Many people wonder what exactly Mestre is.. a city? a town? a neighborhood? a district?

Well, that’s not so easy to answer to. Mestre is part of the city of Venice, one of the six municipalities that constitute Venice, the most populated one with roughly 90.000 inhabitants of the 260.000 of Venice (35%). Just think about that the island of Venice, the historical center, only has around 59.000.. means Mestre is the residents barycenter.

Why something so different and disconnected from Venice downtown still counts up to the city of Venice? The reason is historical and goes back to fascism time, in 1926 to be precise. It was at that time that the idea of a bigger, more modern and industrial, Venice came alive. But history a part, Mestre is where most of Venetians people now live after that tourists pression provoke many inhabitants to leave the island.

Opposite of how Venice was founded, Mestre is the result of the escape from the “Island” to the “Mainland”.