Today was a lazy start because we only had three things in mind: coffee, Burano, and good food. We scored on all three!

Burano is a town made up of four islands and about 2,300 people. It is part of the Venice metropolitan area and easily accessible by water bus (the “subway” of Venice). Rain threatened all day but never appeared, so we enjoyed the 30-minute leisurely ride on the water bus.

Unlike Venice which from the previous photos you can tell is a lot of grey, brown, and marble buildings, Burano is bright, colorful, and reminiscent of a northern Atlantic setting. It was beautiful.

Burano used to be known mainly as a place to purchase lace (much as Murano is the place for glass) but now it’s much broader in apparel selections. A bit of shopping took place as we wandered the streets in search of a place for lunch. We just happened to land in a great openair spot in a lively square. You’ll see from the photos that there was a variety of unbelievable selections from tagliolini with prawns and peppers, fluffy lasagna, spaghetti with ragu, and pizza.

After more shopping, we headed back to Venice to hang out before dinner.

We started the dinner venture a little early back at the St. Regis at what the servers called “our table.” The weather was sunny and perfect and the view stunning. Their signature drink is the Santa Maria named for the basilica across the Grand Canal. It is a Bloody Mary but clear. It’s made with clarified tomato juice (who does that?) with some herbs and a dehydrated tomato crisp balanced on top of the special glass blown to resemble the basilica’s dome. It creates a discord of tasting a true Bloody Mary but visualizing something very different. We’ll probably go back tomorrow night to celebrate the ending of this segment of the trip.

After drinks we stopped at a very unassuming restaurant. It was accessible by a long hallway sandwiched between two buildings. It turned out to be a great choice. The food was incredible, but the staff was better. We had so much fun interacting with them and caught a photo with our favorite waiter to close the night.