All righty. We somehow made it to Venice…City of Canals. The Sinking City…(five blerns to the first who identifies that reference).
This involved putting the bikes together, riding through Mestre, the more industrial town on the mainland, in order to navigate the long causeway connecting land to Venice. This involved riding on what appeared to be highways with little shoulder, but according to our maps this WAS the bike route too. Fears of crazy Italian drivers were unneeded though; everyone gave us plenty of room and no one honked, so it must have been ‘normal’?
We were to camp was on Punta Sabbioni, a resort peninsula east of Venice, which required a car-ferry hop over to the island of Lido, south of Venice, then a quick ride to the vaperetto (water bus) terminal to hop a passenger boat to Punta Sabbioni.
THe first (five star) camp only allowed stays of at least seven days, so we trekked down the road and found the next campground right on the beach. The Med is over 20C…nice…
Our trips into Venice thus required a walk to the vaperetto stop, then the twenty minute scenic ride to St. Mark’s Square. Venice itself?
Middle of the high season, with Asians clicking away furiously on their selfie sticks, we felt quite at home. But did you know you can buy a selfie stick for 3€ in Venice?
Sights? Doge Palace. St. Mark’s. (Square and basilicas). All of the bridges. Many of the pubs.
A couple days of touristing done, we had drunk Venice dry (of beer at least – fear not; the canals are still there). So it was time to pack up the tents, take the two-boat ride back through Lido to Venice’s cruise ship terminal. Another fun ride down the causeway and we were off for Vicenza!
