Burano

Burano looks like someone spilled a paint factory into the Venetian lagoon. Every house on this small fishing island is painted a different blazing colour — electric blue next to canary yellow next to hot pink — creating a visual effect so intense that photographers lose their minds here. The tradition may have started so that fishermen could spot their homes through the fog on the way back from sea, but today the colours are regulated by the local government. Want to repaint your house? You submit a request and they tell you which colours are permitted for your lot.

The island is 7 kilometres from Venice — a 45-minute vaporetto ride — and feels like a different world. Where Venice is grand and monumental, Burano is intimate and domestic. The population has shrunk to about 2,800, down from a peak of over 8,000, and on a quiet morning you'll hear more seagulls than people. Cats sprawl on windowsills. Laundry hangs between the rainbow facades. Fishing nets dry on the quay.

Burano's other claim to fame is its lace. The art of merletto — needle lace — has been practiced here since the 16th century, when women stitched intricate patterns while waiting for their fisherman husbands to return. Burano lace became the most coveted in Europe, worn by Louis XIV and the courts of France and Flanders. A single large piece could take more than a year to complete. The industry nearly died in the 18th century but was revived in 1872 when a lace-making school opened on the island.

The houses are repainted every two years, which means the island is always fresh but never quite the same. Colours shift and change; a house that was green last time you visited might be salmon pink now. It's Venice's most photogenic day trip, and the seafood risotto at the restaurants along the main canal is worth the boat ride alone.