Burano, Mazzorbo, and Torcello

We both slept through the night.  I awakened about 7AM.  Jeannie slept until after 8.  For my morning meditations I am "translating" and thinking about the third book of Dante's Divine Comedy.  I started several days before we left on the trip.  You can see these daily posts at Paradiso.

Breakfast is included in our "free" room, via Marriott points, and is served under a large enclosed tent in the garden of the hotel.  Here's a picture of Jeannie at the entrance to the garden.

At 11:10 we took the Number 12 vaporetto north to Burano, Mazzorbo, and Torcello.  These are all smaller islands in the Venetian lagoon.  Torcello is where exiles from the mainland first settled on the islands late in the Roman Empire.  Below is a picture of Venice taken from the bridge between Mazzorbo and Burano, a bit more than 4 miles across the water.

Just over the bridge at Mazzorbo is Venissa a three-year old restaurant that a month ago I read about in The Guardian.  I made reservations a week ago.  After crossing the bridge we passed through the garden gate of the restaurant.  Here's a picture of me about half way through the garden.  The restaurant is to the far left of the picture.

Venissa is only open March to about November (depending on the weather) and depends entirely on what is fresh from their own and nearby gardens, the lagoon, and the Adriatic Sea.  We sat on the shaded patio.  Jeannie had a pasta with fresh peas and lima beans followed by a grilled snapper with thinly sliced, flash seared eggplant.  I had a tasting menu that consisted of small portions of what Jeannie had and seven other wonderful dishes.  We finished with a flourless chocolate cake with raspberries and rhubarb sorbet.

Here's Jeannie at our table.

Here's the view from our table.

After lunch - almost three hours - we walked back across the bridge to Burano and took a five minute boat ride to Torcello.  While Torcello was once a significant city, really all that's left is the cathedral.  Begun in the 7th Century it was largely rebuilt beginning in 1008.  While gothic in it's basic design, it's interior features two large mosaics very much in the Byzantine tradition.  Below is Mary and the Christ child with the twelve apostles.  I would guess Mary is at least 12 feet tall.

Back at Burano we barely made it on the one-per-hour boat to return to Venice.  There were at least twice as many wanting a seat on the boat as seats or standing room available.

After a brief rest in the room - where I completed most of this post while Jeannie napped - we walked to Santa Maria dei Miracoli and then had a light supper on the campo San Giovanni e Paolo, seen below  and that's me at the close of our supper.

It was after 9PM as we walked back. Many of the streets were filled with young people spilling from pubs and restaurants. We noticed the vast majority were drinking wine or champagne. Very few beers on a Saturday night in Venice. Jeannie is amazed I stayed up "so late."