Lovely Lido

Yesterday was glorious, so I took a trip to Lido, the beach island of Venice. It is only about 15 mins by water bus, so a nice afternoon trip. Really it is a sand bar that separates the Adriatic from the lagoon Venice is in. Lido is currently home to the Venice Film Festival that takes places every Sept. and attracts big Hollywood types.



History wise it was one of the places that people could camp before they went through immigration to get in to Venice. In 1202 before the 4th Crusade ten's of thousands of French crusaders had to camp out there because they couldn't pay for the ships they needed. And in true wine-country style Venice and France said, "Screw the Crusade, let's go kick ass in Constantinople and steal all there stuff." Well, that is the laymen version of the story.



Today Lido is very contemporary with hotels, tourist stuff, and until recently a casino (which actually is about 2 minutes from my school now). Look, they even have cars and bikes! Can't find either of those in Venice proper.

The beach is convenient. That is all I ever need in one. After a nice tan I went around to see all the contemporary art around. Venice itself as all kinds of laws about preserving the authenticity of city, so finding permanent exterior sculptures has been tricky.

Ah Lovely Lido, I do adore.