These were sand haulers who in the early nineteenth century began to deliver building material to Grado and Trieste using specially built boats known as “trabacoli”. They collected the “sabion” (sand) from alluvial deposits around Grado, one of the most famous being Ara dei Pali, before moving on to the “scani”, islands they flattened to sea level, and finally to the mouth of the Isonzo. These trabacoli continued to operate until the end of the 1960s.