Il Doge di Venezia

Il Doge di Venezia is a Venice-based tour operator offering boat excursions across the lagoon and its outlying islands. Taking its name from the Doge, the title held by the elected chief magistrate who governed the Venetian Republic for over a thousand years, the company connects visitors to the waterways and communities that shaped one of Europe's most distinctive cities.

Among its current offerings is a boat tour departing from Punta Sabbioni that takes in the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Murano has been the centre of Venetian glassmaking since the late thirteenth century, when the Republic ordered its furnaces relocated there to reduce fire risk on the main island; the tour includes a live glass-blowing demonstration. Burano is known for its brightly painted fishermen's houses and its tradition of handmade lace, while Torcello, the oldest settled island in the lagoon, is home to the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, whose Byzantine mosaics date to the eleventh century.