Mazzorbo

Mazzorbo lies immediately west of Burano, joined to it by a long wooden footbridge, and the contrast across that bridge is the reason to cross it. Burano is crowded; Mazzorbo, a few minutes' walk away, is orchards, vegetable plots and quiet.

It was once a substantial lagoon town -- the name is generally read as Maiurbium, the greater city -- and it declined as Venice rose. What remains is a single street, a handful of houses and a great deal of open ground.

Two things are worth the walk: the church of Santa Caterina, whose bell was cast in 1318, and the walled vineyard at Venissa, replanted with a native grape that the 1966 flood nearly finished off.

Mazzorbo is residential and agricultural, with a very small population. It has no tourism infrastructure and does not want the volume Burano gets -- visit quietly and keep off the private plots.

The walled gardens along the fondamenta are people's land, not public space.

Eating or buying here rather than only on Burano spreads a little of that island's very concentrated visitor spending onto one that gets almost none.

Use the public vaporetto or walk from Burano. Private boats add wash to channels that are already eroding the salt marsh across the northern lagoon.

Mazzorbo is reached by vaporetto line 12 from Fondamente Nove, about forty minutes, stopping at Mazzorbo just before Burano. You can also simply walk over the Ponte Longo from Burano in a few minutes, which most people do.

There is nothing ticketed and no admission anywhere on the island.

Santa Caterina keeps limited and irregular hours; the vineyard and its restaurant are open seasonally and the restaurant needs booking.

Allow an hour, or longer with lunch. It combines naturally with Burano and Torcello on the same trip.

The island is flat and the fondamenta is level, so it is easier going than most of Venice; the wooden bridge has a gentle slope rather than steps.