Excavation Diary
Venice summer camps at Lazzaretto Nuovo Island
By Federica Varosio

It often happens that, when summer arrives and you have to make up your mind about what to do on holidays, you can decide to spend your time on something useful or learning something new.
It happend to me too: some years ago, while I was attending the faculty of Conservazione di Beni Archeologici, Architettonici e dell’Ambiente, I was looking for an alternative tourism, more cultural, more real. I ran into the archaeological camps held by Archeoclub in the Island of Lazzaretto Nuovo and I decided to have a different holidays experience. Once packed, I left for Venice, partly attracted by the misterious charme of the city itself.
After a short journey by vaporetto with other people who have made the same choice I had had, we found out that we were going to live for 10 days as the only inhabitants of this island close to Venice, immersed in the quietness of the lagoon.
Even though at the beginning we felt a little uneasy because we had to share bedroom, lunch and dinner with other people, sooner we realized what an extraordinary opportunity we were having. We could take part of a cultural project, we could learn a job (maybe a bit unusual) and keep in touch with people coming from all over Italy and from other europen countries, each one with his/her own experience and his/her story to tell.
Work camp machine set off early and then… our normal lives seemed to be miles off! At the beginning, just to know eachother, we had a short walk through the historical buildings of this island that along the centuries has experienced on its land and waters the arrival of a large number of different people: monks, seamen and merchants, physicians and soldiers.
Yes becuse while we were wandering around the remains of a little medieval church (that dates back to the period in which monks lived in the island) we discovered that for the major part of its history the island was destined to host seamen of the big Venetian galere coming back from their trades in Orient and supected to be infected by plague. Looking at all the buildings erected to host merchants and their cargos, we couldn’t but note the evidence of the moments in which the island became a powder magazine where took turn french, austrian and later italian soldiers.
Rapidly our enthusiasm died down when we knew that this extraordinary stock of historical and social informations had been abandoned and had been subject to indiscriminate raids for years! Anyway this was our task, we wanted to work and bring to light the legacy of a past time that hadn’t desappeared yet, but it was still sealed under a not so thick layer of earth. So pick up your pickhaxe and let’s go…

Archaeological camps at Lazzaretto Nuovo are something halfway between working and learning: we alternate practical work and lessons on archaeological techniques, on how to use the most important instruments for excavation, and above all lessons on the classification of the finds that emerge day by day from the excavations such as pottery, glass, coins, animal bones…
There are as well scheduled outings in the lagoon to Murano and Torcello and obviously to Venice: they focus on archeology but they’re a change to relax and enjoy your time as well.
Sono inoltre previste delle gite in laguna, a Torcello, a Murano e ovviamente a Venezia, sia a carattere archeologico, sia per relax vero e proprio.
The archaeological camp is part of a wide-range program for the rebirth and the cultural improvement of an island that, though it was abandoned as many island of the lagoon, has become a centre of historical and scientific researche thanks to the volunteer action of many many people.
Good work and see you at Lazzaretto Nuovo!

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