A trip to Venice can be surprising, especially if you let yourself wander away from the more well-known attractions in order to discover what the lagoon offers: a tour of the five most beautiful islands!
Venice is a marvelous city, criss-crossed by waterways and rich with spaces dedicated to art. Many underestimate the five islands of its lagoon with wonderful things to see and places that you just must visit: the Murano Island – the island of hand-blown glass, the Burano Island – the island of lace, the Torricello Island – the most rural island, the San Michele Island – cemetery of centuries of artists and authors, and finally, the Sant’Erasmo Island – Venice’s food-source, containing many beautiful gardens.
Give yourself the gift of a holiday in the heart of the Venetian Lagoon: visit the five more characteristic islands for the local handicraft and stunning colors. Contact us to benefit from our exclusive Vip Limousine services which can accompany you to discover the lagoon without any worries and all with a luxurious vehicle and a professional chauffeur. Our Vip Limousine Milan team will guide you through every step in planning your perfect vacation. It is also possible to book one of our multilingual guides. You can find more information on our Guide Services and Tourist Assistance page.
1 - Burano
The first island is Burano, the queen island for the lace handicraft.
As soon as you arrive, you can see all around the island of Burano, the wonderful and multi-coloured facades of the local houses. The legend has it that fishermen coloured their houses in order to differentiate them from each other and recognize their own from a distance on the way home from the sea.
Walking around the streets you can stop and admire the women and men crochetting in their little workshops. This art has been characterizing the island for centuries and is handed down from one generation to another.
They say that laces arrived on the Island thanks to the Sirens: Nicolò, a local young good-looking fisherman was so in love with his bride that even though a lot of women desired him, he only loved his Maria. Once, while he was fishing at night, he was surrounded by Sirens trying to persuade and enchant him with their voice, but unsuccessfully. Enamoured of Maria he resisted and the Sirens gave him a gift: a lace “made of sea lather”. On the wedding day Nicolò gave it to Maria that started to recreate it, commencing the art of embroidery, typical of the Burano Island.
Burano is not famous only for its laces, but also for its delicious biscuits called Bussolà or Bussolai. In origin they was sweets for fishermen and only later they became characteristic of the Carnival. They have a doughnut or a S form and hardly get dry or hard. Their scent is so strong that often they were used to perfume the linen chests.
2 - Torcello
The second required stop is the island of Torcello, a small island not far from Burano, and it is completely different from the other islands. It is surrounded by the green and the silence and its 15 habitants hardly come across them.
The Torcello Island doesn’t offer neither a single room where to spend the night, but hold one of the best restaurants in Venice.
One of the must visit places in the Torcello Island is the Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral built in the Early Middle Ages. Inside it you can see the marvellous Last Judgement on the main facade and a magnificent portico overlooking the Santa Fosca Church.
In front of the Cathedral you can see a stone throne that is said once belonged to Attila, ruler of the Huns, better known as “The Scourge of God”, due to his limitless ferocity. Actually the throne was built in the V century and never belonged to Attila: Huns’ travel itinerary in Italy stopped in Aquileia (Udine). The throne was used by all the island governors during the many council sessions and justice administration.
3 - Murano
The third Island suggested is the famous Murano, the one dedicated to the art of manufacturing glass in order to create amazing sculptures or extremely precious little objects rich of details.
The Murano Island is near to the historical centre of Venice and you can reach it by steamboat or with guided excursions.
During the visit of the Murano Island it is possibile to see little handicraft workshops selling their glass products, but entraring in a workshop and seeing the creation of this masterpieces is a unique and priceless experiece: the artisan melts the glass in a big furnace called crucible, he takes it out incandescent. Blowing in an iron rod pierced along all its length, he creates an enormous glass “bolo” (a kind of a ball - an intermediate stage of the production) making it twirl and cool down on a “bronzin”, an iron or marble plate.
4 - San Michele
The penultimate stop-over is in the precious and uncommon San Michele Island. Here lie some of the biggest musicians of all time as Igor' Fëdorovič Stravinskij and authors as Iosif Brodskij and Ezra Pound.
San Michele is a monastery consecrated to Saint Michael, flanked by a little cloister and a big garden where the deceased lay.
A legend of the San Michele Island has it that the religious Sister Vittoria Gregoris on her deathbed, said that six years after her burial, when she would have been exhumed, her body would have never been found. And so it was: in her tomb were found just a rose bed and her clothes, there was no trace of her body nor of her bones.
5 - Sant’Erasmo
Last but not least of the Venetian lagoon’s islands you can see is Sant’Erasmo, which is not a destination for touristic tours and is very precious for the Venetians because of its “zero kilometre vegetable garden”.
This island is actually a real vegetable garden: Venetians come here to buy mostly green leafy vegetables, artichokes and cauliflower.
In order to achieve the Sant’Erasmo Island it takes about an hour by boat, but it worth it if you don’t have to reach it every day. There you can find vegetables, wine and you could also rent a bicycle to get around the island and to explore the fortifications along the coast.
Explore the Venetian lagoon with Vip Limousine
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