Even on a tight schedule, Torcello earns the hours.
Allow 2–3 hr incl. transit.
Once the lagoon's main settlement, now near-deserted marshland with a single road, Torcello holds a 7th-century cathedral whose Byzantine mosaics rival St Mark's with almost no one watching — Hemingway loved its melancholy quiet. The catch: it's the furthest island, there's very little to 'do', and visitors expecting Burano's colour find a handful of buildings and a lot of reeds.