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Island: Torcello
torcello
Roughly an hour’s water taxi ride north of Venice, this rural island is well worth the trip. The vaporetto drops you on the south side of Torcello, where you find yourself on a path leading to Venice’s first cathedral, Santa Maria dell’Assunta, which dates from the ninth century; it’s a ten-minute walk past fields of wildflowers. Inside, the mystical brick church, its roof supported by pale green columns, is a tapestry of color. Look down and the 11th-century mosaic floor dances like a crazy quilt. Twelfth-century mosaics on a gold background glitter across the apse.
Written by Elizabeth Harvey
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