The Italian Touring Club (Keltouring), organizes from spring until autumn boat trips in the northern lagoon of Venice , between sandbanks, islands and ancient settlements. It is a little voyage into the past, a day to spend on board of a ‘bragozzo’ (typical venetian flat-bottomed sailboat, ), in harmony with the rythms of water and the sinuosity of the proposed route.

This route that starts from Venice, touches the touristic centres of Murano, Burano and Torcello, pauses in the islands of San Francesco del Deserto and Lazzaretto Nuovo, then winds between canals, sandbanks and cultivated lands, is also an occasion to think about the importance of the lagoon environment and on the fragility of its balance. The proposal made by the Touring Club is “‘to go by water’”, an invitation in order to make it possible that aboard of the boat there is always a patient and curious traveller. The route is really interesting both in its archeological and historical aspects, and in the naturalistic and environmental ones. Going through the places of the first human settlements in the lagoon, through ruins and lost islands, it will be possible to observe the different characteristic aspects of this special kind of natural environment: the fishing valleys, the marshes, the sandbanks, the fluvial environment of the ancient mouths of the river Sile, the cultivated lands of the S. Erasmo island and the sea-environment of the port mouths (that is to say the ‘“communication channels”’ between the Adriatic sea and the lagoon of Venice). In a city where the roads run along the straight-lined horizon of the hasty tourist, and the lagoon is seen as an accessory, there is a dominant element that imposes a rhythm of its own, never influenced by hurry: the water. Indeed, as Josif Brodskij said, ‘“to travel by water, also if only for short distances, has always something primordial”’. ‘“Water desdains the notion of shape, discusses the principle of horizontality, breaks up the floors and shapes of buildings, twisting, striking, retwisting and crushing beauty, until it brings it, almost intact, into the open Adriatic sea.”’ In order to understand Venice as a whole, you need to look at it from the water, and not just from the Grand Canal water, but also from the lagoon. Only this strange and fascinating angle shot allows to understand the statement of the Venetian poet Mario Stefani: “If Venice would not have its bridge, Europe would be an island’”. Is it mere polycentric selfishness?

Dates: from spring until autumn Prices: 140 € (with a minimum of 8 persons). Prices include boat trip, lunch, visits and insurance. For informations and bookings: Keltouring, booking office, tel. +39 041-23.85.711