Lido di Venezia

The Lido, or Venice Lido, is an barrier island in the Venetian Lagoon, Northern Italy; it is home to about 20,400 residents. The Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido late August/early September. Geography The Lido island is one of the two barrier islands of the Lagoon of Venice; the other is Pellestrina. They form the central part of the coastline of the lagoon on the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula of Cavallino/Punta Sabbioni forms the northern part and the peninsula of Sottomarina forms the southern part. The sea has access to the lagoon through three inlets between the islands and between the islands and the peninsulas. At the northern end of Lido there is the Lido inlet which separates it from Cavallino/Punta Sabbioni and at the southern end there is the Malamocco inlet which separates it from Pellestrina. These two inlets have been dredged to a greater depth to allow big ships through. The Malamocco inlet is the deepest one and is used by container ships and oil tankers to reach the commercial and industrial port of Marghera. The Lido inlet is the widest one (c.1 km) and is used by cruise ships to reach Venice. Lido is a long and narrow island which gets wider in its northern tract. At least half the seaward coast has sandy beaches. Much of the beach at the town of Lido belongs to various hotels. There are large public beaches towards the northern and southern ends. The island is home to a town and a village. The town is in the north. It is also called Lido (population 15,128 in 2019). It has four neighbourhoods: San Nicolò and Santa Maria Elisabetta are on the lagoon side coast (the landing stage for the Venice ferry is in the former and the one for the water bus is in the latter), while La Favorita and Quattro Fontaine are on the seaward coast. It developed in the 19th century as a tourist centre, both as a leisure seaside resort and as a balneotherapy resort. It has many 19th century villas built in Liberty style (the Italian version of Art Nouveau) and many hotels. It is famous for being the seat of the Venice Film Festival and for its grand hotels, such as the Grand Hotel des Bains, the Hotel Excelsior. and the Hotel Ausonia & Hungaria which have hosted celebrities, artists and writers, major businessmen, politicians and royalty. The Gran Viale Santa Maria Elisabetta (27 m wide and c. 700 m long) crosses the town from coast to coast and links the water bus landing stage to the beach.