Table of Contents
- So How Many Islands Is Venice Made Of, Really?
- A Rough Map of the Venice Islands
- Getting Around - It's Basically the Vaporetto
- The Famous Ones - Murano, Burano, Torcello, Lido
- The Cultural Islands I'd Make Time For
- Where People Actually Live - Giudecca, Sant'Elena, Sant'Erasmo
- Food and Wine Worth Crossing the Water For
- The Dark and the Deserted Ones
- The Private Resort Islands
- How I'd Plan a Day or Two of Island-Hopping
- A Few Honest Answers
Most people who come to Venice never leave the main island. They tick off the main sights - San Marco, the Rialto, a gondola if the queue's short - and then they go home thinking they've seen the floating city. And honestly? They've seen maybe a tenth of it. The real magic, the part I keep coming back for, is scattered across the Venetian lagoon in every direction - glassblowers, rainbow fishing villages, a cemetery island, a vineyard that almost drowned, and a couple of spots so quiet you'll hear your own footsteps.
I've spent a lot of slow afternoons hopping between the islands near Venice, getting it wrong, missing ferries, eating in the wrong places and then the right ones. So this is my honest take on the islands of Venice - which of the Venetian islands are worth your time, how to actually get to them, and the stuff I wish someone had told me before my first trip out into the lagoon.
So How Many Islands Is Venice Made Of, Really?
This one trips everybody up, and the answer kind of depends on how you're counting. The number you'll see most often is 118 - that's the figure UNESCO uses for the historic city itself, the cluster of little islands that make up the Venice you picture, all stitched together by more than 400 bridges. So when somebody asks how many islands in Venice, 118 is the safe answer for the city proper.
But the wider Venice lagoon is a whole other thing. Once you push out past the centre you've got dozens more lagoon islands - some inhabited, some farmed, a few completely abandoned and slowly sinking back into the mud. Depending on whether you count the tiny ones and the marshy bits that only show up at low tide, people land anywhere from around 30 named islands worth visiting up to 60 or 70 with real history attached. There's no single tidy number, which I actually love. It means there's always one more you haven't been to.
So if you want the short version: the city is made up of 118 islands, and the islands in the Venice lagoon push that total well past a hundred and twenty once you count the outer ones. Now let's get you oriented.
A Rough Map of the Venice Islands
You don't really need a Venice islands map to get your head around the layout - it's simpler than it looks once someone explains it. Picture the main city in the middle. Then think in three directions.
Head north and you hit the famous cluster - Murano first, then Burano and its little neighbours Mazzorbo and Torcello, with the farming island Sant'Erasmo and the cemetery island San Michele filling in the gaps. Look south and just across the water you've got Giudecca and San Giorgio Maggiore, the long beach strip of Lido further out, plus a scatter of quieter and more private outlying islands - San Servolo, San Lazzaro degli Armeni, San Clemente, Isola delle Rose, and the notorious Poveglia. And tucked right against the eastern edge of the main city sit Sant'Elena and San Pietro di Castello, so close they barely feel like separate islands at all.
Here's the same thing as a table, because I find a map of Venice islands sticks better when you can see it sorted:
| Island | Where it sits | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Murano | North lagoon, closest out | Glassblowing, the glass museum |
| Burano | North lagoon, further out | Coloured houses, lace, risotto |
| Mazzorbo | North, bridged to Burano | Walled vineyard, the rare Dorona grape |
| Torcello | North, past Burano | The oldest settlement, Byzantine mosaics |
| Sant'Erasmo | North-east, big and flat | Market gardens, artichokes, biking |
| San Michele | North, near Murano | The walled cemetery island |
| Giudecca | Just south of the city | Local life, food, rooftop views |
| San Giorgio Maggiore | South, facing San Marco | Palladio's church, the bell-tower view |
| Lido | South-east, the long barrier | Beaches, the film festival |
| San Servolo and San Lazzaro | South, off San Marco | Old asylum, Armenian monastery |
| Sant'Elena and San Pietro | Eastern edge of the city | Residential calm, an old cathedral |
| Poveglia, San Clemente, Isola delle Rose | Southern lagoon | Abandoned, or turned into resorts |
Keep that rough map venice islands geography in your head and the rest of this gets a lot easier.
