we feel our way along the path back to the boat. Forgot the flashlight. Make a wish. Quiet. Sleep.


Log Entry for Wednesday 8 May 2013:
From: Mazzorbo (depart 13:00) Towards: Le Vignole (arrive 15:00) via Murano

Tides
▲ 1110 0.8m
▼ 1630 0.3m
▲ 2235 1.0m
▼ 0525 0.0m

Baro: 1013.6 hPa
Wind: 4 kn gusting to 7 kn
Temps: Low 13° High 21°
Forecast: Mostly sunny, dry

Engine hours: 552.6 - 554.5
Water: 1/2 +
Battery (12V): 12.5
Battery (24V): 25

San Francesco del Deserto -> Torcello -> Burano

San Francesco del Deserto Friary

We're up at 08:00 for the 09:00 visit of the San Francesco del Deserto friary. Over breakfast Eileen expresses some scepticism over the possibility of there being crowds of tourists showing up for the visit. After all, we are the only boat in the canal and we haven't actually seen any sign of friars anywhere. I'm getting a bit worried that maybe it's too early in the season and they aren't yet open for visits. 

The others are taking it easy while I rush to finish breakfast and get over to the entrance gate. At 09:00 sharp I'm the only one standing at the entrance, hoping for one of the doors to open. I don't want them to peek out and not see anyone and go back to bed. More fishermen come and go. This must be a good spot. Still no friars though, and no other visitors either. It's about a quarter past nine now. Eileen and Laura finally arrive. We look down a path off to the left thinking maybe the entrance is down there, but it's just for the toilets, which are closed. I notice a bell on the wall and I'm about to ring it when I see a buzzer marked "Frati minori" by one of the doors. I press it. A loud and long bell rings out. After a few minutes we hear some shuffling noises and other signs of life behind the door. Finally a door opens.

A Franciscan friar comes out to greet us. In Italian of course. He says that unfortunately he doesn't speak English or French, but we can walk around ourselves with a brochure that describes the visit. We say we understand a bit of Italian, and he says in that case he will give us the tour. He takes his time explaining the history of the place, speaking very slowly so that we can understand. He says there are currently six full-time residents of the friary. They also take people for retreats. 

He is extremely kind and friendly, explaining a bit of the history, answering our questions in broken Italian, then allowing us to observe and contemplate at our own pace. The whole place radiates peace and tranquillity. We visit the interior parts that are open to the public; a cloister, small church, chapels. He shows us the foundations of the original buildings on the site going back to the time of Saint Francis. Then he invites us to visit the grounds on our own. A section of it is open to the public, and so we wander around slowly. The grounds are made up of beautifully manicured lawns, trees, flowers, and the odd bit of modern religious art. 

The island is visible from a distance and easily identifiable by the large number of trees which are home to many birds. They are singing loudly. We think about the miracle of Saint Francis silencing the birds during mass. There are incredible views over the lagoon to Burano. By the end I have such a feeling of zen that I don't want to leave. Thank you to the kind friar that welcomed us and shared a little bit of this incredible, peaceful, spiritual place.

Carved briccole in the gardens

We walk back to boat and make coffee. The guide mentions that you can take on water on the island, and we check out the tap. Eileen had asked the friar if it was okay to take water. I don't feel like spoiling the quiet of the place by starting the engine so we warp the boat forward. We hook up our hose, but water barely dribbles out of the tap. There is hardly any pressure. More of it leaks out the pipe than goes into our water tank. I try to tighten the fitting a bit to stop the leak. I can't budge it either way. Our hose pipe is jammed onto the tap. We have no tools. 

I seem to remember being shown a wrench during handover of the boat, so I go looking for it. There is a wrench for changing the gas bottle, but it's not going to fit the tap. I think about how embarrassed I'm going to be if I have to go and ask the friars to borrow a wrench to loosen our hose pipe. How do you say "wrench" in Italian? Eileen brings a towel to help get a better grip and eventually I'm able to loosen it. We still have half a tank so we give up on the water and head for Torcello.  As we pull away from the quay, bells start ringing out. A personal send off? Nope, lunch time at the friary. 

On the way towards Torcello, we are hit by clouds of bugs. Fortunately not of a biting variety, but annoying none the less. There is one lady bug among them. Laura takes it on her finger, then he doesn't want to let go. She can't get rid of it. We're trying to find Canale Sant' Antonio. It's not where it should be. We're lost. We turn around and head back down Canale di Burano. Maybe we missed it. Hmm, that boatyard shouldn't be there. After lots of head-scratching I realize that when we came out of S Francesco we took a left and a left when we should have taken a left and a right. In areas with shallows and vast drying areas, nothing on a nautical chart looks like it does in real life. Islands tend to look very similar. It can be very disorienting. 

Church of Santa Fosca, Torcello

We head up the Canale di Torcello, approaching the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. Founded in 639, it is one of the oldest religious edifices in the Veneto. Unfortunately the campanile is covered with scaffolding due to restoration work. 

We're not exactly sure where the moorings will be, when we spot a series of pile moorings right beside the Cathedral. There are no other boats moored there, but there is no sign saying you can't moor so we decide to go for it. There is a large group of children playing noisily in the field. At first I thought it might be a school ground, but they are probably taking a break from a field trip. 

