Bibione

The history of Bibione in Italy dates back to a long time ago. Bibione was born from the sea and it is to the sea that the history of its territory is linked to, to that magical encounter between the salty waters of the Adriatic Sea and the sweet water of the Tagliamento River.

The history of water, therefore, but also the history of land, that is not easy in the lagoon.

A land that has seen the passing of many people over the centuries: the Venetians first, during the fourth and third centuries BC, and later, from 181 BC, the Romans, who first began the work of reclamation of land and its use.

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the advent of Christianity, Bibione passed among the possessions of the Bishop of Concordia, and for several centuries it was abandoned. Where there was marsh or lagoon, the area was filled by scrub, wild animals and wild horses.

Continuing our journey through history, Bibione tied his fate first to France, then to Austria, which in 1798 invaded the territory which was recaptured again by Napoleon in 1805. It then became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia before joining, in 1866, the Kingdom of Italy. It was at this stage that the work begun by the Romans was started again: the reclamation of wetlands, aimed at making healthier this so forgotten land. At the beginning of 1900, in fact, with the establishment of the Consortium, the first major works of drainage, water canals creation and construction of embankments began. From that came the formation of lush pine forests and the beautiful wide beach, as we know them today.

In the fifties, the start of construction of the first hotel structures, the first houses and shops, allowed the city to begin to open up to tourism. In 1960 its name became official: a name that comes back from the past, to identify the place where the 'Insulae Bibioni' stood, those islands of the lagoon connected to the sea by a narrow strip of land, whose archaeological evidence corroborates their existence today.

In those years, Bibione was also officially given the title of resort area and already in 1961 it was mentioned in the general yearbook of the Touring Club.

They are the same years of the striking black and white images of a holiday in Bibione introduced by LIFE: the summer camp, the first hotels, the new cars parked outside the bar Acapulco and even the great outdoors.

In those images there is a whole world that was trying to start over, that was reborn and that could dream. The dream was for a seaside holiday with the family, ice cream sitting on the wall, even the trip on Sunday to catch the first rays of the sun. And fifty years ago Bibione and its beach began the safe step journey that has led it to be now the second largest beach in Italy for arrivals and overnight stays, tourist destination known and appreciated internationally, offering great hospitality and excellent services.

Just over fifty years have passed from these photographs, and they seem centuries. It seems a world far away.

Yet, from these suspended images, the sound of the sea, which is perhaps always the same, echoes: that atavistic sound that is always with us. Echoes of footsteps on the sand, the diving from the paddle boats, the wind slowly darting over the waves. Sounds and emotions that were the same for those who left, fifty years ago,their first footprints during a vacation on the beach of Bibione before us.

'Even more so at night the sea still sounds / lightly, up and down, along the smooth sands / Echo of an enclosed voice in the mind, / that returns in time' (S. Quasimodo)