The Islands of Venice

Photos by Peter Hunt

The bargain of Venice is the 7-day Vaporetto ticket at 50 euros - steep to start with, but terrific value if you make a point of chugging up and down the Grand Canal to all the museums (although it would take months to visit them all) and going to as many of the islands of the lagoon as possible.

BURANO used to be famous for lace. Now it’s famous for tourist taking pictures of the brightly-coloured houses and looking for genuine lace among all the imports from China. (The lace museum is currently closed).

What it may soon become known for is a wonderful place to have lunch - actually on MAZZORBO, a little island connected to Burano by a wooden bridge. Terre di Venezia is basically a fabulous place to eat (and to stay, there are simple, hostel-style rooms) next to what was the village allotment. Gone to seed, this land was put out to tender and acquired by the family who own Bisol, the vintners responsible for some of the most delicious prosecco. Vines were planted five years ago (it takes eight years, so you have three years to wait for the first Mazzorbo harvest), a simple and stylish restaurant was built and Paola Budel arrived.

Who she? Only one of the most interesting chefs in Italy and one who has honed her art not just in some of the smartest kitchens around the world but also on the family farm. She learned to cook as a teen, cooking up the pork, veal and poultry her father and brothers reared on their land up in the mountains. Take a leisurely trip for lunch and enjoy the guazzetto di seppie di laguna castraure e pomodoro datterino (soup of cuttlefish from the lagoon with baby artichokes and cherry tomatoes) followed by fennel ice-cream with limoncello-soaked baba and slices of tart grapefruit.

A leisurely hop on the Vaporetto takes you on to Torcello, isolated in the midst of the lagoon. Cultural types go to see the byzantine basilica with its gold mosaic of the virgin, which dates from back when Torcello had 20,000 inhabitants. It now has 15. One of them is Bonifacio Brass, whose grandfather bought a little inn here in 1936 and turned it into the Locanda Cipriani, a favourite of Ernest Hemingway and hardly changed since the American holed up here to write. It is, quite simply divine and, should you be lucky enough to stay here, by 7pm with any tourists gone, you have the island to yourself, just as he did.

(Back in 1960s, HRH the Queen ate at Locanda Cipriani, as a private customer not as a Monarch - the Duke of Edinburgh¹s idea as he had loved Harry’s Bar - also owned by the Cipriani family of course - when he was serving in the British navy. The couple - then young and gorgeous and longing to be just
like other people (the sort of people who could afford Locanda Cipriani, which was surely not cheap, even then) asked that the restaurant operate normally. Unbeknownst to them, the Italian authorities were having none of that, so instead carefully screened friends of the Cipriani’s were invited to dine for free to pretend they were ordinary customers.)

S. LAZZARO DEGLI ARMENI is a small island in the lagoon reachable by Vaporetto from S. Zaccaria (near S. Marco). The island was given centuries ago to the Armenian monks of the Mekhitarist order and has since then been a centre for Oriental studies. It has a library with more that 100,000 volumes. Byron stayed there. There are guided tours and, if you have time, go.

If you can, sail to S. PIERO MAGGIORE, just in front of S. Marco square and go up to the top of the belltower (there is a lift). From there you have great sight of Venice. The Church was designed by Palladio.

MURANO, where the glass comes from, is much bigger than you may expect and worth a day trip. The usual tourist shops are what you’ll see first and do go inside. Sure, the glass blowers at Signoretti, with their little bowl for tips, are doing it for the tourists, but the families working here can date their glass making heritage back 20 generations - yes, 20 - so even if you are not in the market for a life-sized clown in coloured glass, it is worth having a stroll around. The island itself is its own community (The Venetians claim they don’t understand the Muranese - either their dialect or their island behaviour).

If instead of chugging out on the Vaporetto - the water bus of Venice -you want the glamour of taking a fabulous, fast Riva boat across the lagoon, the glass tsars of Murano can be persuaded to send a boat for you, to transport you back and forth from your Venetian hotel. Of course they hope you are going to buy a $10,000 chandelier while you are enjoying their hospitality at their Murano showrooms, however you are under no obligation to open you wallet. Glamour factor as you whizz across the lagoon? High.

WHEN IN VENICE, ASK THE EXPERTS
Emily FitzRoy is - despite the name - part Italian and lives part of the year in Venice. While she deals with many celebrities, you don’t need Brangelina’s bank balance to hire Bellini Travel, which will handle the whole trip, (excluding flights) and can secure better deals on palazzo hotels, B&Bs and night gondola trips than you could do alone. FitzRoy is both sensitive and sensible and will mix in affordable evenings grazing on cichetti (little tapas-type snacks). Ask her to arrange sneak peak access to the silk weavers for Dolce & Gabbana and Armani too.

Bellini Travel Ltd, 7 Barb Mews, London W6 7PA, UK. +44 (0)20 7602 7602; http://www.bellinitravel.com

Venissa Ristorante Ostello, Fondamenta Santa Caterina, 3, 30170 Isola di Mazzorbo, Venezia Italy. + 39 041 52 72 281; http://www.venissa.it/

Locanda Cipriani, Piazza Santa Fosca 29 – 30142 Torcello, Venezia Italy. +39 041 730150; http://www.locandacipriani.com/

Signoretti, Calle San Cirpriano, 48, 30141, Murano, Venezia Italy. + 39 041 5274294; http://www.signoretti.it/