Every summer since 1988 amateur archaeologists and schoolchildren have made the journey out to the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo to work on one of the most fascinating historic sites in the lagoon, the Tezon Grande, a quarantine depot for the Republic between 1468 and the 1700s. The Tezon measures 100m in length and around its perimeter were hundreds of cottages where merchants waited out their 40-day exile trying to avoid the plague while city officials fumigated their cargoes with burning juniper and rosemary branches.
Archaeological groups have so far catalogued hundreds of artefacts and uncovered extensive graffiti itemising ships' cargoes and describing harrowing voyages from Cyprus and Constantinople.
