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Associazione Guide Turistiche Venezia
TORCELLO
Torcello is both the beginning and the end. It is the Alpha and the Omega
of the distant times of the early origins of Venetian culture, and the
most honoured and loved of the islands of the Lagoon. When in the 7th
century Venice was no more than a small group of muddy islands along the
course of the Rivus Altus, a deep channel that is now the grand Canal,
Torcello was inhabited. As archaeology is currently demonstrating, it
was probably already an island of peasant farms and Roman villas. This
infant Venice was, according to 'official' history, born at the arrival
of the Longobardi in Northern Italy at the beginning of the 7th century.
Fleeing from these warlike barbarians, who were to maintain their control
for several centuries, the inhabitants of the decaying Roman city of Altino
took shelter in the Lagoon, and under the protection of Byzantium (Constantinople,
still the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire), which guaranteed them
protection, they developed Torcello as an important trading centre. In
the process salt producers and fishermen, rich and poor side by side,
engaged in a constant battle with the Lagoon and its alarming inclination
to flood; they became an amphibious people, at home amid the shifting
channels and mud banks. By the reign of the Eastern Emperor Constantine
VII Porphyrogenitus (905--59) Torcello had become the principal hinge
in Byzantine trade into Europe, at a time when struggle for control of
both the Eastern and the Western Empire by the emperor and the Papacy
was at its highest. Today the island can count on no more that 14 inhabitants,
a generous natural environment and, incomparable child of Torcello's foundation
and rise to greatness, the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, founded in
639 AD. The oldest building in the lagoon, it is mercifully untouched
by the depredations and 'improvements' of time. It even survived the robbing
of Torcello for building materials for the new city of Venice, when the
challenges of the Lagoon became too great for the increasing size of trading
vessels, which demanded a more accessible port. A sad fate, but no more
so than that of Altino, robbed to build Torcello. It even managed to survive
Napoleon, the only exception, with its chapel of Santa Fosca beside it,
of the destruction of five other churches on the island. The star of a
visit to the Basilica must be the precious Venetian-Byzantine mosaics
of the Diaconicon and the Last Judgement, with its scenes of the condemnation
of the Seven Deadly Sins, works of the end of the 11th century by Byzantine
mosaicists and described by experts as the most important in Italy from
this period. The sanctuary of the Basilica is also exceptional: the richness
of its coloured marble, the only example of a gilded pavement of which
only traces of the gold remain, a Roman sarcophagus re-employed to house
the remains of St Elidore; and outside the sanctuary an apparently inexplicable
pagan bas-relief of the god of luck, wings and wheels on his feet. These
notes are only a summary of what our visit to the Basilica offers.
Outside the
Basilica is what remains of its piazza, the little church of Santa Fosca,
a museum of both the mediaeval and modern periods and the Campanile, a
climb to the top of which, if at all possible, provides a magnificent
view of the north Lagoon and Burano; not to be missed. From here George
Sand wrote of 'le silence inconceptuelle de la nature', and indeed, poised
between the sky and the lagoon, gazing over fields of artichokes and vines,
some echoes of the island's ancient past will inevitably be heard. It
will offer, if you can manage it, ample reward for the effort of the climb.
In the modern times Torcello has had famous pilgrims, many of whom are
recorded at the Locanda Cipriani, including Queen Elizabeth, Churchill,
Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin and many others. Actually the Locanda
Cipriani apart from being a 'world class' restaurant and a very exclusive
hotel is a leafy oasis of peace and tranquillity. From the Locanda, Guidetovenice
will take you off the beaten track to explore other treasures of Torcello,
with a visit to a farm where the exceptionally tasty lagoon artichokes
are grown. Crossing the Ponte del Diavolo (Satan's Bridge) we walk, surrounded
by a landscape of incomparable beauty, to the ruins of the Chiesa di Giovanni
Evangelista.
BURANO
Barely five miles separate the island from Venice,
but Burano is a world apart that has little to do with the chaotic Venice.
Even its dialect is soft and melodious in comparison to Venice's somewhat
sharp edge. To linguistic experts this is the sound of the most ancient
people of the Lagoon.
