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The outlying islands of the Venetian Lagoon
The other islands of Venice—Murano, Burano, and Torcello—where Hemingway once stomped
Outlying IslandsNone of the outlying islands has its own tourist office; visit one of the offices in downtown Venice for information. As for transportation to the islands:
Actv - Vaporetto
tel. +39-041-2424
www.actv.it
Alilaguna
tel. +39-041-240-1701
www.alilaguna.it
Book a tour: Viator.com
• Murano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Sightseeing Tour
• Private Tour: Murano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Tour
Sights in the Outlying Islands
Murano
Burano
Torcello
Hotels on the Outlying Islands
Apartment Villa Santa Caterina (on Mazzorbetto)Hotel Al Soffiador (on Murano)
Hotel Locanda Conterie (on Murano)
B&B Ca'Venier al Dolce Dormire (on Murano)
» More hotels in Venice
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TOURS FROM OUR TRUSTED PARTNERS that include Venice
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• Best of Italy
• Italy Uncovered
• Italy Experience
• Classic Italy
• Italy Family Adventure
• Highlights of Italy
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Not just Italy...
Paris to Venice
Venice to Istanbul
G Adventures 2011 Italy trips
• Ultimate Italy
• Italy Culture and History Explored (9 days)
• Venice to Rome Adventure
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iExplore Italy trips 2011
• Italy Experience (9 days)
• Italy in Style (9 days)
» THE VENICE BOOKSHELF
Ever wonder what Venice looked like before all the tourists, or even before the fancy palazzi and art-stuffed museums? Well, the answer lies just a 1.5-mile vaporetto ride away on the fishing village islands of the northern Venetian lagoon.
There's a trio of main outlying islands you can visit in one long, perfect day:
Murano with its glass-blowing factories (
); sleepy, colorful Burano where little old ladies still tat old fashioned lace by hand (); and swampy, half-deserted Torcello, with its remarkable medieval church and where Hemingway was fond of tramping about ().
Getting to Venice's outlying islands
The Northern Lagoon of Venice with the major outlying islands.There are two main ways to get to the islands of the Venetian lagoon:
- On a tour—either in a group tour (around $28) or on a private tour (around $163)—like those run by our partners at Viator.com
- Do-it-yourself tour using Venice's public transportation network: the vaporetto water ferries (around $24).
Since the second option's a bit more complicated, here are the details.
First of all, if you've been buying individual vaporetto (water bus) tickets as you need them, go ahead and invest in an 24-hour unlimited ride pass for today (€18). You're going to take the water bus at least five times, so it will save you some money.
The main vaporetto line to take to reach the outlying islands in the Northern Venetian lagoon is the extra-large express Line LN, which stands for "Laguna Nord" ("North Lagoon"). It takes off from Fondamente Nove in Venice, which is way up on the north side of the Castello district (though there are two shortcuts from near San Marco; see below). It stops at the main "Faro" (lighthouse) vaporetto stop on Murano (8 min.), then continues to the residential island of Mazzorbo (another 24 min.), then across a channel to Burano (10 min. from Mazzorbo—which means 34 min. total from Murano, or 42 min. total from Venice).
From Burano, you can grab the T traghetto up to Torcello and back (5 min. each way).
Getting back to Venice: From Burano, the LN continues around the littoral (the easternmost, barrier islands between the lagoon and the Adriatic Sea), stopping at Treporti, Punta Sabbioni (where all the campgrounds are), and one or two stops on the Lido before returning to Venice proper at the "S. Zaccaria/Piazza S. Marco" stop, which is just east of Piazzetta San Marco (along the Riva degli Schiavoni promenade just in front of the Hotel Danieli). Total time: 70 minutes.
A (sort-of) shortcut to Murano from the Piazza San Marco area
Grab the 41 vaporetto or the Alilaguna lines Blu (blue) and Rosso (red) (for trips within the city like this, they only charge the standard €6.50 ticket)—from the Piazza San Marco/S. Zaccaria stop.
The #41 ferry will chug around Venice, making eight local stops, then stop at Fondamente Nove before turning to head up and around Murano and back (2–5 stops total on the Alilaguna lines). Either way, the ride takes about 40 minutes. Get off in Murano, explore, and from there, you can continue on the LN line to Burano.
The reason I call this a "sort-of" shortcut is that these boats from San Marco takes a half-hour longer than the LN from Fondamenta Nove. But then again, it'll also probably take half an hour just to walk from Piazza San Marco to Fondamente Nove, so the timing is about equal, but taking a boat the whole way is a bit easier (especially if you're leaving early in the morning and want to ease yourself into the day).
There are actually more vaporetto ferries to Murano than just the LN. From the San Marco area you can take Line 41, or one of the airport-bound Alilaguna lines (see the sidebar box to the right).
From Fondamente Nove, you can also take Line 41 or 42. From Ferrovia (train station) or Piazzale Roma (parking lot), you can grab the DM (Diretto Murano) express line to reach Murano in about 20 minutes (24 min. from Piazzale Roma).
If you happen to be staying on Murano—or just want to hit it en route to Venice—the Blu (blue) and Rosso (red) Alilaguna ferries from the airport all stop at Murano (30 min.).
Staying late?
By the way, if you tarry too late on the outlying islands (last boats: somewhere between 11pm and midnight, depending), never fear.
A night vaporetto Line N connects Murano and Burano (and a few residential islands) back to Fondamente Nove.
If it's getting late on Torcello, they're really good about shooing you down to the docks so you won't miss the last traghetto to Burano at 8:10pm.
If you manage to miss that, you can still hop the Laguna Nord night line, but it'll come out to Torcello by request only, so you have to call ahead (tel. 800-845-065)—plus it only stops at 11:56pm, 12:35am, 1:31am, and 2:31am en route to Burano (where you'll have to wait again for a night ferry going the other direction, since this one continues on to Treporti and Punta Sabbioni, not Venice). Or you can get really lucky and call ahead to catch the 1:35am from Torcello, which goes semi-express back to Fondamente Nove. (Don't miss it; the next one's at 4:03am.)
Tips
- Get up early in the morning since to visit all three islands takes a good five to seven hours. The time you spend on Burano and Torcello is in one-hour increments (vaporetti ferries leave hourly), and one hour is about enough for each. Add in 10 minutes for the ride from Venice to Murano, 35 minutes from Murano to Burano, 5 minutes from Burano to Torcello, and 70 minutes from Torcello to Venice. If you leave by 9 or 10am, you can be back in Venice by late afternoon/early evening (assuming you take time to have lunch). Time it just perfectly, and you ride back to Venice with the sunset sending orange sparklers across the waters of the lagoon as you arrive. Cool.
- Meals: As far as lunch goes, you can either pack a picnic in from Venice (Torcello is prime for picnicking), or sit down for a good meal at the trattorie Al Corallo (tel. +39-041-739-080), Fondamenta dei Vetrai 73 in Murano, or Trattoria da Romano (tel. +39-041-730-030, www.daromano.it), at Via Baldassare Galuppi 223 in Burano.
Or go all out and splurge on Hemingway's old favorite Locanda Cipriani (tel. +39-041-730-150), a refined restaurant in the middle of nowhere on Torcello. (Cipriani's first name was Arrigo, which is Italian for "Harry," which is why the dynasty's outlet in Venice itself is known the world over as "Harry's Bar.") - Take a tour: If you don't want to bother with the hassle of timing your vaporetto stops—or simply want a guide along to explain what you're seeing—take a guided tour of Murano, Burano, and Torcello with our partners at Viator.com:
• Murano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Sightseeing Tour
• Private Tour: Murano, Burano and Torcello Half-Day Tour
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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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