Laundry day on Burano

ITALY | Saturday, 12 January 2013 | Views [197] | View Smaller Image

The island’s elegant, pastel-coloured houses provide mental serenity and harmonise with the glorious natural setting. Sun-dappled and free from any pressure to modernize, Burano’s land forms are linked by quaint bridges around every corner, much like its noisy neighbour Venice. As I discovered yet more drying laundry, I felt like I knew the island’s inhabitants before meeting them.

Tags: burano peace pastel laundry island islanders wash

Burano is a calm and sleepy island in the Venetian Lagoon. I visited in September, the late summer attracting fewer tourists. I decided an appropriate way of capturing the tranquility of the place and time was by focusing on the abundance of washing that hung beneath the first floor of almost every bright and colourful home that I came across.

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Burano is famed for its lace, mostly – though not totally – produced by women. This female resident is one of a fading generation of traditional lace makers. Laundry out to dry, she hand-weaves her latest masterpiece whilst her man oversees the production, contributing his two cents. Hmm… what is the Italian for ‘backseat driver’?

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Laundry day on Burano

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