LEMENE
river,swans, dragonflies, mills
(and a bowling alley with the lights on)
dragonflies, dense in summer like midges
The first memories I have of the Lemene river date back to the early 1970s. There was a tavern on the bank. The river flowed right in front of it, just beyond the red clay bowling alley and the country road. On summer evenings/nights, when the floodlights placed on high poles isolated the field in a bubble of light, the outside world vanished into darkness. The dragonflies, thick as midges, disappeared. The coots, which pedaled with an athletic rhythm against the current, slipped into the gloom. A fresh breath rose from the river and the mugs of beer. The snaps of the bowls alternated with the sharp and salacious comments by the players. In the parking lot many bicycles, few cars.
a coot pedals fast
In the inner part of a barely outlined loop, the current slowed down. Sand, dirt, algae accumulated over the years had formed an island, with tall trees and dense undergrowth. It was isolated from the bank only when the water rose; in the lean periods it formed a bluff where children lived wonderful adventures and adults collected vidisoni. Or bruscandoli. It means the same, depending on the idiom peasants speak.
Wild hop buds aren't the only things that benefit from a double definition. Lemene is border water; its name derives from the Latin limen: border, margin. It wets fields where the Venetian and Friulian languages are mixed up. In those years, the 70s, peasants living there told me of a particular and fairly widespread phenomenon: in the villages along the watercourse (small agglomerations, apart from a couple of exceptions) it was normal to hear Venetian language spoken in the centers, while in the countryside people preferred Friulian. The prevailing thesis was that, down there, the distribution of languages mirrors, since distant years, the distribution of power: in the towns center, linked for centuries to the Serenissima Republic by trade and crafts, peasants favored the language of the Republic; in the countryside, they were more closely linked to the Friulian. In Friulian, Lemene is said Lemit. Swap the “e” with an “i”, and the meaning is even clearer.
From source to mouth, the river is 45 kilometers long. It originates in Friuli from the area of the resurgences (risorgive, in Italian: springs typical of that region). In its first stretch is called Roggia Versa. Along the way the Lemene receives the waters of the Roiuzza, Roggia di Gleris, Venchiaredo, Rio Roiale, Roggia Versiola, Reghena, the San Giacomo canal. It crosses several townships: Casarsa della Delizia, San Vito al Tagliamento, Sesto al Reghena, Gruaro, Teglio Veneto, Portogruaro, Concordia Sagittaria, San Stino di Livenza, Caorle. The river reaches the sea , mixing with other waters, at Porto Falconera, just north-east of Caorle, on the Adriatic sea.
Along its course, I have bumped into four watermills. Maybe there are others, but I haven't come across them. If you like, here below you can click the (computer) paths that lead to the pages outlining them and the river mouth.
Colors of autumn on the vegetation of the banks
a bee supplies itself from a flower
Dragonflies play a rigorous choreography dancing just above the surface of the water
The four mills I know of are located on the banks of a stretch of river less than ten kilometers long. Around the Lemene, fields of wheat, maize and vineyards. Which explains the frequency of mills and the reason for the considerable number of bars and taverns, and countless personal cellars... JOURNEY BEFORE THE COVID DAYS
The Brussa beach, bordering the mouth of the Lemene, in the upper Adriatic. The large parking lot before it, in summer is subject to charges. The beach, on the other hand, is free in any season.