Presentation of the Islands of Venice, Italy

The Venetian Islands

The magic pearls of the Lagoon!

The Lagoon of Venice contains the small islands of:

Murano Island is situated to the north east of the city, on the Murano channel. It is made up of seven smaller islets separated by canals, but connected by bridges to one another. Among the most important monuments are the church of Saints Mary and Donato in the Venetian-Byzantine stile, built in the VIIth Century and rebuilt in the XIIth, and the church of St. Peter, Martyr, constructed in the XV-XVI Cent., which houses paintings by Paulo Veronese and Giovanni Bellini. The island is world-famous for the production of blown glass.

Burano is one of the inhabited islands of the Lagoon and is noted for the production of lace and for its typical brightly coloured houses. It is connected to Venice, via its twin Murano, by a regular waterbus service which also goes on to Torcello and

Not to be missed is Mazzorbo, with its secluded open spaces and wide views over the Lagoon. It also has a XIVth Cent. Church, St. Catherine, and a public park which has been created in the old cemetery and which is enclosed by an ancient wall.

The island of Torcello is bounded on the south east by the Burano channel and to the north and east by the Rosa and Centrega salt marshes. It is the site of one of the oldest human settlements in the Lagoon, having been founded between the Vth and VIth centuries. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption was rebuilt in its current form around the year one thousand. In front of the basilica is the so-called Throne of Attila and the Devil's Bridge, on the access canal, retains the original design, without parapets. For centuries the island of Sant Erasmo's points of contact have been San Francesco del Deserto and Burano on the one side and Treporti and Punta Sabbioni on the other; it is a spot where the tourism is predominantly local, domestic, non-invasive. After long years of abandonment and neglect, this green island of market gardens and vineyards has had its most important monument restored, the Tower of Maximilian. The adjacent beach, known as the "bacan", has also benefited from the restoration carried out in this part of the island.

Pellestrina is a thin barrier over 11 kilometres long between the Adriatic and the Lagoon and protected from the ravages of the sea by one of the most imposing sea defences which the Serenissima Republic was able to realise to protect the city: the Murazzi. A vertical, artificial cliff on the Lagoon side and sloping on the seaward side, it was built with rough-hewn blocks of Istrian stone for a length of about twenty kilometres along the littoral which formed the natural defence of the artistic, cultural and economic patrimony which was centred on Venice.

An idea for an exhilarating day out is to start at the boat terminal situated at the main opening connecting Venice port to the sea, at Punta Sabbioni, and then to head into the vast horizons of the Lagoon via the old settlements on the Cavallino littoral. Once over the Pordelio Canal you come to the hamlet of Treporti, with its small church, characterised by twin belltowers; continuing along the edges of the Valle Zannella you arrive at Saccagnana, with the historic, rural courtyard of the "Pra" fronted by an elegant country villa and the ancient church, erected by the first inhabitants of the island. The route finishes at Lio Piccolo in a typical Lagoon landscape of "valle"s, areas enclosed by dams and used for fish farming.