Abandoned island in Venice lagoon saved as green nature retreat

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0:26You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories, up close where they're happening. It's Friday, July 31st. I'm Christine Arismeth. In summer, most of us want to head to a green, quiet spot. For Veneziane, as people who live in the Italian city of Venice call themselves, that's a challenge. Their island homes long felt the pressure of heavy international tourism, and in recent years, global investments poured into Venice, buying up not just the palazzos and former public buildings, but even whole islands in the Lagoon, making the city of Canals feel for many Veneziani a lot less like home.

1:07Last summer, though, a citizens group won a rare exception on the abandoned island of Poveglia in the Venice Lagoon, a six-year concession to turn part of it into public green space. And now, almost a year on, volunteers are slowly transforming this overgrown island into a place where the locals can walk through nature. Reporter Megan Williams takes it from here. It's early Sunday morning on Poveglia. Volunteers in jeans and t-shirts are clipping back thorny brambles and driving shovels into the ground to plant oak and nettle trees. For now, this abandoned island on the Venice Lagoon is more wilderness than park, with ruined buildings, tall grass and muddy paths.

1:53School teacher Filippo Facco says that's exactly why it matters. Planting trees is something important, and in Venice in particular is very important because most of the surfaces are disappearing, the natural landscape. Humans are building more and more, so it is important to give the nature back its base. Venice is a city of stone and water, where public green space is rare. Homes, palazzos, former public buildings, and even islands have been snapped up by investors, hotel chains and private owners. Poveglia was almost one of them.

2:37Community organizer Patrizia Veclani says that in 2014, she and friends were at a cafe on nearby Giudecca Island, reading the local paper when they spotted a tiny notice. The island with the bell tower in the distance, the one they sometimes rode to, was being put up for auction by the Italian state. Veclani and friends decided to create Poveglia per tutti, Poveglia for everyone. Within months, locals donated hundreds of thousands of dollars, still not enough to buy the entire island. But after years of public lobbying, today the north part of the island is in their hands, with the rest still owned by the state.

3:23Electrical engineer Fabio Boscolo grew up on Giudecca, one of the more than 100 small islands that dot the Venice Lagoon. In past centuries, some were used to isolate people infected with the plague, including Poveglia, sparking lurid ghost stories about the island. But for Boscolo, as a kid, it was a magical place to discover, like one of the other islands he now points to across the water. It was an hospital, now it's a luxury hotel. theoretically you can get in the island, but actually it's quite difficult because you can arrive with the boat, but you cannot park the boat, for example. Boscolo says Povello still feels open, rough and alive.

4:05Not a polished attraction in a city overrun with tourists, where many locals have been priced out. Because I really like to stay in the lagoon. I like rowing and staying in the lagoon, doing everything that's connected with this environment. and Poveglia is another way to enjoy the place where I belong. Under the trees, volunteers gather around Luca Manprin, a European tree technician, helping assess which trees are healthy, which need care, and where paths can safely go. We are making a map. This job is a cartographical job. We need to describe the risk assessment in this island for the trees.

4:48Manprin says the challenge is respecting Poveglia's wild conditions, but keeping it safe enough for school groups, walks and community events. The project to transform Poveglia will last until 2031. After that, the future is uncertain, with the pressure of private money never far away. For now, though, Poveglia belongs to the people here, who spend Sunday mornings cutting brambles, planting trees and enjoying being in this rare, natural Venetian space. In a city shaped by water and increasingly by global capital, this small island is still something unusual. A piece of Venice held in common. For NPR News, I'm Megan Williams in Venice.

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