The island is famous for its lace and its brightly painted houses for
which many more-or-less fantastic reasons are contrived. Until 1900 half
of the economy derived from fishing and agriculture, while today it is
lacemaking and tourism that have restored the fortunes of Burano. Agriculture
has largely passed to Mazzorbo and Mazzorbetto, but some survives and
is a source of income for several families. Traditional fishing is mostly
for the tasty moeche, the soft-shelled crab of the lagoon, and in April
and October you will catch sight of fishermen dextrously sorting them
- and you can enjoy them in what gourmets consider the best fish restaurants
of the Adriatic. But Burano is not only known for its fish and its lace.
The parish church of San Martino in Piazza Galuppi houses a magnificent
painting by Gianbattista Tiepolo, some 14th century paintings by Giovanni
Mansueti and many naive works depicting the popular traditions of saintly
protection of the island. Also in the Piazza is the Museum of Lacemaking,
where you may admire lace so light that it seems to be made of air. Burano
is one of the major lacemaking centres of the world, but is now sadly
on the way to extinction. However, a few elderly exponents of the craft
remain and can be found in the museum demonstrating it to visitors. Burano
and the nearby Mazzorbo, though much has changed, still succeed in maintaining
the atmosphere of the small Lagoon islands where their people still live
insulated from the haste of 21st-century world. Almost every family takes
to its boat as the rest of the world takes to its cars, and the spontaneity
of the people of these islands, the calm of their sunny waterside and
the energy of their brightly-painted houses reflect the lagoon in which
they live and which remains an inspiration to artists and writers as it
has for centuries.
MURANO
The island of glass? Certainly, and much more.
Murano is Venice writ small. It has its Canal Grande, its Palazzi, its
thousand-year-old churches, but it also has its silence, perhaps lacking
in its big sister. An island of 5400 inhabitants with one identity, wrapped
around the industry that has given it a world-wide reputation for fine
glass-making. It has been so since 1291, when the Maggior Consiglio decided
to move the industry and its furnaces to Murano. Such furnaces were totally
banned in the city, a dictat derived from their constant danger to a city
largely built of wood.
The early history of glass-making in Burano embraces a vigorous rivalry
over who could make the clearest glass. By the end of the 13th century
the tradition of blown glass had triumphed over that of cut and polish
quarz, mainly due to the development of a mixture of sands for raw material,
a secret protected under threat of summary execution. A visit to one of
the 80 active 'vetrerie' (glassworks) today is an unforgettable experience.
But take note: to see a real piece of work made by a real master of the
craft one has to visit the workshops during his working hours otherwise
all you will see is the making of some rather trivial piece. The essential
accompaniment to a visit to a glassmaker's is some time spent in the Museo
Vetrario, where samples of work embrace 20 centuries of history, from
funerary urns from Zara and Altino, to Briati chandeliers in paste glass,
to the modern works of Archimede Seguso.
But a visit to Murano does not end there,
anything but. The Chiesa dei Santi Maria e Donato would be sufficient
excuse alone. On ancient foundations it was rebuilt in the Romanesque
style of the 12th century, only a few decades after the new Basilica di
San Marco. It introduces new elements that are not in the normal repertoire
of the style, in some ways reminiscent of the Roman city of Altino. (Note
here that 'Romanesque' is a mediaeval style derived in part from Roman
architecture, but not itself Roman.) You will be led into a positive zoo
of real and mythical creatures, all of which carry an eschatological significance
(which will be explained); it is an entrancing and vigorous bestiary.
Like the mosaics of Saint Mark's, it is on a fine tesselated pavement.
To add to the bestiary, during our visit you will see with your own very
eyes the bones of a dragon that Saint Donato killed by spitting at the
poor beast! Not to speak of Saint Alban's barrel, an inexhaustible source
of the most excellent wine! Strangely, not a tale told in his own country!
Leaving the mysteries of St. Donato behind, we make a visit to San Pietro
Martire. Although a church in full use, it is also a gallery of precious
renaissance canvasses, such as a portrait by Giovanni Bellini of the rugged
and contentious Doge Agostino Barbarigo. Finally, a stroll along the Fondamenta
Venier leads to the melancholy and solitary church of Santa Maria degli
Angeli, fronted by a rare stretch of grass. It is today in a state of
seemingly inexhaustible renovation, but is probably best remembered for
Casanova's gambols with some of the younger members of its enclosed convent.