Time in Torcello
“You should choose the finest day in the month and have yourself rowed far away across the lagoon to Torcello. Without making this excursion you can hardly pretend to know Venice”
Henry James “An early impression” in Italian Hours
A small ferry runs from Burano to Torcello every 30 minutes. There are many guided tours to the island. These usually go to Murano, Burano and on to Torcello. These tours are a convenient, easy way to visit the islands and can usually be booked at your hotel or at the vaporetto stop at San Marco. You will easily find a tour of ‘the islands’. If you go alone then you have the option of choosing a quieter time of day. If you have time to explore Torcello independently then you will have a different, more solitary, island experience. Both the tour and independent approach are worthwhile ways of seeing this island and I’ve done both more than once.
Bustling Burano
Jan Morris describes Burano as ‘a sheer splash of colour’. It’s a lovely, apt description The houses might individually seem garish but combined together they mingle and merge into that vivid canvas of colour. The houses are brighter and more vibrant than in Venice itself. These are not palazzos but fisherman’s cottages. Sometimes you will see the washing hanging outside to dry. Folklore says that the houses were painted brightly so the fishermen could see them from a long way out on the lagoon. A beacon to guide them home. Some of the best fish dishes in Venice can be found at restaurants on Burano.
