Caorle Culture

The painted houses of the old centre are the most photographed thing here, and the explanation is practical rather than decorative: colours identified a family's house from the water, the same reasoning that produced Burano's.

The Duomo and its round campanile anchor the town's older identity. A cylindrical bell tower is unusual in the Veneto, and this one has stood since the eleventh century.

The Scogliera Viva is the modern equivalent -- since 1993 sculptors have carved the breakwater boulders, turning a sea defence into a permanent open-air exhibition that grows every few years.

The food is Adriatic: moeche and clams from the lagoon, sardines in saor, grilled fish, and the vegetables of the reclaimed land behind. The beach-season menus are broader and less local; the old-town trattorias are where the difference shows.