The lagoon and its islands

Venice, as is well known, lies on the lagoon which takes its name. Taking its name from the Venetian island, it could only draw on its grandeur and simply be the largest lagoon in the Mediterranean Sea. The lagoon and its millenary origin seem to have done everything to prepare, century after century, millennium after millennium, all the conditions for the birth of the most courageous and amazing urban work in the world, namely Venice. In the territories where the Venetian lagoon now shines, 6000 years ago, there was a plain made up of sediments transported by rivers such as Brenta and Piave. Over the centuries, the phenomena of lowering of the ground and the raising of the sea level led to the flooding of a large part of the previous land that emerged, leaving on the surface, those lands that would later become the Venetian islands, and Venice itself. The lagoon is therefore made up of emerged lands, islands, and then sandbanks which are nothing more than areas of land on the water’s surface covered with green and salt-resistant vegetation. In the intrigue made up of emerged lands, islets and sandbanks, there are dozens of more or less deep navigable canals, which are delimited by the presence of briccole, or large wooden poles driven into the ground. The lagoon is divided from the open sea by the shores or long sandy strips. The exit from the lagoon towards the open sea is permitted by the inlets, which in the Venetian lagoon are present in Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia. The most important islets, ancestrally created by the lagoon evolution, allowed, through their union, the birth of Venice, while the other emerged lands created the current Venetian islands. There are more than 70 islands around Venice whose name is known and the most famous are undoubtedly Murano, Burano and Torcello. When you leave Venice to visit its most important islands, you don’t really know what to expect. Having visited a magical place that fills you completely, you are afraid of finding yourself in front of the disappointment of something not up to par and instead the Venetian islands, with their characteristics and their uniqueness, with their bright colours and graces, with their incredible atmospheres, manage to make you open your eyes again and startle you.