From the sea to the sand dunes, the reed beds in the shallows of the lagoon fish hatcheries, from dawn to dusk, it is a long, slender strip of land pulsing with life. This is Pellestrina, a narrow eleven kilometre-long barrier suspended between sea and lagoon and protected from the raging waters by one of the sturdiest sea defences that the Venetian Republic was able to put up in the 18th century to safeguard the city: the murazzi (seawalls). This artificial rock-fill seawall, straight edged on the lagoon side and sloping downwards on the Adriatic side, was constructed with rough-hewn blocks of Istrian stone extending for a stretch of about twenty kilometres along the natural littoral that defends the artistic, cultural and economic heritage centred on Venice.
With this heavy armour the littoral guards its small fishing villages, places full of sounds, echoes, voices over the turbid lagoon waters: San Pietro in Volta, Portosecco (an ancient port now silted up), and the cart tracks of San Antonio and Pellestrina.
Easy enough to reach, the Pellestrina Lido extends from the Port of Malamocco to Port of Chioggia. The name probably derives from the 3rd century Fosse Filistine, excavated to connect the River Adige to the Lagoon of Adria. The island was populated when mainland dwellers fleeing the Longobard invaders arrived there, but the location was not to be spared in the bloody 'War of Chioggia' between Venice and Genoa, won in 1379 by the Venetians.
An island of market gardens and small coloured houses it is a pearl of nature and human ingenuity; a richly fascinating place where there is still a close relation between man and the lagoon, and where thriving activities are carried out in the delicate ecosystem: hunting, fishing, agriculture, and tourism. Little wonder that there are still housewives - though few - sitting outside their homes working the pillow-lace on their jiggling bolsters surrounded by deep and forgotten fragrances, beside the endless lagoon from which to admire the heart-rendering sunsets.
Here village life displays the cultural characteristics typical of island folk and rooted in the distant past. In truth, the population here is a repository of that Venetian identity - or Venetian-ness that elsewhere is fading away. From this timeless place we visitors can set out on charmingly relaxing bicycle rides, perhaps at sunset, when the sun descends and the surface of the water seems to wink at us. We deliberately leave it to each visitor to discover the amazing views of the route alternating between the panoramic seawall path or the main road along the centre, or wandering the narrow lanes and along stretches overlooking the lagoon side.
Then, beyond the Pellestrina cemetery you pedal for about a kilometre along the imposing seawall just a few metres from the sea as far as the Lido of Ca' Roman, the green space of the island, that opens up onto 40 hectares of beach, dunes and vegetation. This is the last refuge of many species of flora and fauna: a pine grove turned into a natural oasis, now protected because of its strong ecological interest, dwelling place of two species of birds in particular - the plover and the little tern, which have found their ideal habitat at Ca' Roman.
