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Sacca Fisola
This is the island next to the Hilton on Giudecca. It can be reached from Giudecca by a lovely bridge behind the hotel. It has social housing and a sports complex including an indoor swimming pool and tennis courts.
San Francesco del Deserto
There is a monastery on this island which still houses a small number of monks. It is possible to visit the island by booking a boat tour from Burano. The island is named after Saint Francis of Assisi who is said to have performed a miracle in the Lagoon.
San Giorgio in Alga
This is an abandoned island near the mainland.
From Wikipedia: "After a Benedictine monastery was founded about 1000 AD, more monasteries followed. In 1404, Ludovico Barbo, the commendatory prior of a monastery of Augustinian friars on the island which was almost abandoned, gave the monastery to a small community of canons leading a contemplative life. The canons of the monastery instituted reforms to the canonical life which were quickly adopted in other communities of canons throughout the region. Soon they became the head of a congregation known as the Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga.[2] One of Barbo's reforms was to allow the canons to sleep in separate cells to provide more opportunity for solitary prayer.[3]
In 1717 a fire burnt most of the buildings on the island. As of 1799 there was a political prison, but nowadays the island is completely abandoned.
The island was used in 1944 as a secret base for German military personnel training under the auspices of Italian Lt-Cmdr Wolk to master mine laying against Allied ships as free-diving frogmen. To avoid being discovered they practiced only at night."
San Lazzaro degli Armeni
This is the Armenian island in the Lagoon. From Wikipedia: "A leper colony during the Middle Ages, since 1717[5] the island has been home to the Armenian Catholic Monastery of San Lazzaro.[b] It is the headquarters of the Mechitarist Order and, as such, one of the world's prominent centers of Armenian culture[7] and Armenian studies.[8]
From 1789 until the early 20th century it was a major center of Armenian printing. The island is one of the best known historic sites of the Armenian diaspora.[9] The monastery has a large collection of books, journals, artifacts and the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts."
To visit the island you can take the vaporetto number 20 from San Zaccaria near Saint Mark's Square. It is open between 3pm and 5pm every day but you will need to pay to go on the guided tour. There are tours in English.
To visit the island you can take the vaporetto number 20 from San Zaccaria near Saint Mark's Square. It is open between 3pm and 5pm every day but you will need to pay to go on the guided tour. There are tours in English.
San Pietro di Castello
This island is connected to the rest of Venice by two bridges. It hosts a Festa in June which is a great time to visit. The church was once the seat of the Patriarch of Venice.
San Servolo
San Servolo is an Italian island in the Lagoon which now houses an international university.
Sant'Erasmo
Sant'Erasmo is known as the Garden of Venice. It is a beautiful island to visit - there is a small beach near the Capannone vaporetto stop. There are festivals in the spring for the artichokes, one for the saint in May and one in the autumn for the must wine.
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