Getting Around - It's Basically the Vaporetto
Almost everything out here runs on the vaporetto, which is just Venice's water bus. There's no shame in it - locals use it, I use it, and it'll get you to nearly every island that's open to the public. Most people arrive at Piazzale Roma or the Santa Lucia train station, and from either you can walk straight to a vaporetto stop and go onto the water without much faff - some lines even slide you down the Grand Canal on the way out. The handful of private resort islands run their own boats from San Marco instead, and if you fancy something fancier you can hire a private boat tour or a water taxi, but for normal humans the vaporetto's the move.
The thing to know is that different lines fan out from different jumping-off points. For the northern islands you'll mostly leave from Fondamente Nove (you'll also see it spelled Fondamenta Nuove) on the city's northern edge. For the southern stuff you'll usually start around San Marco or San Zaccaria. A few quick connections worth memorising: Ferry #12 travels from Fondamenta Nuove out to Burano island, Ferry #4.1 and #4.2 connect Fondamenta Nuove to San Michele, and Ferry #20 connects San Zaccaria to San Servolo island. Here's how the main lines break down:
| Line | Takes you to | Leaves from |
|---|---|---|
| Line 12 | Murano, Mazzorbo, Burano, Torcello | Fondamenta Nuove |
| Lines 4.1 / 4.2 | Murano, San Michele | Fondamenta Nuove |
| Line 2 | Giudecca, San Giorgio Maggiore | San Marco / San Zaccaria |
| Line 13 | Sant'Erasmo | Fondamente Nove |
| Line 20 | San Servolo, San Lazzaro degli Armeni | San Zaccaria |
| Lines 1, 5.1, 5.2, 6 | Lido, Sant'Elena | Various, incl. San Zaccaria |
My one big tip, and I'd say this to anyone: get a travel pass rather than paying single fares. The standard ACTV ticket gives you unlimited vaporetto travel for 24 hours, and since you'll be hopping a lot, it pays for itself before lunch - a single hop costs a small fortune. I'd also start early. The northern islands especially get pretty packed by late morning, and there's nothing quite like a boat ride out to Burano with the island almost to yourself at half eight in the morning.
The Famous Ones - Murano, Burano, Torcello, Lido
If it's your first time, these are the islands of Venice you'll hear about, and they're famous for good reason. I wouldn't skip them just to be contrarian. But I would try to see them properly rather than at a sprint.
Murano - the glass island
Murano's been making glass since 1291, when the Venetian Republic shoved all its furnaces out here to keep the fire risk away from the wooden city. That's the whole origin story right there. These days you can watch a master at the glass blowing - a vase taking shape in about ninety seconds flat - which never stops being mesmerising. The glass museum here, the Museo del Vetro, walks you through eight centuries of it, and it's genuinely good, not a tourist-trap thing. Don't miss the Basilica di Santa Maria e San Donato either, with its twelfth-century mosaic floor and, behind the altar, what are supposedly the bones of a dragon slain by the saint. (They're whale bones. But let's not ruin it.)
To get there you want lines 4.1, 4.2 or 12 from Fondamenta Nuove. I'd give Murano a few hours, more if you're buying. And a small thing I've learned - the cheap "Murano glass" in the gift shops back on the main island is mostly not from Murano at all. If you actually want the real stuff, buy it here, at a glass factory on the island, where you can see who made it.
Burano - the colourful town that's all colours
Burano is the colourful island everyone photographs, and the photos still don't quite do it - houses painted hot pink next to deep blue next to mustard yellow, all of it reflected in the canals. The story goes that fishermen painted them so they could spot their own home through the lagoon fog, and there's apparently still a rule that you have to ask the council before you repaint, so the colours stay wild. Whether that's strictly true or a lovely bit of folklore, I couldn't tell you, but I love it either way. It's a genuinely beautiful island, and one of the most photogenic spots in the whole lagoon.
