Lio Piccolo

Lio Piccolo is a hamlet of a few houses at the end of a road through the northern lagoon, behind the campsites of Cavallino-Treporti and about as far from them in character as it is possible to get in ten kilometres.

The road out to it runs on embankments between valli da pesca -- the enclosed fishing lagoons that have been worked here for centuries -- and open salt marsh. In places water lies on both sides of the tarmac.

There is a small square, a church, an eighteenth-century palazzo and nothing else. What people come for is the birds, the silence, and one of the few roads in Italy that feels like it is driving out to sea.

The valli da pesca are private and are actively worked. Do not walk on the banks, open sluices, or enter the basins -- and do not disturb the fish traps.

Keep to the road and marked paths. The surrounding barene are fragile salt marsh, eroding across the whole lagoon, and they do not recover from being walked on.

Birds here nest on open ground and in reeds. Keep your distance in spring and early summer, use binoculars rather than approaching, and do not play calls.

Come by bicycle. The hamlet has almost no parking and a handful of residents, and a quiet road is most of what makes the place worth the trip.

Take everything out with you. There is no waste collection to speak of.

Lio Piccolo is reached by road or bicycle from Treporti and Cavallino, roughly ten kilometres along a flat, quiet route across the embankments. There is no public transport worth relying on.

Cycling is the right way to do it. The route is level the whole way, hire is available throughout Cavallino-Treporti, and the road carries very little traffic.

There is nothing ticketed and essentially no infrastructure -- a seasonal osteria, no shop, no fuel. Bring water.

Allow half a day from Cavallino by bicycle, including time to stop.

The valli da pesca are private working property. The road and the marked paths are public; the banks and basins are not.

Bring insect repellent -- mosquitoes here are serious from late spring to autumn -- and binoculars if birds interest you at all.