Venezia Trip Overview
This full day trip will allow you to visit the main islands of the Venice Lagoon: Murano, Burano, Torcello, and, exclusively, the monastery of San Francesco del Deserto.
We will accompany you to discover these islands, in a magical experience that is intertwined between the naturalistic scenarios of the lagoon and the rich history of these fascinating places.
-Murano, the famous glass island (1 hour stop)
-Burano, the fishing village with colorful houses (stop 2 hours)
-Torcello, the first settlement of the lagoon (1 hour stop)
-San Francesco del Deserto, a small island and its convent where peace and tranquility reign (stop 45 minutes)
Additional Info
Duration: 8 hours
Starts: Venezia, Italy
Trip Category: Day Trips & Excursions >> Day Trips
Explore Venezia Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Venezia, Veneto, Italy
This full day trip will allow you to visit the main islands of the Venice Lagoon: Murano, Burano, Torcello, and, exclusively, the monastery of San Francesco del Deserto.
We will accompany you to discover these islands, in a magical experience that is intertwined between the naturalistic scenarios of the lagoon and the rich history of these fascinating places.
-Murano, the famous glass island (1 hour stop)
-Burano, the fishing village with colorful houses (stop 2 hours)
-Torcello, the first settlement of the lagoon (1 hour stop)
-San Francesco del Deserto, a small island and its convent where peace and tranquility reign (stop 45 minutes)
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Pass By: Piazza San Marco, 31024 Venice Italy
Piazza San Marco, which was originally a vegetable garden crossed by canals called rii, is bordered by the old and new Procuratie, the Napoleonic Wing and the facade of the Basilica of San Marco.
The first church dedicated to San Marco was built next to the Doge’s Palace in 828 to house the relics of San Marco. Over the centuries it was built and rebuilt several times, mainly due to fires that devastated it.
In St. Mark’s Square there are also the Clock Tower (completed in 1499) and the Campanile that the Venetians call “El paron de casa” – the master of the house -. The Campanile di San Marco was initially a watchtower and a lighthouse. It collapsed in 1902 and reconstruction began immediately “as it was, where it was”.
98.6 meters high, it is one of the highest bell towers in Italy. From here, during the Carnival, the famous Flight of the Colombina or the Angel starts.
Pass By: Chiesa dell’Isola di San Servolo, Isola di San Servolo, Venice Italy
There is already news about the full activity of the monastery on the island of San Servolo in 819 and therefore it is one of the oldest monasteries in the lagoon. Between 1100 and 1600 the island was inhabited by Benedictine nuns. Later, the premises of the island and the monastery were used first as a grain store and from 1630 as a shelter for plague victims.
In 1700 it was transformed into a military hospital and then into a psychiatric hospital.
Currently, the Island is also home to the Franca and Franco Basaglia Foundation, the Venice International University, the AICCRE European Project Planning Center, and is also a residence for PhD students or students in international exchange projects.
Since 2008, the island has also been home to the branch of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and since 2012 it has been the seat of the Ca ‘Foscari International College.
Pass By: Lido di Venezia, Lido di Venezia, Veneto
The Lido of Venice is a narrow strip of land about 12 km long that divides and protects the Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. Together with Pellestrina and Sant’Erasmo, it is one of the three islands where there are carriage roads. The Lido is also equipped with a small tourist airport which, before the birth of the Marco Polo airport in Tessera, was the civil airport of Venice where scheduled flights arrived. The island of Lido di Venezia is also home to other places including the ancient village of Malamocco of which we find traces in some texts dating back to 840 and the village of the Alberoni.
In 1800 it became one of the most popular seaside destinations for European aristocrats, this led to the construction of large luxury hotels such as the Hotel Excelsior and the Hotel des Bains. Subsequently these hotels were frequented by the aristocratic and bourgeois elite not only in Europe but also in the world.
The famous International Film Festival is still held on the Lido, at the Palazzo del Cinema.
Pass By: Arsenale di Venezia, Campo San Biagio Castello 2148, 30122 Venice Italy
It was the heart of the Venetian naval industry starting from the 12th century and is linked to the most flourishing period of the life of the Serenissima: thanks to the impressive ships built here.
The Venetian Republic managed to counter the Ottomans in the Aegean Sea and to conquer the routes of Northern Europe.
The arsenal of Venice anticipated the idea of the naval industry by centuries with a sort of assembly line that counted about 2000 workers.
Stop At: Ellegi – Murano Glass Shop, Fondamenta San Giovanni dei battuti 4b/5, 30141 Murano Italy
The stop in Murano is 30 minutes to visit the glass furnace. An assistant awaits you and will accompany you to see a real master glassmaker at work. The fortune of Murano begins in the 13th century, when the Doge decided to move the furnaces that produced glass to Venice here. This is due to the numerous fires that these caused in the city since at the time the buildings and houses were mostly built in wood. The serenissima, gelossima of this art, was thus able to better control the activity. In fact, the glass masters could not leave the island except with special permits and the inhabitants were constantly registered, they were granted the privilege of being able to work in the glassworks.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Torcello, Torcello, Veneto
Torcello was one of the oldest settlements in the lagoon, inhabited since the times of the Roman Empire; the populations who had to defend themselves from the barbarian invasions took refuge here, and made it a thriving urban center. It was abandoned in the fifteenth century due to the progressive swamping, in favor of prosperous Venice, and gradually stripped of all building materials and its constructions, except for some that still capture the curiosity of visitors.
Here also stands the Devil’s Bridge, whose legend is linked to the pact that a girl whose beloved was killed (probably by her own family to prevent the union) made with the Devil: 7 souls in exchange for her lost love. The appointment for the demonic exchange took place at the point where the bridge stands, but the girl as soon as she saw her beloved managed to escape with him without paying off the debt with the Devil, who is still there waiting for the souls that are due to him.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Burano, Burano, Veneto
Burano takes its name from “Porta Boreana” so called because it is located in the North-East, the direction from which the Bora blows.
At the beginning the houses were quite primitive, they were then replaced by brick houses.
The peculiarity lies in the fact that the inhabitants began to paint their houses to their liking. In fact, it seems that the fishermen, returning home by sea, due to the fog to better identify their homes from afar, decided to paint them with different and bright colors. And if you notice in some houses you can even see more colors in the same house, a sign that the properties are different.
Since the days of the Republic of Venice, Burano with its modest population of about 8,000 at the time, was an island of poor people who lived mainly from fishing and agriculture. Thanks to the skill of the lace makers, local craftsmanship began to grow, enrich and expand all over the world with the famous Burano lace.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: San Francesco del Deserto, Isola di San Francesco, Venice Italy
In 1220 Francis of Assisi, returning from a trip to the East, arrived on a small island owned by the Venetian nobleman Jacopo Michiel. Francis was looking for a quiet place, where he could stop in silence to pray and reflect. Here he was welcomed by the song of a multitude of birds – as his biographer Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio tells us – what better place to found a shelter where it was possible to pray and meditate in peace, far from worldliness?
After his death in 1223, Michiel donated the island to the minor friars so that they could found a convent there. The name of the place dates back to the 1400s, when the island of San Francesco was abandoned for some years – deserted – due to the unhealthy nature of the lagoon; subsequently it was used as a powder magazine by the Austrians until 1858, when the land was donated to the patriarchate of Venice which allowed the friars to refound the monastery, which is still active today.
Duration: 50 minutes
