Lido Bike Tour: With a Local on the Island of Cinema

We will meet at Santa Maria Elisabetta on Lido Island, where we will rent our bikes and start discovering Lido!
You will choose the bike your prefer: city bike (10 €), tandem (20€), e-bike (20€), fat bike (18€) e-fat bike (30€). It will be booked for you!

Nowadays a quiet garden which was the Venice's main Jewish cemetery from 1386 until the 18th century. From the gate we will see the ancient tombs, which range in design from Venetian gothic to distinctly Ottoman.

The place where the traditional thanksgiving mass of the Sposalizio del Mare ("Marriage of the Sea") is performed, a ceremony which used to symbolize the maritime dominion of Venice.

After biking in a protected natural zone, we will continue along an old pier between the sea and the harbour mouth until the lighthouse. It will be a great place to see the Lido coastline and the outlines of the Grand Hotel des Bains and Hotel Excelsior

A former luxury hotel, built in 1900 to attract wealthy tourists, it is remembered for Thomas Mann's stay here in 1911 and the shooting of movies like "Death in Venice" by Visconti (1971) and the English Patient (1996).

The oldest festival in the world is held in late August or early September here and screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema. The still running Art Nouveau Hotel Excelsior (1908) usually hosts producers and actors during the Festival.

The route will be wild as we will bike along the Murazzi, a scenic route following the Adriatic sea. Murazzi is a remarkable 18th cent. engineering work, designed to keep high seas from crashing into the lagoon, an effective breakwater even today.

The natural beach of Alberoni has a maritime pine forest which slopes down to the Lido’s wildest most scenic beach. These enchanting dune fields are the stuff of Shelley’s poems and Byron’s early morning rides.
Often this beach is virtually deserted, except a plethora of marine birds and few kite surfers or windsurfers on windy days.

From the beach we will enter this small fisherman village passing over Ponte di Borgo and explore the canals and calli or a less overwhelming lagoon town with just a few churches and a Gothic palazzo, a small miniature of Venice!

The route will continue on the lagoon side of the island, with views of the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. From 1776 the island was used as a quarantine station for those suffering the plague and other diseases, and later as a mental hospital, closed in 1968. Because of this, the island is frequently featured on paranormal shows.

The route will continue on the lagoon side of the island, with views of the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. It housed between 1403 and 1630 a hospital which cared for people during the plague epidemics and as a leprosarium. It was later used, as were other islands, as a military post.

The route will continue on the lagoon side of the island, with views of San Lazzaro degli Armeni island. It is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon which has been home to the monastery of the Mekhitarists, an Armenian Catholic congregation, since 1717.

Hotel Ausonia & Hungaria (1913) is another remarkable example of luxury tourism dated back one century ago, thanks to the beautiful ceramic tiles on the main facade, recently renovated.