Saturday, September 21

We decided to go to see the smaller neighbouring island, Burano, and within ten minutes of getting there wished we hadn’t.

Allegedly it specialises in lace-making and brightly coloured houses. On the way from the boat we managed to photograph some of the brightly coloured houses that everyone photographs and, yes, they do indeed look brightly coloured in the sunlight.

Later we walked into the centre which appeared to both of us as an enormous money machine. It looked like the absolute worst aspects of Venice crammed into an area a tenth of the size.

We had intended staying all day but the overcrowded cafés and the complete absence of the promised lace-makers meant we left after about an hour and a half.

Murano seemed like heaven when we arrived back in the middle of the afternoon.