The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
EXPLORE THE WONDERS OF VENICE BY WATER
In Venice – costumed, choreographed and seductive – every vista is heightened by reflection, and it is only by spending a few days on the water that you can truly appreciate the beauty of this spectacular city. A cruise will take you to the tranquil island of Torcello, where the depiction of the Last Judgement in the 11th-century Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta is a revelation. On Burano, cottages are painted in picturesque shades of vermilion, purple, pink and saffron.
Heading to the southern reaches of the lagoon, the colourful village of Pellestrina is a precursor to the quaint fishing port of Chioggia where an excursion aboard a traditional wooden bragozzo explores mussel beds and the southernmost gates of the controversial MOSE flood barrier.
The Po offers a placid scene as it meanders past rice fields and vineyards. From the village of Polesella, excursions head to Italy’s culinary capital Bologna, the renaissance city of Ferrara and incomparable Padua. The northbound journey through the lagoon offers yet more eye-candy as SS La Venezia glides past Isola Santo Spirito and Isola di San Clemente before the campanile, domes, colonnades and pinnacles of La Serenissima appear on the horizon.
YOU’LL NEVER FORGET
An evening visit to the Basilica di San Marco for a private lighting ceremony that gradually illuminates 43,000sq ft of gilded mosaics that narrate the New Testament.
Uniworld (0808 168 9110; uniworld.com) offers an eight-day Venice and the Gems of Northern Italy cruise from £2,499pp including flights from Heathrow, all meals on board, premium spirits and wine, excursions and transfers. Departs from the San Basilio terminal in Venice from April to October