burano

I’ve always seen photos of Venice and had visions of shooting near the gondolas.  Reg quickly nixed that idea and let me know that he had no plans of getting inside of a gondola.  LOL.  While searching around for things to see and do around Venice, I ran into one of the coolest places I had ever seen – Burano, Italy.  Anyone who knows me knows that i LOVEEE color so when I saw this place I was more than sold.  Houses that look like a box a crayons?  YASS. This town is what dreams are made of.  We decided to split our time between Burano and Venice so that we could see both while there.

By the time we had arrived at the airport we were already beyond stressed.  We had a hiccup with the hairstylist’s flight so we had spent the morning going back and forth trying to make arrangements.  When we arrived at the airport we spent a good 45 minutes trying to figure out where to go. Needless to say things were a bit confusing.  We finally found our way to the water taxis which would take us to Burano.  Our airbnb host said that the trip should be about a 30 minute boat ride, but we eventually learned that it was more like 2 hours between transfers, waiting, buying tickets, etc!  The water taxis were pretty cool though.. kinda like a ferry ride if you’ve ever taken one before. Just a little chilly/windy so bring a jacket!

Having to lug our suitcases around while trying to find the ticket stations and our airbnb spot was definitely a sore spot.  If I could give any advice to those planning to travel here it would be to pack light!  You’ll thank me later.  Unfortunately we didn’t have that luxury so here’s poor Reg trying to lug this luggage along the small cobblestone streets.  There was about a 10 minute walk from our taxi stop to the house so we had to lug all of our luggage along with us.  When we arrived we were greeted by our AirBnB hosts and our model and her mom.  Our hosts were SO kind (even though we had NO idea what they were saying, lol).  Thankful for our model’s mom who was able to speak to him and do a little translation for us.

Our model Kayla was such a cutie and traveled all the way from Milan for the shoot (about a 3 hour train ride to Venice).

Our home in Burano was 3 stories high and had a rooftop deck.  The view was ah-mazing and we immediately started to get excited.

We then walked out and had to pinch ourselves.  We couldn’t believe that we were actually there!  This place had been on my Pinterest board for years so it was surreal actually being there – and getting to shoot there!

I have to say that one of the best parts of this trip was our little model Kayla.  At only 8 years old this doll was SO professional.  We had so many odds working against us on this shoot – the day before the second model we had planned for this shoot had to back out, we were without a hairstylist and by the time we finally got everything together we had about 1 hour total to shoot 3 looks with one model.  We were blown away by how quickly Kayla was able to move to the different locations and knock out the shots we needed without even being asked.  Oh and let’s remember that she had no idea what we were saying since she only speaks Italian.  Trooper indeed!

Oh and let’s not forget how windy it was that day.  This behind the scenes blooper makes me laugh because this is really what was going down that day.  But miss Kayla pushed her hair back and kept it moving.  🙂 

We will never forget this day and are so thankful for our little model Kayla who is destined for greatness in the future. <3

After our shoot we decided to walk around Burano a bit and explore.  The town is pretty small but had lots to see and do within walking distance.  You can definitely see that more and more tourists are starting to explore this area so there were several foreigners walking around with cameras to take photos of the colorful homes.  The town is so quiet and laid back – people leave doors unlocked and there was definitely a “family” feel to the neighborhood.

Now, let’s talk food – I will say that the food did not live up to expectations here. 🙁  I think we were expecting to have some of the greatest Italian food we had ever had but we just didn’t get it here.  May have just been the wrong restaurant but we were completely disappointed with our meals.  🙁 Next time we will get some recommendations first so that we get a better taste of Italy.

There were a few shops around Burano but more of the kitschy type of stores.  We were able to find a few little souvenirs here and there.  Burano is apparently known for lace, so there were several shops selling lace clothing and items.

The next day we left Burano and headed to Venice but I think this was probably a bad idea to do Burano before we saw Venice. If I had to plan the trip over again I would have visited Venice first before Burano, but I guess it depends on your taste/preference. The colorful buildings and quiet vibe of Burano was MUCH more our preference so when we got to Venice it just felt a little “blah”. It was like seeing Burano but without the color and many more tourists.

Another issue was our hotel – it was listed as being about 20 minutes from the main areas of Venice, but again it was more like a 40-45 minute boat ride to get there. By the time we checked in to our hotel we were a bit exhausted so didn’t get to see much more of Venice. Tip if you are planning to hang out in Venice for a short period of time- stay as close to the Piazza San Marco as possible if you plan on exploring that area. It will be easy to walk around and explore and to get to the main train station if needed. Venture too far out and it will be a bit of a pain to get back and forth unless you plan to stay for a while.

Finally, thought I’d talk about some of the quirks at some of the hotels in Europe. Most hotels in Europe use the door key to turn on the power (we had this in Amsterdam as well). While in our room in Amsterdam we had to call the front desk to find out why our power wasn’t working, LOL. “Uhm, you need to put the door key in the slot ma’am” whoops! 🙂 This seems to be pretty standard almost anywhere we went in Europe. No door key, no power.. Also, the photo in the middle? That’s the toilet flush “button”. No handle, just the button. And the third photo – the bidet of course! No lie, I was kinda excited to finally see a bidet in person although I didn’t use it, lol.

Burano, Italy will definitely go down as one of my absolute favorite places that we’ve traveled so far. I would love to go back here and just spend about a week doing absolutely NOTHING, lol! Check out some of the amazing images we captured of Kayla in Burano.. some of my favorites from the entire tour.

Clothing: Alex and Alexa, Busy and the Boy, Next Direct
Shoes: 6th and Madison
Model: Kayla