The Venetian Riviera Geography & Climate

The coast runs roughly 60 kilometres east from the mouth of the Venetian Lagoon to the Tagliamento, on flat, sandy ground formed by the rivers that reach the sea along it -- the Sile, Piave, Livenza and Tagliamento.

Cavallino-Treporti is the western end: a narrow peninsula, sea on one side and lagoon on the other, ending at Punta Sabbioni opposite the Lido of Venice.

Behind the built-up strip is reclaimed land -- most of this coast was marsh and lagoon until the drainage schemes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- and much of it lies barely above, and in places below, sea level.

Fragments of the original coast survive: the dune systems at Cavallino, the coastal pine woods behind Eraclea Mare and Bibione, and the Laguna del Mort, a small lagoon formed when the Piave shifted its mouth.

The beaches themselves are wide and shallow, and the sea shelves so gently that you can wade a long way out -- the single physical fact that made this coast a family destination.

Summers (June-August) are hot and humid, typically around thirty degrees, with the sea breeze making the beach markedly more comfortable than the plain inland.

Winters (December-February) are cool and damp rather than cold, with fog frequent on the reclaimed land behind the coast and snow rare.

The sea warms slowly and holds its heat: swimming is comfortable from mid-June through September, a longer season than the air temperature suggests.

Autumn brings the heaviest rainfall and occasional violent Adriatic storms. Mosquitoes are a real presence away from the open beach, on the lagoon side and across the reclaimed land, from late spring to autumn.