The cross-current here is very strong, and it's difficult to get lined up properly for the mooring that I want. We have to try several times. It's the only one that has a pile far enough from the quay to be remotely suitable for us. In fact it's not really out far enough, these moorings were probably designed for smaller boats. We tie up as best we can, but I'm not happy because if/when the tide turns it will push the boat off that pile into the corner of a wooden jetty on the other side. We are short one line that would allow us to tie the bow off to prevent this. Why do charter boats never have a bit of extra rope? Anyway, we won't be staying more than a few hours and the tide shouldn't turn before then.

Ponte del Diavolo, Torcello

Torcello is a very small island with only a few inhabitants. We look around a bit, and get a panini for lunch. I run back to check the boat. We wander along the canal that crosses the island, passing the Ponte del Diavolo, and Locanda Cipriani where Ernest Hemmingway stayed. On the way back we pass a bar/gelateria/restaurant and stop for a gelato. I run back to check the boat. 

We visit the Cathedral, which has some incredible mosaics, and an absolutely fabulous marble floor. We also visit the neighboring church of Santa Fosca. Hard to believe that Torcello once had a population of over 10,000 and was more powerful than Venice. Today it is a quiet place with a few houses and a couple of trattorias. Like many of the islands in the lagoon, it was abandoned at some stage due to malaria, the inhabitants moving to Venice and taking their building materials with them. All that survives of the former glory is the Cathedral.

We slip our mooring and head for Burano, where we will spend the night. There is a lot of boat traffic circling the island. The closer we get to Venice the denser the traffic gets. We find the RVF moorings just above the bridge between Mazzorbo and Burano, on the Mazzorbo side. There is only one other boat moored there so it should not be too difficult. We u-turn just before the bridge and come up to a mooring pile. Eileen struggles a bit to lasso the pile, but gets it eventually. 

We spend a bit of time shifting the boat, adjusting warps so that the gate at our bow lines up with a little wooden jetty. I take a line forward from the bow, wrap it around the pile, then go to make a bowline. For some reason I hesitate, feeling like something is not quite right. I finally figure out that I've always practiced making bowlines around piles by taking the line counter-clockwise around the pile, then tying off. Here I've gone clockwise around the pile and it doesn't feel right. I take the line the other way around the pile and tie it off. Must practice tying knots in both directions from now on!

Turn off the engine and chill a bit. Laura watches crabs off the stern. We walk across the wooden footbridge to Burano. We stop along the way to watch a school of small fish feeding among the seaweed at the water's edge. Every so often there is a bright camera-flash of sunlight reflecting off a silvery underbelly as the fish twist and turn in the water. 

Burano's cheerful houses

Passing the local library, we see numerous cats lounging in the yard looking like they own the place. We walk along the main canal, taking in the brightly coloured houses in the fading rays of evening sun. There is mass on in the church so we can't visit. 

Burano is famous for its lace-making, and we head for the lace museum but it's about to close. The lace shops are also closing. Laura is annoyed because she wants to look for earrings. We promise her that she will be able to look for earrings tomorrow in Murano. 

We wander down a bit looking for a place to have dinner. Laura wants to go back to Caffè Vecchio, a place we saw near the church. We go back to look at the menu and it seems okay, so we sit at a table outside. The only outside tables left are exposed to the wind and it's cooling off quickly as the sun begins to set, so with the encouragement of the waiter we move inside. There is only one person eating inside, and she turns out to be the tour guide for the group of people who are filling up all the tables outside.

It wouldn't be right to come here without trying some of the local specialities. So far we have been in remote places and made dinner on the boat, but from now on we will be in larger towns with good selections of restaurants. Almost all of them specialize in seafood. You actually have to go looking for the usual Italian pasta and meat dishes which are not native to this part of Italy. I want to try squid ink spaghetti, but they require a minimum of two orders. I manage to convince Eileen to try it so we both order it as a starter. It's delicious. There are chunks of squid (actually cuttlefish) cooked in it's own ink, with a delicate fishy taste and not at all rubbery texture. For the main course I have sole and Eileen has branzino (sea bass), also very good. Laura has spaghetti al ragù. Eileen asks if she can charge her phone, and they point her to the nearest plug. For desert we ask for gelato but they don't have any. We order frozen ice-cream deserts (semifreddo) which are not quite as satisfying as a good gelato, but the limoncello makes up for it.

Spaghetti al nero di sepia

The town really empties out in the evening after all the day-trippers have left. The wind has died down by the time we leave the restaurant and the water is flat calm. We wander over to the church again hoping to be able to visit, but now they are doing the stations of the cross. Nice to see a church that's being used. Maybe we'll try again in the morning. 

We stroll back to the boat, have a few quick games of Go Fish, then head for the bed. It's a relatively calm mooring, but the occasional yobbo blasts by shaking us up in his wake. It was a busy day, and tiredness quickly overcomes all resistance.


Log Entry for Tuesday 7 May 2013:
From: S. Francesco del Deserto (depart 12:00) Towards: Mazzorbo (arrive 17:00) via Torcello (arrive 14:00, depart 16:00)

Tides
▲ 1035 0.7m
▼ 1555 0.3m
▲ 2210 1.0m
▼ 0455 0.0m

Baro: 1015 hPa
Wind: 5 kn gusting to 9 kn
Temps: Low 14° High 20°
Forecast: partly cloudy, dry

Engine hours: 548.9 - 552.6
Water: 5/8
Battery (12V): 12.5
Battery (24V): 25