One day for discovering islets bent for agriculture in the north lagoon, that still to this day supply a great deal of city markets. From Vignole to Sant'Erasmo, the “vegetable gardens of Serenissima” on Lazzaretto Nuovo which offers its visitors considerable hints of naturalistic and landscape interest.

Let’s start our journey in the northern lagoon of Venice by discovering two islands, not far away from the city historic centre, nicknamed respectively island “of the dead” and island “of the flames”: island-cemetery of  San Michele and Murano, the island of the furnaces.

The first stop of the itinerary is St Erasmo, an island of ancient farm and fishing tradition. Before the building of two jetties at the end of the 19th century brought a sound change of the morphology of the lagoon inlets, the island marked the boundary between the lagoon and the sea, as shown by the still existing signs. In the 19th century Massimilana Tower was built.

This excursion of interest, not only landscape but also ethnographic and cultural, will lead you to the historic, artistic and popular heart of the north lagoon that offers itself to a visitor, revealing itself in multiple and contradictory aspects of its actual reality. A suggestive experience, to relive one whole day, without harrying, with a soul willing to discover and be astonished by given beauty of nature and traces of history that used to a theatre for this part of the lagoon.

Fish farms, lakes, salt marshes and ghebi (small canals in the salt marshes), with their particular vegetation and variety of fauna, are a source of beauty that has not been yet evaluated as it should and that offers new perspectives of tourist development, away from the traditional itineraries and aimed to a sensible use of natural resources through mild and controlled intervention in respect of ecological balance and according to the knowledge and defence of the environment.

The itinerary winds its way through islands that played important economic and social roles in the past. The explanations of the guide along the whole itinerary help grasp the natural and historical value of this part of the lagoon.
The main destinations of this itinerary are two islands: Lazzaretto Nuovo and St Erasmo.

Questo itinerario vi condurrà in una zona poco frequentata di Venezia, l’isola di Sant’Elena, una delle ultime zone ad esser state edificate a Venezia. Faremo una piacevole passeggiata alla scoperta dei suoi spazi verdi e del suo antico complesso conventuale dietro alle cui mura si nascondono un suggestivo chiostro e un grande e ricco orto.