Torcello Island

Torcello lies at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon and is where lagoon settlement effectively began: occupied from the 5th century by people leaving the mainland, it became a substantial trading town with its own bishop long before Venice amounted to much. It is often called the parent island for that reason.

Almost nothing of that town survives. Where there were palaces, shipyards, and a population plausibly in the thousands, there are now two churches, a handful of houses, and fields. The reason is silting: as the surrounding channels closed up, the water went stagnant and malarial, trade moved to Venice's deeper harbour, and Torcello was gradually abandoned and quarried for its stone.

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was founded in 639, though what stands today is largely an 11th-century rebuilding. It is the most complete Veneto-Byzantine interior in the lagoon, lined with mosaics -- angels bearing a medallion of the Lamb of God in the apse, and across the whole west wall an early 13th-century Last Judgment, one of the largest and best preserved anywhere in Italy.

Beside it stand the small 11th-century church of Santa Fosca, a museum of finds from the island, and the stone seat known as the Trono di Attila -- almost certainly a bishop's or magistrate's chair rather than anything to do with Attila. The Ponte del Diavolo, one of the last bridges in the lagoon left without parapets, crosses the main canal nearby.

Torcello's year-round population is very small, and the handful of businesses on the island -- a few restaurants and a museum -- depend heavily on visitor spending given how few residents remain. The cathedral is an active place of worship as well as a historic site, and the same quiet, respectful conduct expected in any church applies here.

Torcello is reached by vaporetto from Fondamente Nove (Venice) or as a short hop from neighboring Burano -- there's no bridge or direct connection from central Venice.

• Getting around: the walk from the dock to the cathedral follows a single canal-side path, roughly 10 minutes, past the island's few houses and fields.
• Tickets: a combined ticket covering the cathedral, its bell tower, and the small museum is available at the site.
• Facilities: limited -- a small number of restaurants near the cathedral, nothing comparable to Venice or Burano's own main streets.