Beyond the colours, this colourful town is a proper fishing village with a serious lace-making tradition. If you visit Burano you can watch the craft in action at the Lace Museum, the Museo del Merletto, which chronicles over 800 years of the work - the needle lace here is called punto in aria, "stitches in the air," and the techniques go right back to the Renaissance. Food-wise this is where I'd eat risotto di gò, a creamy risotto made with goby, a little lagoon fish you'll basically only find around here. Pair it with a few cicchetti (Venetian bar snacks) and a glass of wine by the canal and you've cracked it. One famous travelling chef filmed an episode at a little trattoria on the main square here years back, and the place has been packed ever since - so if you want the quiet version, come on a weekday and wander off the main drag. Ferry #12 runs out to the Burano islands cluster from Fondamenta Nuove if you're plotting your route.
Torcello - where Venice basically started
Hardly anyone makes it to Torcello, which is exactly why I'd go. This sleepy, half-empty quiet island - a few dozen residents, that's it - is where Venice actually began, which makes it the oldest continuously populated island in the Venetian archipelago. Back in its prime, in the early Middle Ages, Torcello was home to as many as 20,000 inhabitants, a real town with a harbour and trade, before malaria and silt drove people off to the main islands. The cathedral here, Santa Maria dell'Assunta, was founded back in the 7th century, though the building you see is 11th-century, and it holds some of the most beautiful Venetian-Byzantine mosaics anywhere, including a vast, slightly terrifying Last Judgment that covers an entire wall. There's also a worn stone seat in the square locals call Attila's Throne, and a little bridge with no railings known as the Devil's Bridge. It's atmospheric in a way the busier islands just aren't.
Lido - the beach and the film stars
Lido's the odd one out - a long thin barrier island that actually has cars, roads and proper sandy beaches facing the open Adriatic Sea. The Lido di Venezia runs about 11km and is what shelters the whole lagoon from the Adriatic, with roughly six miles of sandy beach along its seaward side, so Venetians come here to swim in summer. It's also worth a look for the elegant art nouveau architecture along its streets. And every September it transforms when the Venice Film Festival rolls in, the oldest film festival in the world, with the red carpet rolled out at the grand old festival hotel on the seafront. Off-season it's a calm, faded, slightly genteel place that's lovely to cycle around, and you'll see many locals going about their day rather than tourists. There's a beloved little bar where everyone drinks a bright blue cocktail, and the seafood spots are unfussy and good. I'd come for a half-day if the weather's warm.
The Cultural Islands I'd Make Time For
These are the ones I'd push you towards once you've done the headliners. They're where the lagoon gets weird and deep and human, and they're the best islands in Venice if you care about story over scenery.
San Giorgio Maggiore - the best view in Venice, and it's free-ish
Right across the water from San Marco sits San Giorgio Maggiore, and its white church is a Palladio masterpiece - clean, calm, Renaissance lines, with two huge Tintoretto canvases inside. It's one of the genuine architectural masterpieces of the lagoon. But here's the thing I tell everyone: skip the long climb up the campanile at St Mark's Basilica and take the lift up the bell tower here instead. Same staggering view back across the rooftops and domes towards Mark's Square, a fraction of the crowd. It's the photo you came for, minus the queue.
The island's also a quiet powerhouse for art. A cultural foundation here runs serious programming, there are photography galleries that have shown names like Robert Mapplethorpe, a space dedicated to Murano glass as art, and contemporary commissions from artists like Luc Tuymans. Take line 2 from San Zaccaria - it's a two-minute ride and one of my favourite stops in the whole lagoon.
