Venice represents a special case both from the historical point of view and from the environmental point of view. The two things in a way go together. The history of Venice starts in the very moment when there was enough scope to put a market inside a lagoon because being inside the lagoon, this market was detached both from the mainland and from the sea. This meant for the Venetians around the eleventh and tenth century being out of control both from the continental powers coming up in Europe and the Western power that were still going on after the Roman Empire. Now those historical reasons then are strictly connected with the environment and the special nature of the site. This nature of the site is governed by the dynamics of the salt and fresh water that mixes together into a lagoon.

Now, if we look at any island inside the lagoon, anywhere, you can see immediately that if you protect this island from the dynamics of the waters, this island remains still and can be developed, as you can see in the island called La Grazia that we are showing here.