LIDO DI VENEZIA

Description

Essentials about the Lido di Venezia in brief

Thomas Mann lovers and film fans will be familiar with this island: The Lido di Venezia (Lido of Venice). After all, the Lido is the setting for Mann’s famous novel “Death in Venice” and the venue of the world-famous Venice Film Festival. But lovers of luxury hotels and beachcombers will also find their happiness on the Lido di Venezia. Since the 19th century, the Lido has been the fashionable seaside resort of Venice, with numerous luxurious accommodations and the largest and most beautiful beaches around the city.

The location of the Lido di Venezia

The Lido di Venezia (from Latin “litus” meaning “beach, coast”) is a middle spit off the coast of Venice that stretches from Chioggia in the southwest to Jesolo in the northeast and separates the Venetian Lagoon from the open Adriatic Sea. Together with the island of Pellestrina to the south and the Cavallino headland to the north, the Lido forms the outer limit of the Venetian Lagoon. The 11-kilometer-long island has an area of only four square kilometers and about 20,000 inhabitants.

The attractions of the Lido di Venezia

The side of the Lido facing the Adriatic Sea consists of more than half sandy beach, which is partly public and partly private. The rest of the coastline is fortified with large Istrian stones, the so-called “murazzi”. These were shipped across the Adriatic in the days of the Republic of Venice and piled up on the coast to protect it from erosion. The beaches on the Lido are the most important bathing places for Venetians and tourists, since the (smaller) beaches on the other islands of the Venetian Lagoon are much more difficult to reach.

Unlike most of the other islands in the Venetian Lagoon, the Lido has car and bus traffic. The heart of the island is Gran Viale Santa Maria Elisabetta, a wide street about 700 meters long that leads from the lagoon on one side to the sea on the other. Along the Gran Viale there are many hotels, stores and restaurants.