The only curse on Venice’s cursed island is us

Poveglia was not man-made. Its bad vibes were.

Venice’s buildings were famously built on millions of wooden piles driven into marshy lagoon floor, but the lagoon itself is not one giant man-made raft. It contains natural, marshy, reclaimed, and artificial islands, formed over thousands of years by rising seas and sediment. Many were drained, reinforced, or made habitable. None, however, have been qu…