Torcello, Venice · Travel Poster

Each poster comes with a letter home. Ella writes about the place and its hidden history, and the details that never makes it into the guidebooks.

Long before Venice was Venice, Torcello was the powerhouse of the lagoon, a thriving city of up to twenty thousand people, richer and more important than its now-famous neighbour. No war ever brought it down. Its harbour silted up, its canals turned stagnant, and malaria settled in and never really left, so the population simply drained away, year after year, until only a scattering of houses remained. Wander the island today and you can still sit on Attila's Throne, an ancient stone seat where legend insists the Hun once held court, though it was probably just an old council chair for Torcello's own officials.

This poster is an original illustration in watercolour and ink, painted exclusively for the Ella's Adventures travel poster series.

No frame included.