The Lido is the long, narrow barrier island that shields the Venice lagoon from the Adriatic. Only a short vaporetto ride from San Marco, it feels like a different world — wide streets with actual cars, Liberty-style villas behind garden hedges, and a proper sandy beach facing the open sea.
In summer the beach is divided between free public sections and the grand stabilimenti — private beach clubs with striped cabanas and loungers that have been drawing well-heeled visitors since the Belle Époque. The grandest of these, the Excelsior and the Hotel des Bains, were immortalised in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.
Every September the island hosts the Venice International Film Festival, the world's oldest. The Palazzo del Cinema fills with film crews and critics, red-carpet arrivals happen along the seafront, and the atmosphere is electric.
The eastern side of the Lido, facing the lagoon, is quieter — a good place to walk or cycle along the waterfront with views back toward Venice. The island is long enough that a bicycle is the sensible way to explore it.