Lido island is Venice's low-key cousin
By Chris Oliver
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If Venice is the beautiful and cranky countess of the Adriatic, Lido island is her eccentric and noble cousin.
Take some downtime from the bustle of Venice and visit this low-key island, 10 minutes by water bus from the Piazza San Marco. And when you step off the vaporetta at Lido's Santa Maria Elisabetta, hire a bicycle from the outfit directly ahead in the square.
Where Venice is round, Lido is long and narrow. It's a sandbar, less than a mile wide that forms a 9-mile barrier against the open Adriatic Sea.
Eccentric for its confusion of architecture, overshadowed by its showy neighbor, the Lido — from "litus" meaning both shore and entrance — has protected Venice and the lagoon for centuries; it's a formidable link in the arc of sandbars that shield the city from a certain watery doom.
Early seafaring Venetians knew the lagoon's survival depended on these barriers; the earliest laws of the republic forbade cutting the pine trees that anchor their shifting sands.
Today, Lido is perfect to cycle around; you can cover the island in a half-day leisurely ride. You'll still find hundreds of pine trees but across the lagoon, Venice continues slowly to sink.
What to see:
Room rates begin at $460 per night, or you can settle for dinner beneath the elegant Murano glass chandeliers at the hotel's Liberty restaurant. Cyclists, however, may just want to enjoy the view across the beach from the hotel's casual Bar Colony near the swimming pool, open 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily. (Des Bains also appears as the "Cairo" hotel, in Anthony Minghella's 1996 romance, "The English Patient.") Nearby, the Palazzo del Cinema, built in the 1930s, hosts the Venice Film Festival each September.
Reach Chris Oliver at coliver@honoluluadvertiser.com.
