Torcello


Here is the island in 1913.

Reknowned Victorian art critic John Ruskin described it this way:
Seven miles north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by narrow creeks of sea...built a rude brick campanile, of the commonest Lombard type, which if we ascend twoards evening...we may command from it one of the most notable scenes in this wild world of ours. Far as the ey can reach, a waste of wild sea moor, of a lurid ashen grey...no gathering of fantastic mists, nor coursing of clouds across it; but melancholy clearness of space in the warm sunset, oppressive, reaching to the horizon of its level gloom...and almost beneath our feet, on the same field which sustains the twoer we gaze from, a group of four buildings, two of them a little larger than cottages...there are no living creatures near the buildings, nor any vestige of village or city around them. they lie like a little company of ships on a far-away sea.



A more contemporary description:
Torcello is probably the quietest of the island on the Murano, Burano, Torcello tour. Its sleep air and delightful churches are a delight to explore - make sure you climb the Bell tower for fine views across the lagoon.
The mosaics in th church are some of the finest you'll see too (see my Torcello page for more). Several restaurants are here including the renowned locanda Cipriani so it makes a good lunch stop on the island tour.