Cruising the Venice Lagoon

Did you know that Venice is just one tiny island amongst many in a broad coastal lagoon? It must be many a sailor’s dream to sail to Venice, but actually it’s the surrounding area that makes a cruising holiday here so magical.

Venice in fact is just three miles by one and a half miles, and most of its canals are just about wide enough for two gondolas to pass. You’re not allowed up the Grand Canal itself – even the locals who are permitted to do so baulk at the prospect – but there are swarms of gondolas waiting to take you and your wallet wherever you want to go.

Instead, what you can do is spend an idyllic week travelling round the Venetian Lagoon, visiting the many other islands that dot its tranquil waters. This is exactly what we did, with two other couples, when we rented a 43ft Crusader motorboat from Le Boat in early October

We collected our vessel from their base at Casale, north of Venice, where the temperature was a pleasant 20°, rather