Daytime flight from London and regional airports to Venice. Transfer by coach from the airport to Venice, and then on by boat to our accommodation in Venice, the Casa Cardinale Piazza (a religious guesthouse), situated in the historical centre of Venice. Check in for a four-night stay. Dinner will be either in the guesthouse or in a local restaurant on each night of our stay.

After breakfast, we walk through a maze of streets to meet our tour guide at one of the gems of Venice – Santa Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari, the second-largest church in Venice, founded by the Franciscan order in 1250. Amongst the famous buried here is the composer, Monteverdi. The Frari church contains some of the greatest examples of religious art in Venice, including Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin, Donatello’s St John the Baptist and Bellini’s Madonna and Child with Saints. We will spend some time here in order to enjoy what could be argued to be the jewel in Venice’s crown. Our second organised visit will be to the baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute, towering over the entrance to the Grand Canal, built in thanksgiving after the Plague of 1630 had ended. The rest of the day will be at leisure.

Today we walk the short distance to St Mark’s Square, to the Great Basilica, which was built in the 11th Century to house the body of Venice’s patron saint, St Mark the Evangelist. In the afternoon there will be a guided tour of the Basilica before time at leisure to walk through the labyrinth of streets, bridges and canals or take a boat to the Island of Murano with its glass showrooms, as well as the churches of San Pietro Maria and SS Maria e Donato.

Today we travel out by boat into the lagoon to visit some of the inhabited northern islands. San Francesco del Deserto is so named because St Francis of Assisi landed here on his way back from the Middle East in 1220 and founded a sanctuary. A small Franciscan community still lives here today and we will be able to visit the small medieval church and enjoy the great peace and tranquillity of this special place. The first cathedral of Venice was built on the island of Torcello in the 7th century and although there are few inhabitants today, in the 14th century there were nearly 20,000 people living here! Today, Torcello is quiet but its beautiful cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption is definitely worth the visit. Burano in contrast to Torcello is still very much a working island, where many of the men still depend on fishing and some of the women still practise lace making, and the brightly coloured houses lend it its own particular character. There will be an optional lunch in Burano at £19 per person.

During the morning, transfer by coach to the airport for our return flight to the U.K.