Torcello Treasure Hunt

For our first full day we decided to head out to a couple of the other islands in the Lagoon. From the Fondamente Nove we took the 12 line for about a forty minute ride to Burano where we then caught the little line 9 boat across to Torcellow.

Torcello was the first island in the Lagoon to be populated. This was where the people started pounding tree trunks into the boggy ground to make a solid foundation for buildings. We met our tour guide Silvia Zanella who set up a treasure hunt for Annika and also told us lots of interesting information about the island. She was born and raised on Burano, so talking to her was very interesting. She told us about how important Carnivale is on Burano and how people spend months making costumes by hand.

Torcello's last school closed in the '70s and now there are something like 8 people living on the island. The weird thing is that it is actually really expensive to buy a house on Torcello (think Seattle prices) when houses on Burano cost significantly less (though not necessarily cheap when considering what people earn fishing, working on Murano for glass manufacturing, or committing to Venice).Read more