Dhe water is flat. So flat that you almost scrape along the bottom. The red and black posts on the left and right mark the way, but whoever deviates even a few meters, whoever overlooks a curve or takes a wrong turn, hits the screw mercilessly and has to face the compassionate eyes of the locals rushing past difficult to get out of the mud.
An afternoon with the motor boat in the Lagoon of Grado. Tommy, the lovely resort concierge, loaned it to us. You can drive boats up to 40 hp in Italy without a license – not always to your advantage. And yet you get the heady feeling of a grown-up adventure standing behind the wheel in sunglasses and swimming trunks and letting the sea spray spray your face. You could continue to Venice from here – that would cost half a day and probably a few bumps. It’s faster to Trieste or Marano. The place-name signs hang on top of each other on the posts, like on the freeway.
Pool position for children and rubber animals: in the “Tenuta Primero” holiday resort
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Image: Simon Strauss
The boat glides along a “tapo”, one of the countless islets that barely emerge from the lagoon. To the right is the island of Pampagnola and some boats stuck in the sand, reminiscent of the treacherous shallows. We dock at Isola Barbana. Tall pines, elms and cypresses line a majestic sanctuary built in honor of a Madonna that washed ashore here in the sixth century. You can buy homemade Amaro and ice cream in the monastery café – coins from all over the world lie at the bottom of the fountain in front of the quay.
tranquility and devotion
There is a peaceful mood of calm and devotion over the lagoon that has nothing to do with what one usually associates with the sea. A few swans swim by curiously, the mosquitoes buzz lazily. However, the area also carries dark memories: Claudio Magris, the well-known literary scholar from Trieste, wrote a beautiful essay in the early 1990s about the poetic power of the Grado Lagoon and also recalled its bloody traces: “In the last few days During the Second World War, the Germans retreating to Venice were pursued by machine gun salvos from English planes; they threw themselves into the water in the hope of escaping on foot between the mud flats and marshes; they got caught in the mud, they sank in the mud, one by one they were cut down. For days, the corpses floating between sandbanks and channels clogged up this part of the lagoon.”
Quiet, natural and somewhat mysterious: Excursions to the Grado Lagoon start from the resort.
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Image: Simon Strauss
With this description in mind, one jumps into the water at the front, where shallow sandbanks close off the lagoon and the view of the open sea is no longer quite so unabashed.
Once upon a time there was a campsite
On the way back to the marina, you can hear the live music from afar. Every Friday evening, Andrea and Vesna accompany the sunset here with their sad love songs. In addition, cocktails with fresh fruit are served and extensive photos are taken. “Tenuta Primero” is the name of the spacious, 120-hectare holiday resort on the promontory in front of Grado. For sixty years this was a popular campsite. But in recent years, the owners – the Marzola family of hoteliers from Milan – have radically changed the use of their property. Where around 3,500 guests used to crowd together and compete for parking spaces, a gentle breeze now blows through an expansive park. Only 500 guests per day are now received and accommodated in 135 apartments, cottages and bungalows instead of tent sites – small to medium-sized units, not overly luxurious, but well equipped. The majority of the area is traffic-calmed, the best way to get around is by bicycle, which can be rented for a small daily rate.