The Lido today, and that of yore…
The beach season at the Venice Lido kicked off again in June, in one of the Adriatic, but it is more correct to say one of the Italian localities, where the fad for bathing began from the second half of the Nineteenth century. The Lido, and it actually seems that the word “lido” was born here as a place-name for a bathing resort, started to become known to the great public ever since 1873, when cav. Busetto’s bathing enterprise, founded in 1857, began to establish itself by attracting a noticeable influx of public. Following the success this obtained, the first regular steamboat service linking the island to Venice began. The Lido started to establish itself at a European level and to compete with places like Biarritz and Ostend, entering the top range of most famous bathing resorts in the world at the beginning of the Twentieth century. The island’s appeal grew to the point it was sought by literary persons such as Lord Byron and Thomas Mann, who mad
