Per visit Venice and its lagoon in one day, we decided to start from Chioggia, a small town near the lagoon city that absolutely deserves a visit.
Chioggia
Chioggia, the little Venice, with its alleys and its famous fish market and the nearby Sottomarina are the ideal starting point to visit the most loved and famous city in the world, Venice. This small fishing village closely resembles the lagoon city: houses, alleys and foundations make it similar to the most famous city but Chioggia has a particular, intimate charm. From here, once you arrive at Piazzetta Vigo by vaporetto you reach Pellestrina. The service with the Raffaello motorboat operates special services at certain times of the year, such as Easter. The Raffaello motorboat service is active in the warmer months, starting from April, departing from Sottomarina Ponte dell’Unione to Venice at 9 am and returning from San Marco to Sottomarina at 5 pm. For those who want to visit the islands, once in Venice it is possible to use the ACTV public transport vaporettos.
Pellestrina
13 kilometers long and 210 meters wide, Pellestrina is a small fishing island, where life still proceeds as it used to, with slow rhythms and traditions. At the southern end are the 18th century Murazzi, which separate the sea from the lagoon and protect the island. Worth a visit is the Cà Roman nature reserve, which extends for about forty hectares of wild beach, dunes, and scrubland. Here it is possible to spot kingfishers, cuckoos, and royal seagulls and, during nesting periods, plovers and stone-curlews, two rare species which have chosen this quiet and deserted area as an ideal breeding place, where tourists rarely arrive. Traveling the whole island, you can take the ferry to the Lido di Venezia.
Venice
The flight of the seagulls accompanies the journey through the Venetian lagoon, until the symbol of Venice starts to be seen: the St. Mark’s bell tower. The excursion continues on foot among the alleys, foundations and small squares of this incredible city suspended on water, encountering splendid churches and famous palaces from Piazza San Marco with the Basilica, Doge’s Palace, a masterpiece of Gothic art that houses works by Titian, Tintoretto and Tiepolo, the church of Santa Maria della Salute, the Rialto Bridge, the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Every corner reveals a monument worth seeing and visiting.
Island of Mazzorbo
The lagoon surrounding magical Venice hides small realities all to be discovered. From Venice you can reach by ferry the island of Mazzorbo, populated by simple colorful houses alternating with vegetable gardens and vineyards. Hidden from mass tourism, the 14th-century conventual church of Santa Caterina is flanked by a beautiful dome bell tower, in which the oldest bell of the lagoon is kept.
Burano
The walk continues crossing the wooden bridge that connects Mazzorbo with Burano, an island famous for lace. The moored boats remind us that it is a fisherman’s island but what most surprises is the vividness of the colors of the houses and the slow pace, which seems to have taken over this small island, still untouched by the frantic activity felt in Venice. Walking along the calli you notice clothes hanging between the houses and elderly ladies sitting in front of the entrances of the houses busy working on lace.
Island of Torcello
Resuming the boat, not far away you encounter the Island of Torcello, once the beating heart of the northern lagoon. After getting off the boat you find the Devil’s Bridge, which according to legend, appears in the center of this bridge in the form of a black cat every night on December 24. Not far away is the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, the oldest in the lagoon, flanked by its baptistery, the Martyrium of Santa Fosca, the bell tower and the Palazzotti of the Council and the Archive. At the center of the square, an ancient marble seat used by the Tribunes to administer justice, but which, according to a popular legend, was the throne of Attila, the King of the Huns, who passed here to sow destruction and desolation. If you climb the bell tower you can admire the entire and intricate lagoon landscape of Venice. Not to be missed is the Provincial Museum of Torcello.
Along the way back, on the boat returning to Venice, you pass two islets with a deserted appearance, Madonna del Monte and San Giacomo in Paludo, where a millennium ago a convent with a guesthouse gave shelter to sailors and which today is home to an environmental research center.
Borgo di Malamocco
A village from another time, Malamocco. The only one on the entire island, full of light and character, where, in the profile of a small Venice. A village from another time, Malamocco. The only one on the entire island, full of light and character, where, in the profile of a small Venice (calli, campielli, canals, bridges and colorful houses close together) you can relive echoes of distant glories, when, from 742 to 811, it became the capital of the Dogato. A place loved by many, locals and outsiders alike, such as Mario Soldati or Hugo Pratt, the undisputed master of modern comics, whose house remains. It is very pleasant to lose yourself among the alleys almost without shops, to savor the magical quiet of the Church square, with 15th-century buildings, such as the Church of Santa Maria Assunta with its milk-colored walls, and to emerge in the characteristic calle del Paradiso and piazza delle Erbe.
Lido di Venezia
You enter the heart of the Lido, taking lungomare Marconi to find yourself in the “Garden City”, built at the beginning of the 20th century, in full Liberty and Art Deco style.
Besides private homes, you can glimpse the great early-century hotels, frequented by Hollywood stars, queens and great writers: the Des Bains and a little further on the Excelsior, with its striking Neo-Moorish architecture, built in 1907, which, with their elegant bathing establishments, have transformed the Lido into one of the most chic tourist destinations in the world since the early 1900s. Between the two are the Casino, opened in the 1930s with Fascist architecture, and the Palazzo del Cinema, home of the famous International Film Art Exhibition.
