Our islands

Pellestrina: arts and no time traditions

The island where the time flows at the rythm of the sea

Pellestrina

Small coloured villages, set between the blue of the North Adriatic Sea and the green of the Venice Lagoon, garden after coloured houses with no letting up side by side with wild beaches marked off from the Ca’ Roman Naturalistic Oasis: welcome to Pellestrina.

An Island where the time seems to have stopped between history, traditions and local specificities.

The history of this island begins in the Middle Ages, but it was only on the XIV century that the families came from Venice and the Mainland to devote theirselves to activities related, above all, to the sea.

To get to know and understand the soul and the history of this Island, we suggest you to visit the Little South Lagoon Museum that is full of anecdotes and curiosities.

A tourist destination to visit in complete relaxation, strolling through “campi” and “campielli”, where even today you can find fishermen busy sewing fishing nets and women busy working on lace pillows to create precious laces (here, some years ago, for the Venice Biennale, the world longest lace has been sewed).

The visit can be crowned with Pellestrina’s original cuisine, which stands out for its unique identities and taste in the territory.

From the Lagoon the Island appears like colours, and typical boats anchored to shores, are following each other…and you can just reserve a visit of the Lagoon, tasting “cicchetti” floating among calm waters waiting for the sunset, when the different natural lights illuminate Pellestrina.

It is the moment of the promise, the promise of return: the magic of this place will induce you to come back.

Once upon a time

Arts and no time traditions

Pellestrina tells, amazes and excites. Not only for the breathtaking colors of sunsets, for the shades of the sea or an authentic and genuine cuisine but also for the traditions of the past.
Walking through calli and campielli it’s easy to see a “merlettaia”(lace maker): the lace tecnique is handed down from mother to daugther, from generations. The same goes for fishing nets, a tradition passed down from uncles and fathers to sons and nephews.
In the “Piccolo Museo della Laguna Sud” you can find evidences of the defense from the sea at the time of the Serenissima and evidences of the “Acqua Granda”, the great flood of 1966.

If you talk with the locals, you’ll discover that they have the same last names: Busetto, Scarpa, Vianello and Zennaro while belonging to different families.