Just like Murano, Burano was founded from the refugees of Altino; it's the second of the islands talking about width and population. It's position (in the centre of the Venice lagoon) and it's excellent ventilation coming from the sea has permitted to the island to stay free from malaria.
Full of works of art, Burano attracts and amazes for the gaudy colors (choosen by Goldoni as scenery for his comedies) , for the typical language of the inhabitants (that remindes a sing-song having very ancient origins, heritage of the accent typical of the first island occupiers) and for its numerous legends.
One of this legend tells that a young man from Burano had to leave for the far East, leaving the beautiful girlfriend to wait for him.
After a lot of months of navigation, the ship went to a sea zone inhabited from mermaids and, as the Ulysses myth tells, he tied himself and his mariners to resist to the magic song of the sirens and not to dive into the sea where he surely would have found the death.
The queen of mermaids, admired and astonished from the fidelity of the young man toward his beatiful loving girl, decided to give him a prize and with a tail-shot it lifted a cloud of foam that turned into a beautiful wedding dress in the hand of the young man.
When the maiden saw such big wonder, she decided to reproduct it by needle and thread and since that moment the women of Burano started to make the precious laces.