San Lazzaro degli Armeni - a monastery and a poet's classroom
This tiny island has hosted the Armenian Catholic Monastery since 1717, and it's still the headquarters of the Mechitarist order, a community of monks who turned the place into one of the great centres of Armenian scholarship and printing. The library's extraordinary. And here's the detail I find irresistible - Lord Byron used to row himself out here regularly to study Armenian, calling the language a kind of rugged challenge for his restless mind. You can still see where he sat. You reach it on line 20 from San Zaccaria, and it's usually a guided tour with one of the monks acting as your tour guide, which is a lovely, unhurried way to spend an hour.
San Pietro di Castello - the cathedral nobody remembers
Most visitors assume St Mark's has always been Venice's cathedral. It hasn't. For centuries the city's actual cathedral was way out on the quiet eastern island of San Pietro di Castello, the official seat from 1451 right up to 1807. The church here has a façade tied to Palladio's circle, finished by the architect Francesco Smeraldi, and the whole area feels like real, lived-in Venice - laundry lines, kids playing football, almost no tourists. There's even a revived wine-tavern concept here pouring Malvasia, the sweet wine Venice once imported by the boatload from Greece. I'd come just to feel what the city's like when nobody's performing for visitors.
San Servolo - the island of the old asylum
This is the one that stays with me. San Servolo started as a Benedictine convent back in the 9th century, became a military hospital, and then from 1725 right up to 1978 it ran as a psychiatric asylum. Today there's a museum - the old Insane Asylum Museum - that doesn't flinch from any of it. You walk through an 18th-century pharmacy lined with the remedies they used, an anatomic theatre with its tables and tools, and exhibits that trace how treatment of mental illness changed over the centuries, right up to the first psychiatric drugs arriving in 1952.
The history here connects to something genuinely important. The asylum finally shut in August 1978, the year Italy passed the Basaglia Law, named for the psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, which abolished the old mental hospitals across the whole country - radical at the time, and still studied internationally. There's a research foundation named after him on the island, and the place now hosts an arts academy and an international university too, so it's gone from a place of confinement to a place of learning. One detail I can't get out of my head - back in the days of the Venetian Republic a prison-ship called the Pubblica Fausta was moored near the Doge's Palace to hold the poorest patients, almost in sight of all that grandeur. You reach San Servolo on line 20 from San Zaccaria.
Where People Actually Live - Giudecca, Sant'Elena, Sant'Erasmo
If you want to see how Venetians live rather than how Venice performs, these are your islands. They're not pretty in the postcard sense, all of them. They're better than that - they're real.
Giudecca - my favourite place to slow down
Giudecca's a long curl of an island just south of the main city, separated from it by the broad Giudecca Canal, and it used to be a heavy industrial area - factories, a big flour mill, working-class housing. The grand old Molino Stucky mill still dominates the skyline, though it's been turned into a hotel now. What I love about Giudecca is the texture of it: secret gardens behind walls, little allotments where people grow tomatoes, and a rougher residential corner called Sacca Fisola that feels a world away from San Marco even though you can see it across the water. Many locals still live and work here, which is exactly why it feels different.
It's also quietly brilliant for eating and drinking. There's a Michelin-starred dining room on the island and a couple of waterfront spots where the Bellini, that peach-and-prosecco cocktail Venice invented, tastes about right at sunset. One rooftop bar here is the highest in the city, with the kind of view that makes you go quiet. For food I'd look for the small family trattorias doing baccalà (salt cod), fresh sardines and a glass of cold prosecco, or a plate of linguine with squid. Take line 2, get off, and just walk the long waterfront. There's no rush on Giudecca, and that's the point.
Sant'Elena - residential and green
Sant'Elena, on the eastern tip of the city, is about as un-touristy as Venice gets. It's mostly flats, a big leafy park called the Parco delle Rimembranze that honours the First World War dead, and - the bit football fans love - the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo, which opened in 1913 and is home to Venezia FC. Watching the local team play in a stadium you reach by boat is a genuinely odd, lovely experience. It's a good island for a quiet walk under the trees when the centre's doing your head in.
