Calvina Photography

When the little town of Pisa is mentioned, usually the only image that comes to mind is the Leaning Tower. It is quite a lovely sight to behold I must admit, but my first thoughts when I arrived in Pisa was “Ugh, this is such a tourist trap!” The gate of the town was crawling with tourists taking pictures like this one. It can’t be helped, so we joined the masses. After we did our tourist duties, we immediately decided to go as far into the little town as we can to get away from the crowd. We found a quaint little college town hopping with the students  who attend the local art college. In contrast to the crazy crowds in the front of the city, the locals in the back were sipping coffee, eating gelato, and enjoying their lazy afternoon.

I’ve been posting images from Burano the last few days. Here’s a little snap shot of what a typical street looks like on the Island. Little colored houses with courtyards in the middle. And like anywhere else in Venice, canals running through most of the town. I couldn’t get enough of it.

We really loved visiting the Island of Burano. We visited during the hottest time of the year so all the locals were in hiding from the musty heat. But the bright sunlight made the colors of the houses even brighter and I felt like we had this quiet little town all to ourselves. It’s interesting to learn about the Venetian economy. Venice stretches across 117 islands on the Venetian Lagoon. To makes things as efficient as possible, many of the island are dedicated to a specific industry. There is an island  for example for wine, glass, lace, and I even recall seeing an island with many many hospitals.

Burano is the lace island. The story is told that this island was at one time a fishing village. The wives of the fishermen who excelled at mending fishing nets naturally transitioned to making lace. The lace industry is now made up of mostly older women who have been doing this all of their lives each specializing in a specific stitch. So as a piece of lace get worked on, it is passed from one woman to another depending on the part the lace that is needing work. One little square of just a few inches takes a week to make by hand. Hand made lace is inevitably extremely expensive. And as young women no longer have the patience to train in such a craft, handmade lace is now a dying art. As you walk through the town, you will see these older ladies working on their lace. I wonder how much longer we will be seeing this.

If you ever find yourself there, you’ll have to see this dress and all the many great beautiful things at a little shop called Emelia.

This amazing wedding dress was made at the end of the 19th century. It was made by 21 women and took 5 years to complete. It's sad that lace making is now a dying art.