Description
The Lido di Venezia is a long, thin island, about twelve kilometers, between the lagoon and the Adriatic. It is Venice's place for a day of sea and golden sand, a strip of dunes and beach clubs on the other side of the lagoon, reached by vaporetto.
The seaward side is made up of dune-backed beaches and beach clubs with their typical colorful cabins, each in the colors of its own bathing establishment. Breakwaters and groynes keep the water calm. On the lagoon side, life is quieter. The fine sand and the dunes are what turned the island into a famous seaside resort in the late 19th century.
The Lido is one of the few islands in the lagoon where cars are allowed. Among the Art Nouveau villas, two hotels stand out, the Hotel des Bains (1900) and the Hotel Excelsior (1908), which made the Lido the "Golden Island."
The Venice Film Festival is held here too, at the Palazzo del Cinema. Visconti shot Death in Venice here, and Leone part of Once Upon a Time in America.
Don't miss, in the south, the dunes of Alberoni, wilder and far from the beach clubs. In the north is the church of San Nicolò, founded in 1044 and rebuilt in the 17th century. The Murazzi are the great 18th-century walls that protect the coast from the sea.
For centuries it was an island of vegetable gardens and forts. From here, in 1202, the Fourth Crusade set out, which ended up in Constantinople instead of the Holy Land. Then, in the late 19th century, the fashion for sea bathing arrived and everything changed.
In 1957 a beach lunch of fried fish and champagne was the first meeting between Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas. Goethe saw the sea for the first time here, and Byron and Thomas Mann passed through.
The first connection was a horse-drawn tram in 1872, later replaced by an electric tram and trolleybuses. Today you get here by vaporetto or by the ferries that also carry cars.
The seaward side is made up of dune-backed beaches and beach clubs with their typical colorful cabins, each in the colors of its own bathing establishment. Breakwaters and groynes keep the water calm. On the lagoon side, life is quieter. The fine sand and the dunes are what turned the island into a famous seaside resort in the late 19th century.
The Lido is one of the few islands in the lagoon where cars are allowed. Among the Art Nouveau villas, two hotels stand out, the Hotel des Bains (1900) and the Hotel Excelsior (1908), which made the Lido the "Golden Island."
The Venice Film Festival is held here too, at the Palazzo del Cinema. Visconti shot Death in Venice here, and Leone part of Once Upon a Time in America.
Don't miss, in the south, the dunes of Alberoni, wilder and far from the beach clubs. In the north is the church of San Nicolò, founded in 1044 and rebuilt in the 17th century. The Murazzi are the great 18th-century walls that protect the coast from the sea.
For centuries it was an island of vegetable gardens and forts. From here, in 1202, the Fourth Crusade set out, which ended up in Constantinople instead of the Holy Land. Then, in the late 19th century, the fashion for sea bathing arrived and everything changed.
In 1957 a beach lunch of fried fish and champagne was the first meeting between Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas. Goethe saw the sea for the first time here, and Byron and Thomas Mann passed through.
The first connection was a horse-drawn tram in 1872, later replaced by an electric tram and trolleybuses. Today you get here by vaporetto or by the ferries that also carry cars.