VENICE, ITALY: Torcello and the Outer Islands

View of Torcello and the Venice Lagoon from the top of the Bell Tower 

During our recent visit to Venice, we spent a day on Torcello, one of the small outer islands of the greater Venice archipelago. The large island at the center that we know as Venice has been a trading center in the northern Mediterranean for more than a thousand years. Densely built and intersected by a maze of canals, it hums with activity. By comparison, our visit to Torcello felt like a day in the country--the island is mostly open fields and wetlands plus an old church and museum.

Torcello vaporetto stop. Torcello is of 114 small islands spread across the Venice Lagoon.

To get to Torcello we took a vaporetto (water bus) from the Zattere stop near our hotel to the Fondamente Nove stop on other side of Venice, where we transferred to a boat that went on Torcello. The first stop was at Murano, home of the Venetian glassware industry, and where most of the passengers got off. On our first trip to Venice we had visited Murano, watched the glassblowers and visited the museum. 

Walkway to the center of Torcello and the Ponte di Diavolo (Devil's Bridge)

The “town” of Torcello is just a few houses, a church and museum. To get there we walked about a quarter mile from the boat dock along a paved path next to a small canal.

Torcello. Church of Santa Fosca

When we bought our tickets for the church and museum, the ticket seller recommended that we visit the bell tower first.

At the top of the Campanile (Bell Tower)

So we climbed the stairs to the top, where we were rewarded with a spectacular 360 degree view of the island and surrounding lagoon. It was easy to imagine that this is what the main island of Venice might have looked like in Roman times, before it was developed into an urban trading center.

Roof of the Basilica as seen from the Bell Tower

The church at Torcello, Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, has been in existence since the 7th century,  and is the oldest church in the greater Venice lagoon. It is filled with magnificent mosaics, which are explained with an audio device that we paid for with our ticket. After visiting the church we went to the museum where artifacts from Torcello’s Byzantine past are displayed. (Photography was not permitted in either place.)

At the Ponte de Diavolo restaurant with our Aperol spritzers

Our destination for the day was the Osteria al Ponte del Diavolo restaurant, which had been recommended by a friend, and where we had a delicious lunch. (I had baby octopus for my first course!) The weather was perfect and we sat under an umbrella on the restaurant patio enjoying our leisurely meal. By the time we had finished our coffee and tiramisu dessert, it was time to catch the boat back.

On our way back from Torcello to Murano, we passed the small island of Burano, distinctive for its  brightly painted houses.

A woman in the seat next to me commented about Torcello that “there wasn’t much there.” I disagree. That’s exactly what we liked about it–a refreshing ride across the lagoon, a fascinating old church, and a relaxing day in the country.

VENICE, ITALY: Glittering Jewel at the edge of the Sea

Venice, Italy. Campanile and domes of Saint Mark's Basilica. View across the Grand Canal from Punte della Dogana on the Dorsoduro.

Visiting Venice is a little bit like going to Disneyland--the crowds, the rides, the spectacle, the assault on the senses--the difference being that everything in Venice is real and in many cases hundreds of years old. In late September, my husband and I spent three days in Venice and it was still just as magical as on our first visit 25 years ago. Between the food, the art, the music, the boats and the bridges we felt like we had been immersed in a painting by Turner or Canaletto.

A gondola traffic jam in one of the smaller canals.

The weather was perfect--sunny and warm, but not too hot--and although there were crowds of tour groups in the popular tourist spots during the middle of the day, they thinned out by evening.

Venice is an island, part of an archipelago that includes the main large island of Venice plus numerous smaller islands. You can see the Campanile in Piazza San Marco sticking up above the red roofed buildings.

Our first view of Venice was from the airplane as we approached the airport on the mainland. After landing, we followed a long walkway to the docks, where water transport was waiting to take passengers to the island of Venice. In our shared water taxi we sped across the lagoon, waves splashing across the bow, until we arrived at the entrance to the canals, where the boat slowed to a more sensible pace.

The Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal is the oldest bridge in Venice

We were one of the last to be dropped off, so our ride served as a mini-tour of the city and the web of canals that are the main streets of Venice.

One of the 400 bridges and 150 canals that connect the islands of Venice

Our hotel, Pensione Seguso, in the Dorsoduro neighborhood, was a two minute walk from the Zattere boat stop. After checking in, we took a walk along the Zattere promenade where there were various restaurants, many with tables on platforms over the water.

Waiting for pizza at our waterside table. On the other side of the channel we looked at the narrow island of Giudecca.

Our hotel was out of the way of the main tourist traffic in Venice, but it was only a short walk to the Accademia bridge over the Grand Canal and to the central part of Venice and the magnificent Basilica San Marco. (The easiest way to get around Venice is by walking, although the maze of squares, narrow walkways, bridges and canals make a map essential.)

View of San Marco and the Campanile (Bell Tower) from the loggia surrounding Piazza San Marco. The bell rings twice a day, at noon and midnight.

The Piazza San Marco is enormous, easily accommodating the thousands of tourists who visit it each day, not to mention the flocks of pigeons waiting for offerings of breadcrumbs. With its glittering mosaics and multicolored marble columns, the magnificent basilica is the perfect backdrop for all this activity. 

