Venice: Lagoon in a Glass

San Michele Island, Venice Lagoon. Everything happened on this island: it became the city cemetery with Napoleon, but long before that, around the year 1000, San Romualdo founded the Camaldolese order as a hermit. It was a great cultural center, especially a cartographic one, in the 15th century, where Fra Mauro created one of the first maps of the world, based on the testimonies of the monks and Marco Polo.

On the island today, a non-profit organization called “Laguna nel Bicchiere” (i.e. Lagoon in the Glass) operates with volunteers from all over the world to recover and reactivate Venice’s historic abandoned vineyards. It’s difficult to imagine Venice as an agricultural city, but where there’s a convent, there’s bound to be vines and olive trees. Both the historic vineyard and the cellar can be found on the island of San Michele. And the wine produced here is unique; the grapes are brackish, so it can be described as a wine with a… marine terroir!