While trudging around Burano, after visiting Torcello, I saw something I’d never noticed before. It took me a few tries to get close to it; I kept hitting dead-ends, or finding myself further away from it. (Doesn’t that sound rather like Venice?)
Here’s what I had noticed over the rooftops.
Finally, success! But what is this interesting structure?
Someone poked his head out of a door, and before he could escape, I’d stopped him and asked what it was. He confirmed what I had thought it might be, a water tower. (Some of you already knew that, didn’t you?)
See if you can find it, next time you’re on Burano. And, do you have interesting water towers in your part of the world? I’ve seen some knockouts (on TV) in England. Have any of you ever been inside a water tower?
Still doing the dinners Caroline! Came back from our travel year and built an Eco house opposite the tower. We now make the tower available for holiday lets.
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Hi Susan – good to hear all that! We fondly remember our first-class dinner there. Hope your year out was brilliant; and returning to build an ecohouse sounds great – you certainly lead interesting lives! After nearly 20 years in Scotland we started our own adventure when we moved to Venice in March 2012.
Any of Yvonne’s other readers thinking of visiting Edinburgh may like to note these interesting possibilities!
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I think those dragons were all relocated to Murano!
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Along with the horses that Saint George might have ridden.
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Water tower? Surely there’s a princess locked somewhere inside… are you sure you didn’t see a dragon lurking nearby? 🙂
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Oh, I never thought to look for a fire breathing dragon!
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LOL
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Here is a link to that water-tower at Church Langley – http://www.m11watertower.org.uk/
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Thank you for that, Bert, I’ll put the link on my next post.
Now, we have to find a recruit to play the role of Rapunzel, and we’re on our way to some entertainment.
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I’d take up any offer to be a part-time prince. Who will be Rapunzel?
I’d have to get some training before attempting to climb hair that long. She will have to promise not to use conditioner – that would make the hair too shiny to get a grip on.
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Lovely photos – can you imagine such a water tower in the US?
Perhaps Bert would volunteer to be the Prince for dear Rapunzel – part time, on an on call basis?
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What do you say, Bert? Does this part time activity appeal to you? I’ll square it with your wife. 🙂
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The water tower is rather imposing and the colors of the houses lovely.
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I remember being so afraid of the water tower in Kamsack, Darlene, and used to have nightmares about it. Chances are Henry had told me some story about it!
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In Holland where I live there are a lot of THE water towers. In early days they had no waterpressure for a village so with that tower you had Some pressure. Throug gravity. 😉
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In Australia.it’s still common to see water towers in some of the regional areas. But, they’re not as architecturally pleasing as those you’d see in your country, Margriet
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I personally don’t see why “The Watertower, Burano” wouldn’t be a sufficient address.Of course it would have to be in Italian. And I’m sure Rapunzel must live there. Thank you, HHH for that image!
How did I miss that? I wandered all over Burano….or so I thought.
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Same here, Michelle, but I obviously hadn’t looked carefully enough.
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There is a water tower in West Seattle, not far from where I used to live but it’s one of those metal monstrosities that remind me of something I once saw in an episode of Dr. Who….when you don’t see the legs it looks like an alien pod of some kind.
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Lol it almost looks like you could find Rapunzel trapped at the top of it waiting for a prince to come rescue her. How romantic! 🙂
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Now, all we need is that Prince to come along and rescue her, J.
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I’ll be waiting with bated breath! 🙂
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I’ve got another nice one to show you, from Pellestrina. And, not far from Piazzale Roma, where the People Mover flies past, there’s one from the time of the original piped water for Venice.
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Sadly, permission has recently been given for the latter to be demolished, to enable the multi-storey car-park to be doubled in size…
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Well, there goes another chunk of the history of Venice! Are you taking part in the ‘living bocolo’ in the Piazza today?
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A great find. Most of the water towers here in NC are metal and fairly ugly and utilitarian looking. This one looks so nice!
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I can’t imagine “trudging” around Burano, Yvonne. Those colours are enough to put a spring into anyone’s step. It seemed odd to me that there was a number by the door – [Mandracchio] 687. I wouldn’t have thought a watertower needed an address, but if somebody lives there, I suppose “The Watertower, Burano” wasn’t thought to be sufficient. Next time, you should look for the Casa del Professore.
There is a fine watertower that reminds me of an Olympic torch. It’s visible on your right as you head down the M11 towards London. Anybody know where I mean?
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Well, I’d had a long day, Bert. I never thought to look for a number on the tower, to be honest. Put it down to fatigue.
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I know that tower Bert. It tells me that my exit is soon coming up onto the M25.
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If you ever get the chance, would one of you take a photo and send it to me. I’d share it on the blog.
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I’ve seen a couple of redundant water towers in England on TV that had been converted into homes! Unusual certainly and with outstanding views!
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Our next mission is to get inside of of those, ‘calm one’.
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There’s one in Dalkeith outside Edinburgh, which was lived in by a bloke called Gerry Goldwyre & his family. He’d won UK Masterchef & held dinners in the adjacent cottage, with a guided tour of the tower available for anyone interested – we went a few years ago. He then took a year off to go travelling at one point, so I don’t know if the dinners ever resumed or not.
Think of the issues sourcing suitable furniture! Not to mention getting it up the stairs. It was beautiful, though, and of course there was a spectacular view from the balcony round the top floor.
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I just watched an (old) episode of Kevin McCloud last night, and it was about a couple who transformed a water tower into a home. It turned out to be quite nice, but 4 flights of stairs to climb, and it was their retirement home!
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