Sant'Erasmo - the garden of Venice
People call Sant'Erasmo the garden of Venice, and it earns the name - it's one of the biggest islands in the lagoon and almost all of it is farmland. The famous crop is the castraure artichoke, the tender first cut of the season that, in early spring, Venice restaurants go a bit mad for. There are vineyards out here making crisp lagoon white wine, a stout old fort called the Torre Massimiliana, and a low sandy beach, Bacan, where Venetians anchor their boats in summer. Honestly the best way to see it is to rent a bike (line 13 gets you there) and just pedal between the vegetable plots. A local chef even set up a little farm project here to grow produce for his restaurant back in town, which tells you how seriously the city takes this dirt.
Food and Wine Worth Crossing the Water For
You could plan a whole trip around eating in the lagoon, and I sort of have. The outer islands grow and catch a lot of what makes Venetian food special, so this isn't an afterthought - it's a reason to go.
Mazzorbo and the grape that came back from the dead
Mazzorbo is connected to Burano by a wooden footbridge, and almost nobody crosses it, which is their loss. Behind a set of medieval monastery walls here sits a walled vineyard growing Dorona di Venezia - a golden-skinned grape (dorona comes from d'oro, "of gold") that the Doges used to drink centuries ago.
And here's the story I love. On the 4th of November 1966, Venice had its worst flood on record - the water rose to 194 centimetres and sat there for hours, far longer than a normal high tide. The salt water drowned nearly every vineyard in the lagoon and the Dorona grape was written off as extinct. Then in 2002 a winemaker poking around the gardens of Torcello spotted a handful of surviving vines behind somebody's house, and that small discovery was enough to bring the whole grape back. Now there are only a couple of acres of it on Mazzorbo, producing just a few thousand bottles a year of a deep, salty, golden wine you can't really get anywhere else. The vineyard sits under a 14th-century bell tower with a bell cast in 1318, next to the little Chiesa di Santa Caterina. There's a Green Michelin restaurant attached for its sustainability work, and the kitchen does clever things with the lagoon's invasive blue crab, turning a pest into a tasting-menu star. If you only cross one footbridge in Venice, cross this one.
What I'd actually order around the lagoon
A quick run-down of the dishes worth chasing island to island, because the food really is regional out here:
- Risotto di gò on Burano - that goby-fish risotto, creamy and unmistakably of this place.
- Cicchetti anywhere - little bar bites you eat standing up with a glass of wine. Cheap, social, perfect.
- Castraure artichokes from Sant'Erasmo in early spring, often just fried or in pasta.
- Salt cod (baccalà) and fresh sardines on Giudecca, done the old-fashioned way.
- And to drink - a Bellini, a Dorona if you can find it, a glass of Malvasia, or a crisp Sant'Erasmo white.
The Dark and the Deserted Ones
Not every island in the Venice lagoon is glassblowers and risotto. Some have a much heavier past, and a couple you can't even land on. These are the islands of Venice that the day-trip crowd never sees.
San Michele - the island of the dead
San Michele is Venice's cemetery, a whole walled island given over to the dead, reached on lines 4.1 or 4.2 from Fondamenta Nuove. It became a cemetery in 1826, after Napoleon shut the monasteries, and its church is reckoned to be the first Renaissance church built in Venice. Inside the walls it's all cypress-lined paths and quiet, divided into Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical sections that quietly mirror how mixed the old city really was. Famous names rest here - the poet Ezra Pound, the composer Igor Stravinsky, the physicist Christian Doppler whose effect you've heard of every time an ambulance passes. There's even a striking modern extension by the architect David Chipperfield, all stark clean lines against the old confection. It sounds morbid. It isn't - it's one of the most peaceful spots in the lagoon.
Poveglia - the one you can't visit
Poveglia has a grim reputation as one of the most haunted places in the world, and the history underneath the legend is real enough - it was used as a quarantine station and a dumping ground for plague victims, and later held a hospital. People talk about mass graves and restless spirits. Here's the practical truth though, and I'd save you the disappointment: you can't just hop off a vaporetto and explore it. Poveglia's officially off-limits to the public, so anyone promising to drop you there is in murky territory. Admire it from the water and move on.
