Summer owls

The main attractions of Jesolo, Italy are its proximity to Venice (40km, more or less) and its very long beach (the longest of Italy, about 15km). The town of Jesolo is actually two towns: the center (Jesolo paese) and the beach (Jesolo lido).  While the two are not far from each other, their character is so different that you think they're two distant places. While Jesolo paese does not appear to have a proper central square, the most remarkable thing in Jesolo lido is a seemingly infinite street in which everything happens; it has several squares along it and ends with a lighthouse.

Jesolo lido, however, only exists from May to September.  The rest of the year, the vibrant town along the beach disappears, and becomes an abandoned place next to the sea. It seems that no one lives there during the rest of the year: those who work in the hotels, restaurants, and many shops of Jesolo lido come and leave with the tourists. They are some sort of summer owls:  they work hard while most people are on vacation;  when tourists get back to their cities, they take vacations and start preparing the new season. Life manifests itself as a splendid duality.

Jesolo is not really a big town and summer owls know each other rather well. They have been doing the same for years, perhaps not always selling the same products or offering the same food, but always doing their life during the summer.  So it is common for them to take vacations together, and to complain about tourists together. While many of the tourists who come to Jesolo come from northern Italy, a large proportion of them come from Austria, Germany, Denmark. It is then not a surprise to see business with signs in German and English. The love-hate relation between locals and the tourists is a marriage of convenience that makes part of the character of the town.

As in the rest of Italy, the most important day of the summer for Jesolani is Ferragosto. At this point, the summer owls are already tired of the season, and can reasonably predict how it will conclude. By then, they already know what went fine, and what they should do better next year. Together, tourists and locals share the traditional fireworks of Ferragosto, which mark the beginning of the end of another summer season. The same event triggers different emotions, though: while as tourists we realize how fast time passes on the beach, for the summer owls of Jesolo the fireworks evoke the hard work done, and the hope of some rewarding vacations far, far away.