A meditative retreat just a water bus ride away from a city synonymous with overtourism.
My husband and I arrived inItalyon the tail end of the Carnival of Venice — an dead atrocious theme . We soon made plans to escape the tourist hordes by hit Burano , an island known for its colorful houses . But when the fog occur in on the day of our trip , we mother mightily back on a 2nd water system bus to head up even deep into the Venetian Lagoon . Torcello was the next stay , and we had a vague musical theme of its status as the resident wraith island near Venice .
No one else debarked there , and no one greet us at the dock .
“ When you look at picture from a hundred years ago to today , the only thing you notice is the betterment of the picture quality , ” says resident Francesco Mottaz . “ The place is the same . ”
Artur Bogacki via Shutterstock
Mottaz , a partner in a little software program company , and his married woman Béatrice — along with their Parson Russell Terrier named Mosca — came to love the lagune on a houseboat tour years ago . In fact , they loved it so much that they spent the good part of a decade restoring a 16th - one C dwelling on Torcello and eventually relocated there fromSwitzerland .
Now they are among the perhaps dozen people who subsist full - time on the island , though the exact enumeration reckon on who you ask . What ’s sealed is that those residents certainly do n’t want their beloved abode to go the way of Venice , a city that ’s become synonymous withovertourism .
But some of those folks might not take care alittleof that peculiar Venice sauce . Again : It all depends on who you ask .
Photo by Agnes Groonwald
“ Like Venice , the soul of the island is blow over little by little because the local habitant are disappear and are fewer and fewer , ” enjoin Martino Rizzi , a Venice tour guide from nearby Lido island who ’s lived on and off Torcello since 2013 .
Torcello was young to us , but it ’s recognize to historian as one of the first settlement in the Venetian Lagoon . Some may say it wasthefirst , but it ’s hard to know . Many potential provenance of Venetian culture no longer exist .
Back then , settlement operated as separate entity . But Torcello became a sort of pre - Venice , with its success qualified on the economic condition of fishing , trade , salt , and body of water transportation . It hit its heyday between the tenth and 11th 100 , with about 3,000 people living and thriving along its busy canal . By the 14th one C , home plate twist slow as merchants moved elsewhere . Fishermen settled in nearby Burano . Eventually , the river that made such a desirable trading post started to bring in sandbanks . The canals became even harder to navigate , which brought about a boring descent to ghostwrite island condition .
Photo courtesy of Francesco Mottaz
Thousands became C , despite visits to the island by the likes of Queen Elizabeth II and Ernest Hemingway , who wroteAcross the River and Into the Treesduring his stoppage at Locanda Cipriani , a restaurant and inn that ’s currently under intensive renovation . A few consecrate islanders remained to farm and work small vineyards or to maintain the upkeep of the island ’s monastery and convents , but as my husband and I walk the island , we met many more duck than people .
We crossed the Ponte del Diavolo , or the Devil ’s Bridge , which is the internet site of an island fable involving a local girl , an Austrian soldier , and a pact with the devil . We also explore Torcello ’s most telling situation , the 7th - hundred Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta , or Torcello Cathedral , which does n’t set aside photos inside . That ’s where we dissent the impulse to capture the Byzantine arial mosaic dating back to the 11th C , even though we had n’t see anyone who might monish us . We only spot a exclusive shopkeeper and a few staff members at the local church . Many of the eatery were close up , too .
“ The island rest abandoned to itself , ” say Pier Zane , the owner of the eating house Villa 600 .
Photo by Agnes Groonwald
As a local commercial enterprise proprietor , the seafood enthusiast would love to see more of an effort to promote the island to visitors interested in its unequalled blending of history and nature . Perhaps that could entail tramp trails through the marsh for birder , or diachronic tours ending at sunset to show off the station at wizardly time of day .
But it ’s a slight line to tread .
In the summertime months , Zane says , water bus drop tourists for “ half a day shouting and making noise ” in the few spots punctuate on their map apps . But they ’re not as vexing as those who derive on their own boats and make it surprised that the island does n’t have the base to bob so many at one time , creating a chaotic scene of vessel attempting to berth . It ’s tough to imagine encouraging more visitors to an island that ’s already tax by the few who settle to venture there .
Photo courtesy of Francesco Mottaz
For his part , Stefano Vianello , who go Osteria al Ponte Del Diavolo , another eatery that ’s been on Torello since the ‘ 80s , would wish to see responsible tourism that also addresses the challenge locals face to remain here . That ’d imply more memory access to water supply bus routes that currently center on nearby islands like Burano or Murano , low-cost shop class , or even a estimable net connection . Vianello himself jaunt to knead on Torcello from Jesolo , a 40 - second journeying by car and boat .
The commute is worth it ; it ’s just too hard to get everything one might require on the island , and mobility is a challenge for those who live there . A tripper to the store requires crack the tides and weather condition consideration . A simple change of scenery necessitates promise forward for a water double-decker .
But then again , most who have stayed are , merely put , too old to move .
“ They were behave on the island and are almost all elderly , ” Vianello say . “ You will see that it is not easy to pull up stakes the position where you were bear and have inhabit for a life . ”
On days like ours , with a intemperate daze that never lifted , we were lucky to get a boat back out to Burano and then Murano , Torcello ’s closest neighbors . But perchance that ’s part of the appealingness . Rizzi , the tour guide , spent meter here during the pandemic , living like a hermit in the midsection of a billet where nature was his sole reference of amusement . He ’d watch bees bombilate around hives , which he called a “ spectacle of nature . ” The island is also home to a growing universe of pink flamingos that flow in its shallow marshes during increasingly moderate winter .
That ’s why , despite the challenges and isolation and change fabric of this atmospheric place , those who stay there are adamant to remain . It may be changing and getting old , but there ’s no station as magical on the lagune — or even in all of Italy .
“ Today I describe Torcello as grand as ever , ” Vianello said . “ It is like a beautiful adult female , with a few more wrinkles but still fascinating . ”
