Fishermen used to sleep in “casoni” (huts) in the lagoon during the week, returning home on Sunday mornings. The day’s catch would be weighed on “stadere” and sold to “batellanti”, wholesalers from Marano, who would go from casone to casone in their flat-bottomed sailing or rowing “batela” to collect the fish. The batellanti also supplied the fishermen with daily provisions prepared by their families in Marano and put into special baskets (“cesto della mesa”). This was their only contact with the town and they therefore relied on the batellanti for mail and any news. The “pessivendoli” then delivered the fish in the Friuli plain on foot or on rickety bicycles, sometimes covering as much as a hundred kilometres in a single day. Nowadays, the latest refrigerated vans deliver fresh fish in perfect condition to the most far-flung corners of the region and huge freezer trucks link the area to fish markets throughout Italy and the rest of Europe.