Excursions to the middle of the lagoon to discover the larger and smaller islands, with typical traditional Venetian boats. We explore the lagoon ground, observing its typical flora and fauna. Educational workshops will be held with the materials collected during the outings.
Immersed in a unique and intact territory to discover the most fascinating and authentic places in the Venetian lagoon. San Francesco del Deserto, San Giorgio in Alga, Mazzorbetto, Lazzaretto, Sant'Erasmo, Vignole, Poveglia, Lido, Malamocco, these are some of the places with evocative names, frequented by fishermen, guarded with simplicity, where ancient silence reigns, an enchantment highlighted by the noise of the oars on the water and by the whistling and screeching of the aquatic birds that live here. Rowing on traditional Venetian boats, we take the kids to explore the sandbanks, we navigate among the "ghebi" that cross them drawing complex plots. We are accompanied by fishermen, sailors, farmers, artisans and many people who tell their way of life made of ancient gestures, preserved with such passion. We walk in the mud of the sandbanks in direct contact with the native flora and fauna. We teach the boys and girls to recognise and fish the "caparossoi" (cockles) and the “gransi” (crabs). We walk in the midst of the countryside torn from the water to collect the fruits and vegetables that we then use for the genuine lunches and snacks. We learn how to hold an oar in our arms as every good Venetian has done for centuries. We sunbathe, we breathe fresh air and we become friends and make memories.
During the excursions the children are stimulated to observe the environment that surrounds them, we will carry out educational workshops also in boats, during which they are taught to recognise and differentiate the naturalistic and historical elements of the lagoon landscape. We will accompany the children to museums, churches, forts, craft workshops and all those places that form the cultural heritage of the islands: from the Murano glass museum, to the “squeri” of Venice, to the church of Torcello, to the museum of Burano lace.
A short distance from the historic centre and from the routes most trodden upon by mass tourism, another Venice offers itself to the visitor who decides to enter into lesser known Venetian environment but not less historic and less authentic. It is the "minor" Venice of the islands, a vast expanse of water and semi-emerged lands where the silent landscape matches the tidal flows where the traditional lagoon boats resist obstinately the noisy aggressiveness of the engines, where the colours of the water, of the earth and the sky are mixed with the red brick of the man-made constructions, where the barehands offer hospitality to the fauna of the lagoon: egrets, herons, gulls, hawks, martin fishermen.... a Venice where nature is intact, but where the signs of man and his passage tell us an ancient story: a world miraculously intact, similar to that which in the sixth century welcomed the inhabitants of Aquileia who fled from Attila and the Huns, and who would later found Venice.
Gloria Rogliani, champion of rowing and and Voga Camp’s godmother
Of the entire lagoon surface only 5% is constituted by constantly emerged lands, while 20% is represented by sandbanks, some areas of soil with water surface covered by vegetation particularly resistant to salt. The whole lagoon is covered by channels more or less indicated, by ‘bricole’ (stilts) and piles, which are used to help orient the sailor so as not to end up in shallow land.
We move between the inhabited islands of Murano and Burano with their productive traditions and historical palaces, the island-cemetery of San Michele, the "vegetable gardens of the Serenissima", the islands with a strong agricultural vocation of Sant'Erasmo and the vineyards, between the valleys and the typical lagoon landscapes of Treporti and Lio Piccolo, to the places characterised by monuments that take us back to the origins of Venice like the island of Torcello.
A fragile territory, kept alive, thanks to the constancy of those who, against all profit logic, continue to practice ancient crafts and activities, in a niche economy functional to the management and conservation of the lagoon territory and the lifestyle of the islands.
We meet extraordinary people with many stories to tell, for example, the fishermen of Burano with their strong and rough hands, the farmers of Sant'Erasmo who cultivate the “vegetable gardens of Venice", the masters of the axe and wood in the ‘squeri’ (shipyards), the masters "remeri and forcolai" keepers of the oar and rowing culture and Murano’s master glassmakers.