The forgotten footnotes
There's a whole scatter of smaller islands that mostly turn up in stories rather than itineraries. Lazzaretto Vecchio was the original quarantine island, where ships waited out the plague (the word "lazaretto" basically comes from places like this). San Francesco del Deserto is a serene little monastery island still home to a handful of friars, and you can sometimes arrange a quiet visit. Others like San Giorgio in Alga and Sant'Ariano are essentially abandoned now. I wouldn't build a trip around these - access is patchy and some need permission - but they're proof of just how many layers this lagoon has.
The Private Resort Islands
A couple of the southern islands have been turned into private resorts, basically whole islands you can have to yourself. San Clemente carries a church first built back in 1131 and is now a sprawling resort with its own restaurant, bar and spa. Isola delle Rose - the island of roses - is another, redone as a green resort retreat a short boat ride from San Marco. You don't reach these on the public vaporetto; they run their own shuttles from the city, or you arrive by water taxi or a booked private boat tour. I wouldn't say you need to stay on one. But if your whole reason for coming is to switch off completely, with nothing but lagoon and quiet around you, this is where I'd look. They suit a honeymoon or a proper escape far more than a first-timer's sightseeing trip.
How I'd Plan a Day or Two of Island-Hopping
So how do you actually string these together without spending your whole trip on boats? Here's roughly how I'd do it.
The classic northern run (one full day). Start early from Fondamenta Nuove and take line 12 straight out, working your way back island by island - Torcello first while it's empty, then over the footbridge from Mazzorbo into Burano for lunch and the coloured houses, then a stop at Murano for the glass on the way home. Going to the far end first and drifting back means you dodge the worst of the crowds. It's a long day, but it's the one I'd never skip.
The quick southern loop (half a day). From San Marco hop line 2 across to San Giorgio Maggiore for that bell-tower view, then carry on to Giudecca for a slow lunch and a wander along the waterfront. You can be back in the centre by late afternoon, and it's a gentle, lovely contrast to the busy north.
If you've got a third day and you want the unusual stuff, that's when I'd pick out San Servolo and San Lazzaro on line 20, or cycle Sant'Erasmo, or pay your respects on San Michele. None of these take a whole day, so you can pair them up. If you're short on time and don't want the planning headache, a small-group or private boat tour with a good tour guide will string the highlights together for you in an afternoon.
A Few Honest Answers
Which Venice island is best?
Depends entirely on you, but if you're making us pick one - Burano for the sheer joy of it, Torcello if you want history and quiet, Giudecca if you want to feel like a local. There's no wrong answer here.
Murano or Burano - if I only have time for one?
Burano, I think, just for the colours and the risotto and the calmer pace. But they're close together, so honestly try to do both - you can chain them on the same line 12 trip.
How many islands is Venice made up of?
The historic city sits on 118 small islands joined by over 400 bridges. Count the wider lagoon and you're well past that, somewhere in the dozens more, depending on how you tally the tiny and abandoned ones. Our lagoon's never been great at round numbers.
Can you actually visit Poveglia?
Not officially, no. It's closed to the public, so you'll have to settle for spotting it from a passing boat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Which island's best for the beach?
Lido di Venezia, no contest - it's the one with real sand and sea, plus the film-festival glamour in September. Sant'Erasmo's little Bacan beach is the local, low-key alternative.
Do I need a guide or special permission for any of them?
For most, no - the vaporetto and your own two feet are plenty. The monastery on San Lazzaro is usually visited with one of the monks, the private resort islands run their own boats, and the abandoned or restricted ones (Poveglia, some of the tiny ones) need permission you probably won't get. Everything in the famous and cultural sections above is open to anyone with a ferry pass.
That's the lagoon as I've come to know it - far bigger, stranger and more rewarding than the day-trippers ever realise. Give the outlying islands the time the main island usually steals, and Venice opens right up.