The Cavallino Treporti Peninsula

Slow-paced itineraries between the sea and the Lagoon, discovering nature and archaeology

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Arriving in Cavallino Treporti is a cathartic experience. The feeling is leaving dry land and reaching a finisterre (the end of the world) like, when riding a bike, you take your feet off the ground and try to keep your balance, as you were walking on a tightrope. Here, we talk about the balance of a strip of land nearby Venice, floating between sea and river, sandbanks, embankments, and dunes. About 30 km from Noventa di Piave, the tourist park of Cavallino Treporti is a sort of small other dimension, although it is not that far away from main centres: it’s four hours from Milan, two hours or more from Bologna or Trieste.

Everything would make one think of an island separated from the world, but actually there is a bridge connecting it to Jesolo and therefore to the inland.

So, Cavallino Treporti is the peninsula that stretches between Lio Piccolo, Punta Sabbioni – which is the gateway to Venice – and the Sile River, and is a slow-paced universe for walking or, better still, cycling. It appears incredibly wilder if one doesn’t visit it in summer, although it is the perfect place to perform the ‘rituals’ of sun creams and sunbathing on the beach, for children’s game and caravan-camper-tent-bungalow style holidays, so loved by northern Europeans.

And indeed, it is no small feat to be among the top destinations in Europe and in Italy for open-air tourism and seaside vocation, with a sandy beach extending for 15 km.

Following an increasing demand for open-air holidays and for ecology and sustainability, some innovative solutions are currently proposed in the Lagoon. No awful cement constructions, but lovely terraced houses. Moreover, ample use of soft mobility means, a bathing environment which earned the Blue Flag for its quality, and an ecosystem that manages to offer the best in fruit and vegetable production: historically these lands were the ‘garden’ of the wealthy Venice, with farmers selling their products in the Rialto area.

Avoiding the crowded tourist season, in October and November you can truly enjoy and explore Cavallino, that in these months is even more fascinating and languid, more impalpable in its suspended nature: it’s sea but without summer, a Lagoon but without Venice.

Here are some suggested itineraries of the peninsula.

The Via del Respiro cycle path from Cavallino to Punta Sabbioni

The very idea of taking the new cycle path overhanging the Lagoon, which once completed will be 20 km long, the longest and most scenic in Europe, from Cavallino to Punta Sabbioni, and today is about 3 km from Cavallino to Ca’ Ballarin, is a dream. And it is not a metaphor, it’s all true. The Via del Respiro – that’s its name – at times runs over the water with a steel structure and wooden beams that is an elegant walkway with views of the islands of Burano and Sant’Erasmo, and a panorama of the Lido and the Venice skyline. Standing on it looks like the very long pier of a ship, as you were on a cruise along the Pordelio canal crossing the heart of the northern Lagoon, with the possibility of riding along it even at night thanks to a LED lighting system.

Archaeological and Sunset Itinerary, from Punta Sabbioni to Lio Piccolo

To make your journey even more special, you have to start from Punta Sabbioni, ride along the S. Felice waterfront in the Venice Lagoon and lengthen your pace or ride after Saccagnana, entering the barena area. This is a land traversed by small canals, the so-called ‘ghebi’; enjoying an almost perfect silence, where the bicycle dominates. From here you pass through Le Mesole, a tiny village known for its vegetable gardens and the Convent, where you can still hear (at least in your heart) the liturgical chants of the small late 14th century oratory. A no man’s land atmosphere invites you to continue and turn towards the village of Lio Piccolo, a sort of ‘Cape Horn’ of the Lagoon where everything seems to end. Instead, here archaeological excavations have recently uncovered a Roman structure, similar to a villa, used as a market and a fish farm, adding a new attraction to the enchanting Palazzetto Boldù, which at the end of the 18th century belonged to a noble Venetian family. And next to it is a small church devoted to the Madonna della Neve. Now you can go back, and better if you do so when the sun comes down and you can admire the breath-taking silhouette of the Lagoon at sunset.

On the Trails of War: The Forts Route

You don’t even need Google Maps to recognise the traces left by the two World Wars: all you need is a bit of spirit of adventure and to look around. Because in fact there are military structures (the so called batterie), forts, barracks, bunkers, and powder magazines built between 1845 and 1917. These strange presences characterise the Lagoon in an environment, surrounded by greenery, that has nothing of the sinister atmosphere of war. Thus, in Cavallino Treporti curiosity about military heritage is another excellent reason for exploration.

Near the Pordelio canal, for example, you can see fourteen telemetry towers, vertical constructions six or seven storeys high that were used to detect enemy ships.

And then you can walk along Via dei Forti (Forts Route) which is an open-air route that aims to connect the most important coastal batterie, including the three ones built at the beginning of World War I. These forts were meant to defend Venice from possible attacks by sea: equipped with cannons with a range of 20 km, they were actually particularly active in destroying the bridges over the Piave River to slow down the advance of the Austrian troops. Among them, the Batteria Redaelli, now incorporated in a tourist village, the Batteria San Marco, one of the best preserved, the Batteria Amalfi, armed with a revolving tower and two cannons. Finally, the Batteria Vettor Pisani is the heart of the route as the recently restored bunker houses the Vettor Pisani Museum, where precious objects and artefacts from World War I are on display.