Torcello’s Santa Fosca was built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries for the body of the martyred Saint Fosca, brought to Torcello from Libya some time before 1011 and now resting under the altar. A dome was planned to cap the martyrium but was never built, perhaps because of the desertion of the Greek builders who alone possessed the secret of constructing a self-supporting dome. Though much restored, the church retains the Greek-cross form and a fine exterior apse; the bare interior, with beautiful marble columns and elegant brick arches, exudes a calmness which no number of visitors can quite destroy.

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Santa Fosca is open the same hours as Santa Maria.

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In the square outside sits the curious chair of Attila , perhaps once the throne of Torcello’s judges in its early days; local folklore has it that if you sit in it, you will be wed within a year. Behind it, the well laid-out Museo di Torcello includes thirteenth-century beaten gold figures, jewellery, mosaic fragments (including pieces from the cathedral’s Last Judgement , in which the hands of several artists can be distinguished) and a mish-mash of pieces relating to the history of the area.

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The Museo di Torcello is open April- Oct Tues-Sun 10.30am-5pm, Nov-March 10am-4.30pm; L3000/1.55.

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A major archeological survey of the island was carried out by a Polish team in the 1960s, but once in a while someone finds a pot shard while wandering off to look for a picnic spot. And anything more ambitious than a picnic is really not on - there are a couple of bars near the parapet-less Ponte del Diavolo, but the restaurants are overpriced - especially the one owned by the Cipriani .