Torcello The encounter with the one-time commercial capital of the Lagoon will surprise you. The rustic, at times almost desolated aspect of Torcello, makes it hard to believe that centuries ago this was a busy port city buzzing with thousands of inhabitants (of which nowadays only a handful remain)! Isolated houses, bushes, a vegetable garden here and there … these are the only clues left of Torcello’s glorious past. This was probably one of the main islands where refugees from the mainland escaped the barbaric invasions, at the fall of the Roman Empire. Protected by the lagoon swamps, the exiles of Altino in particular found here a new haven. Starting as a poor community of fishermen, ferrymen and merchants, they slowly took advantage of the island’s strategic position (halfway between the Byzantine East and the ‘Roman-Barbarian West) to turn it into a flourishing commercial center … the most important of the ancient Lagoon actually! Torcello will amaze us with its silence and surreal atmosphere. Walking through quiet streets still paved in bricks or gravel, we will discover the reasons why the island was gradually abandoned in favor of Venice, or the fate of its many churches, convents or buildings now replaced by the wilderness. We will meet the mysterious “Devil’s Bridge” and walk through the ruins of the city center, irresistibly attracted by the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, the oldest church in the Lagoon! We will admire the splendid shapes of the nearby Santa Fosca church, of Palazzo del Podestà and Palazzo dell’Archivio, perhaps also sitting on the famous “Attila’s throne”. Finally, we will discover why this small strip of land became the favorite refuge of the famous writer Ernest Hemingway. An incredible experience, a journey between the past and the present that only the less touristic islands can offer!