VeniceByBoat S.p.A. - Excursions

Excursions

VENICEbyBOAT organized for you a few packages that include visits to some of the most beautiful places of Venice.

Choose the tour that suits you and click on the item in the list:

Classica (Murano - Burano - Torcello)
Spirituale (a tour in the Venetian religious place)
Naturalistica (visit the ecological paradises of northern lagoon)
Panoramica (Giudecca - Zattere - S.Marco - Murano)
La Venezia dei Veneziani (Isola di S. Michele - ghetto e arsenale - Lido)
Le Isole di Venezia (S.Giorgio, S.Lazzaro degli Armeni, S.G.in Paludo, S.Francesco del deserto, Torcello)
Riviera del Brenta (visit onboard Il Burchiello^® the Venetian nobility' villas)

The programmes presented have been drawn up with the intention to satisfy both those visiting Venice for the first time and those looking for unusual aspects of the city or less frequented sites. We also try to offer a service which considers the necessity of the students to move in group, not always easy in the Venice reality. In this context, it should be remembered that our craft is available for the group at all times, including during stopovers. We can also provide the services of a guide or hostess for the whole day.

VENICEbyBOAT is available to arrange custom-made itineraries or to provide the best possible assistance during your stay in Venice.

Departure from Tronchetto or Punta Sabbioni at a time to be agreed for the three largest islands in the Venice lagoon: Murano, Burano and Torcello.
Stopover of an hour on each island and return to departure point.

MURANO
This is the largest of the islands in the lagoon. Founded by fugitives from Altino at the time of the Lombard invasions, the population of Oderzo also took refuge here. The island’s fame, however, is linked to the famous artistic glass production and while on the island a visit to a glass furnace is a must. Not to be missed are the Glass Museum and the church of Santi Maria e Donato, a masterpiece of Veneto-Byzantine art

BURANO
This is without doubt the most picturesque of the lagoon islands with its brightly coloured houses outside which the fishermen sit mending their nets while the women work at the famous lace. On a smaller scale, the island reflects the layout of Venice. The church of San Martino with its leaning bell tower contains a number of 17th and 18th century paintings, together with a Crucifixion by G.B. Tiepolo.

TORCELLO
This is the most famous of the islands in the north lagoon. When the Huns led by Attila invaded Altino in the 5th century, its inhabitants also took refuge here until the danger had passed and they could return to the city. In 638, the bishop of Altino moved his see to Torcello. Work to construct the cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, began a year later, but the definitive structure dates from 1008. The site is completed by the remains of a 7th century baptistery, the bell tower and the 11th century church of Santa Fosca.

A TOUR OF PLACES OF WORSHIP IN VENICE

S. FRANCESCO DEL DESERTO In memory of a visit from the saint of Assisi, a small church was built here in his honour. Inhabited by Franciscan friars who built a monastery here, it later became a barracks during the Napoleonic occupation. After Napoleon’s defeat, the island returned to the Franciscans who still take care of it today.

S. GIORGIOFormerly known as «Dei Cipressi», it was once owned by the Signoria who used it as a vineyard and salt works. The first church was constructed here in 790 and twenty years later, Morosini constructed a Benedictine monastery. Visitors can admire works by Baldassare Longhena, Palladio and large canvases by Tintoretto.

S. MARCO Political and religious reference point for the people of the Veneto during the period of the Serenissima. Today the square is one of the symbols of the city’s beauty. The bell tower was originally a lighthouse and defence tower and was completed as you see it today only in the 16th century. Together with its Byzantine-style buildings, the square’s beauty is completed by the Doge’s Palace, the clock tower, the Loggetta and the Piazzetta.

ZITELLE This was the name given to the group of buildings formed by the Chiesa della Presentazione and annexed convent, built at the end of the 16th century to a design by Palladio.

ZATTERE This area took its name from the rafts or «zattere» which moored here, laden with wood needed for building the city. Today you can admire the long line of typical Venetian houses looking out over the Canale della Giudecca.

