Murano, Burano and the lagoon islands, by private motorboat on request

Leaving the city, we pass the cemetery island of San Michele and talk about the lagoon as a living system: tides, channels marked by wooden bricole, salt marshes and the islands that once fed and defended Venice.

In 1291 the Republic ordered glass furnaces to move to Murano, largely for fear of fire in a city of wooden houses. Walking along the Rio dei Vetrai, we talk about techniques such as millefiori, lattimo and aventurine, and how glassmakers guarded their secrets.

Depending on openings, we visit the Glass Museum in Palazzo Giustinian or the church of Santi Maria e Donato, with its 12th-century Byzantine mosaic floor. We also visit a glass atelier and a furnace, where you can watch the glassmakers at work; the visit is arranged according to the furnaces' availability on the day.

Burano's houses are painted in strong colors, and residents must ask permission before repainting. We walk the canals to Piazza Baldassare Galuppi and the leaning bell tower of San Martino.

Lacemaking spread on Burano in the 16th century, declined, and was revived by a lace school opened in 1872. The Lace Museum on the main square tells this story; we check its opening for your date.

Across the wooden bridge from Burano, quiet Mazzorbo has a walled vineyard where the Dorona grape, a historic Venetian variety, is grown again: a green pause between canals and lagoon.

Once a thriving town, Torcello declined as its waters silted up and malaria spread; today only a handful of people live here. Its cathedral, founded in 639, holds 11th- and 12th-century Byzantine mosaics, including a vast Last Judgment, next to the church of Santa Fosca and the stone seat called Attila's Throne.