The Basilica di San Marco.

To the left of the Basilica in Piazza San Marco is Torre dell'Orologio (the Clock Tower) with its beautiful 15th-century blue and gold leaf clock.

The 24-hour clock on the Clock Tower.

Besides visiting the Piazza San Marco, highlights of our time in Venice included an afternoon at the opera (we saw the Barber of Seville at the Teatro de Fenice, the famous opera house where Maria Callas got her start), a Vivaldi concert at the Church of San Vidal, and visits to two art museums, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and the Accademia Gallery (to be the topic of another post.)

Posters on a palace along the Grand Canal advertise the Biennale.

We never got to the Biennale, the bi-annual international art exposition at the Arsenale–not enough time in our short visit. 

Art by Jean Dubuffet was on display at the Palazzo Franchetti.

But the streets were filled with smaller ancillary art exhibits, dozens of art galleries, and the display windows of the high-end fashion shops in the streets near Piazza San Marco had their own spectacular art creations.

Carnival masks on display in a shop window.

Other shops featured typical crafts of Venice--elaborate masks, marbled paper, glass sculptures from the island of Murano, and much more.

Gondolier shirts are among the many souvenirs one can buy at pop-up stalls on Piazza San Marco

On our first trip to Venice we met a architect professor who had brought his students to see and draw the intersection of buildings, bridges, and water that make the city of Venice unique.No other city is like Venice, with its mix of churches, palaces, plazas, towers, bridges and waterways.

Sunset on the Giudecca Canal, viewed from the Zattere promenade. After dark the lights come on and the city sparkles in the night.

We were lucky on both trips to Venice to enjoy good weather. (It can be foggy and rainy.) This trip was short and we only had time to sample a few of Venice's pleasures. One day was a trip to the outer islands, a chance to get away from the tourist crowds--to be the subject of another post. Altogether our visit to Venice was a magical three days--and we wish we had had time to spend more.

September in UMBRIA, ITALY, Part 3: Assisi

Assisi, approach to the lower church of the Basilica of St. Francis

It was our fourth day in Umbria, and we headed for Assisi, about a forty minute drive from Perugia across a flat, agricultural plain. This famous medieval hill town is perched at the edge of Mont Sebasio National Park, which can be seen just beyond the walls of the city. We followed signs to a car park near the Basilica di San Francesco (Basilica of Saint Francis), and walked through the gate and up narrow streets to the broad ramp that led to the entrance of the lower church.

No talking or photographs are allowed inside the Basilica so we rented audio guides–an excellent way to make sense of the abundance of art inside. Every square inch in both the upper and lower church is covered with decoration, either in carved stone or as wall paintings, the most famous being the fresco cycle in the upper church that depict scenes from the life of Saint Francis.

Poster of Giotto fresco in the Basilica

Traditionally, the frescoes are attributed to Giotto and his workshop, but today there is some question by art historians as to whether Giotto was the artist. In any case, the paintings are superb examples of Renaissance art and the use of realism and perspective. The Basilica was built on orders from the Pope just after the death of St. Francis in 1226. St. Francis is the patron saint of Italy so the church and town of Assisi draw thousands of tourists every day. But the requirement for silence inside the Basilica makes a visit there feel calm and peaceful despite all the visitors.

Streets of Assisi

Assisi's history goes back to before Roman times and historic buildings line the steep, narrow streets. Visiting Assisi is like spending the day doing stairmaster–except for a few piazzas, almost every street is slanted or stepped. My legs ached by the end of the day, especially after climbing to the top of the hill to visit the castle (Rocco Maggiore) with its 360 degree view of the town and verdant Umbrian countryside. Inside the castle we climbed the towers and visited a museum of medieval tools, weapons, and costumes. After we made a small donation we were given a small poster of the fresco in the Basilica showing St. Francis giving his cloak to a poor man. (see above)

Inside the castle walls of the Rocco Maggiore. The fortress was first built in the 12th century, then rebuilt in 1367.

On our way back down the hill we stopped at a shop selling Umbrian food specialties and bought two roast pork sandwiches, which we ate later as a picnic supper back at the hotel. Shops in Assisi are filled with saintly souvenirs and local specialties such as salami, truffles, pasta, beans and olive oil. There are also a surprising number of art galleries.

Local Umbrian specialties include pork and wild boar (chingiale)

During the day, as we toured the town, we also went into the small Baroque church of Santa Maria delle Rose, as well as the Duomo (San Rufino), an imposing Romanesque cathedral built on top of Roman ruins. Some of the ruins are visible under thick glass beneath the church aisle and in the plaza in front. It is a little disconcerting to walk across these glass "windows"--as if one is floating on air--but fascinating to see the ancient ruins below.

Carved stone figures appear to hold up the wall on the Romanesque facade of San Rufino, completed in 1253

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Assisi. It was a warm, sunny day and although there were plenty of tourists, it didn’t seem crowded, perhaps because we visited on a weekday.

View of Assisi and Mont Subasio from the path to the Rocco Maggiore