PRIVATE TORCELLO AND THE ISLAND OF ST. FRANCIS

Includes: Torcello and St. Francis of the Desert

Departure from St. Mark’s waterfront by private reserved motor-launch with your guide on a tour through the Venetian lagoon.

Island of Torcello

Stop at the Island of Torcello and visit to the oldest Basilica of Venice, the 7th C. Church of Santa Maria Assunta with its lovely Byzantine wall mosaics.

After the visit to the Church, you continue to the island of St. Francis of the Desert, a real oasis of peace in the middle of the

Venetian Lagoon.

The island is very ancient. Traces which have emerged from the subsoil reveal it was frequented by the Romans, and there are finds from the 1st, 4th, and 5th Centuries A.D. The name is of popular origin and goes back to the first half of the 15th C., when the island was abandoned for more than twenty years because of the insalubrious state of the lagoon.

The Franciscan story begins in 1220

St. Francis landed there with an anonymous companion on his return from the East and was greeted by

the joyful singing of the swallows (the account of the prodigy is narrated by St. Bonaventura in the Legenda Maior).

Angelo Barozzi

In March 1223 the island was donated to the Order by Jacopo Michiel, who belonged to the doge’s branch of the family and was nephew, on his wife’s side, to the patriarch of Grado, Angelo Barozzi: at the time of the donation two churches were in existence, of which one was dedicated to the Saint.

Guided visit to the Island (gardens & cloisters) by a local English speaking Friar.

At the end of the visit, return to Venice.

This tour lasts 4 hours. Never on Monday!

This tour can be arranged in English or in other languages.