Kayaking Venice and the Laguna

Our Venetian adventure begins on the very colorful island of Burano that can be reached by Vaporetto ferry from Venice’s Santa Lucia Railway Station and by Alilaguna line or water taxi from Marco Polo Airport (VCE). We’ll enjoy a welcome aperitivo and discuss trip details before dining at an open-air restaurant.

After breakfast, our first stop is a remiera (or rowing club) in Burano. The Burano Remiera comprises mostly former professional gondoliers devoted to preserving and perpetuating the art of Venetian rowing. We are welcomed as fellow paddlers and will receive an overview of the history of rowing in the Laguna. We’ll also learn some of the special vocabulary the gondoliers use to communicate while paddling the narrow canals. After a kayak orientation we’ll paddle the canals of Burano and the channels of the adjacent island of Mazzorbetto, all the while developing skills to use while navigating the canals of Venice proper. Tonight we’ll have dinner at a beautiful canal-side restaurant.

We launch our kayaks and paddle through the myriad tiny islands of the northern Laguna. Our silent kayaks allow us to approach and view the variety of birdlife in this rich Barene wetland environment. A lunch stop at the tiny outlying village of Lio Piccolo allows us to stretch our legs and imagine living in the tranquility of outer Laguna. Returning to Burano for the late afternoon sun lighting up the village and a paddle through the canals that are a riot of reflected colors.

Setting off, we’ll once again go north in the Laguna and explore the island of Torcello, a favorite haunt of Ernest Hemingway during his days in Venice. Landing, we’ll visit the church of Santa Maria Assunta, which contains the earliest surviving mosaics in the Laguna, some of which date back to the 11th century. Returning to Burano by a different route, we will continue to polish our canal paddling skills.

After packing up and arranging our luggage for transfer, we depart Burano and point our bows toward Venice. Following the lines of three posted briccoli channel markers, we’ll paddle past San Erasmo island, the “Garden of Venice,”. The iconic skyline of Venice is tantalizingly close, and it’s not long before we’re paddling past the Arsenale and through a canal in the Venetian sestiere of Castello and entering the basin of the Canal Grande. We are met with a panorama that includes Piazza San Marco, the Salute church and the cathedral and campanile (tower) on San Giorgio de Maggiore, our destination. Our luggage awaits us in the waterfront rooms of the Compagnia della Vela Venezia, one of the oldest yacht clubs in Italy. After a shower, we’ll take the elevator to the top of the campanile for the best view of Venice before boarding a Vaporetto ferry across to San Marco and dinner in one of our favorite local restaurants.

Launching from the ramp conveniently adjacent to our rooms at the yacht club, we’ll paddle along part of the sixth sestiere of Venice, Giudecca. Peaceful, working-class, and somewhat bohemian, Giudecca has great views of the city and the islands of the southern lagoon. Crossing the Giudecca canal, we’ll enter the San Polo and Dorsoduro sestieri, which features, among other things, a gondola workshop built in the style typical of the Dolomites. Returning to Isola San Giorgio in the early evening, there will be time to relax, have a shower, and perhaps a glass of wine before catching the Vaporetto ferry to dinner.

Once again, we cross the basin of the Canal Grande and, with the best light, pass into the canal by the Doge’s Palace and under the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs, and explore the Castello and Cannaregio sestieri as well as the Arsenale, where for over seven hundred years much of Venice’s naval power and economic wealth was manufactured. Heading in the direction of the Lido, one of the outer islands that define the Laguna, we navigate around the island of San Servolo, once a Benedictine monastery and now a university and museum, before continuing to San Lazzaro degli Armeni, home to Armenian monks that maintain a library that famously Lord Byron would row across to use while he was residing in Venice during the early 1800s. Returning to the club on San Giorgio, we can shower and change before crossing to Venice. This afternoon and evening, you are free to discover the city and have dinner on your own.

Crossing the Castello district of the city by canal, we will pass the cemetery island of San Michele before reaching Murano, the famed home of Venetian glass. For centuries the furnaces that enabled this Venetian art were considered far too dangerous to be housed in the city itself and were kept at a safe distance on Murano. After exploring Murano’s canals, we’ll stop for a demonstration of glass blowing in the Venetian style. After returning to San Giorgio de Maggiore, the will be time to relax before going out for a celebratory final dinner in Venice.

After breakfast, your guides will assist with onward travel starting from San Giorgio de Maggiore. Transferring to the Santa Lucia train station or anywhere else in Venice is accessible with your Vaporetto ferry pass. At the same time, Marco Polo Airport can be reached by the Allilaguna ferries or private taxi boat. Arrivederci!