Tusker 8: La Serenissima ...

Bologna is much nearer to Venice than Barga is, so a quick trip seemed only sensible - especially since Italy's weather had taken a turn for the better.

This time, we visited the island of Torcello, which is about an hour's boat ride across the lagoon to the north. Torcello was the first island of Venice to be colonised as the Roman-era local people fled from the invasion of Attila the Hun in 452AD. At its height it held a city of many thousands, but eventually they all deserted Torcello to settle in the even more remote area around Rialto. Today the island has only a dozen or so people, and the buildings are nearly all gone except for two medieval churches. The older of these, the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, 639AD, has magnificent Byzantine mosaics, the earliest in the Venice archipelago.

On the way back, we visited the island of Burano - as noted for its lace-making as its neighbour Murano is for its glassmaking.

We revisited the Arsenale (ancient shipyards) on the main island of Venice. Here we saw the great lion sculptures looted in the 17th century by the Venetians. The largest of these - the Piraeus Lion - is defaced by a runic inscription done by members of the Varangian Guard - Scandinavian soldiers in the service of Byzantium (Constantinople) in medieval times. The inscription is now much eroded by time and weather.

Venice was busier than perhaps we have ever seen it - it was still holiday time - but, as ever, it was still possible to enjoy peace and quiet by straying off the beaten tracks. Superficially, there was no evidence of the exceptionally high tides in November, although several cafe owners indicated that they were still sorting things out behind the scenes.

Last week, the BBC website carried photos of an extremely low tide which left some Venice canals a string of muddy puddles! And we think there are "no tides" in the Mediterranean ...