Passing through the small stretch of sea that separates the beach of Venice with the Fort St. Andrea enters the northern lagoon, you can see the first urban settlements (see Torcello), salt marshes, where they stay or wintering bird species. Where civilization and progress have not yet arrived, and spend their days according to ancient canons, through the salt marshes, or on small islands with their huts (houses typical of the northern lagoon).

PORTEGRANDI
Named for a valley on a large scale that communicates with the Sile Canal Silone. For the same reasons that caused the destruction of the ancient islands of the impetus of rivers or the imbalances caused by the changed course of the same, these coastal areas have undergone radical changes in their form and extent.

CANALE SILONE
Old River Sile cavity of the first cut, made in 1684, which diverted Caposile up to the northern most tip of the lagoon. Caposile from the sea bed of the river Sile runs in the Piave Piave current flows in Cortellazzo.

BARENE
lands are near the edge of the Cretaceous nature of the land and, in some places, have the infiltration of fresh water that will allow the vegetation of reeds. The water enters the lagoon through a channel called from the ports tree, deep and fast running, the trunk splits into two or more primary branches that flow in opposite directions, the branches are divided into gutters or "Geba" circulating on the sandbanks current with increasingly slower.

TORCELLO BURANO

SAN FRANCESCO DEL DESERTO

Departure from Tronchetto or Punta Sabbioni at a time to be agreed, panoramic tour of the city with stopovers at the most interesting historical and artistic sites. Return to departure point.

GIUDECCA
This long island flanking Venice was considered by the Venetians as a village where they constructed villas, flower gardens and allotments. Starting from the Canale di San Giorgio, a rich succession of once wealthy and majestic aristocratic mansions (palazzi) pass before the eye until the church of Santa Maria della Presentazione (Zitelle) built, together with the annexed convent, to a design by Andrea Palladio. After the church you pass the Mocenigo warehouses before finally reaching the church of Redentore.This was built to a design by Palladio to fulfil a vow made by the Venetians during the plague of 1575. Still today, one of the city’s most important and evocative celebrations starts out here (third Sunday of July). Also worthy of note are the Emo, Maffei and Vendramin mansions, together with the old Mulino Stucky, a Gothic-Nordic mill dating from the end of the 19th century.

ZATTERE

S. MARCO

MURANO

Departure from Tronchetto or Punta Sabbioni at a time to be agreed. Visit to the island of San Michele, the Ghetto and the Venice Arsenale (dockyard). Transfer to Lido and return to departure point.

FONDAMENTE NUOVE
(Titian’s house). This is the house where the great master of Venetian painting, Titian Vecellio (1490-1576), lived for 45 years. Also worthy of a short visit is the church of the Gesuiti in Roman-Baroque style, rich with sumptuous stucco decorations and frescoes.

ISLAND OF SAN MICHELE
With its ancient Camaldolensian monastery, this island has been the cemetery of Venice since 1837. The church is Venice’s earliest Renaissance building. The 14th and 16th century cloisters are magnificent, as is the bell tower with its Gothic-Byzantine decorations.

ARSENALE
This is a vast partly covered area used during the time of the Serenissima to build and fit out galleys. Venice’s power depended on the building capacity of the Arsenale. During its period of maximum splendour, 16,000 men worked here and a galley was constructed each day.

LIDO
This is a stretch of coastal strip extending between the sea and the lagoon for more than 12 kilometres and is famous as a seaside resort with its numerous exclusive hotels, the city’s casino and film festival venue. Of particular historical interest is the church of San Nicolò where the remains of saints Nicholas and Theodore are buried, brought here from the city of Mira (Asia Minor) after the city’s conquest by the Venetians. Important military, civil and religious events took place in this church such as the «Sposalizio del Mare». At the time of the Republic, the Doge embarked on the Bucentaur flanked by galleys, numerous boats and decorated gondolas and, to the thundering of canons on the warships, set out from San Marco to the lagoon inlets. After throwing the ring into the sea, the Doge went to church to take part in the papal mass.