To explore some of the more famous islands of the Venetian Lagoon, we bought the vaporetto day pass & caught a public ferry from Venezia Santa Lucia railway station to our first stop: Murano. Famous for glass making dating back to 1291, when all the Venetian glassmakers were forced to move to Murano due to fire risks. The island became famous for glass beads and mirrors, Aventurine glass was invented on the island, and for a while Murano was the main producer of glass in Europe. Glass making is still the island's main industry. The next island, Torcello was an important political and trading centre in the 10th century but when the lagoon around the island became a swamp from the 12th century onwards bringing malaria-carrying mosquitos, most of the population abandoned the island. Today the islands main attraction is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, (founded in 639), the 11th century Church of Santa Fosca, an ancient stone chair, known as Attila’s Throne. Our last island stop, Burano is known for its lacework and brightly coloured homes. It rose in importance in the 16th century, when women began making lace with needles. Leonardo da Vinci visited in 1481 and purchased a cloth for the main altar of the Duomo di Milano. The lace was soon being exported across Europe, but trade began to decline in the 18th century. Few now make lace in the traditional manner as it is extremely time-consuming and therefore expensive. Returning by ferry to Venice City, we had a stopover at Fondamente Nove to visit the Gesuiti church of Venice. The facade has statues of the twelve apostles whilst inside, the ceilings are adorned with frescoes painted by Ludovico Dorigny and Francesco Fontebasso and there’s a painting by Titian. The altar was designed by the Jesuit father Giuseppe Pozzo.