The Italian Adventure - The Arrival

It was time. We had been away from Italy for too long. So off we flew to Venice just after the Cabbagetown Festival. Our flight over was three hours delayed and we arrived a little bleary eyed but after a mid-afternoon five hour nap, it was time to explore the Serenissima!

We headed out from our hotel to wander the heart of Venice without any plans for dinner; usually a mistake in a tourist Mecca like the City of Bridges. Fortunately for us, we stumbled a lovely little spot which usually is impossible to get into without a reservation. Christos noticed an empty table for two and asked if it was available; he was informed that the table was reserved but the reservation was now ten minutes late and the maitre d' suggested that if five more minutes passed without the guests arriving the table could be ours! Indeed the five minutes passed and we enjoyed a wonderful seafood based meal. We watched as others wandered in and were turned away, including our late reservation (they showed up 45 minutes late) and mused on how fortuitous our evening had been!

That night we discovered through conversation that there are no bicycles in Venice except for kids' bikes which are only allowed in the squares, not in the winding narrow streets.

The next day we relocated across the lagoon to Mestre, the larger mainland territory of Venice, where we stayed at the Hotel Ai Pini and awaited the tour guide and bikes from Girolibero.

Unfortunately, we were both feeling a bit under the weather so the evening was spent enjoying dinner at the hotel and then an early bed time.


We headed out the next morning before 10AM and soon found ourselves on the ferry to the Lido with two other cyclists, Sheena and Paul, from the UK. After a good chat on the ferry, the two pairs went their own ways on the Lido. It started to rain, so we stopped for a brief lunch at a seafood restaurant and then managed to get turned around 180 degrees (the Lido is a long narrow island) when we left!

So our planned 35km ride turned into 50km due to navigational error! Fortunately, neither of us were too concerned about the rain (it was warm) and the extra ride was more of a pleasant diversion than a chore.

We arrived in Chioggia and arranged with Paul and Sheena to have dinner around 7:30pm at the local Osteria just by our hotel. The food was excellent, yummy local shrimp and fresh grilled fish! An after dinner bottle of wine was shared while seated by the sea before we finally got to bed at a later hour than we should have!

The next day was the longest of the three days riding around Venice and involved cycling from Chioggia to Padua, most along the embankments of the old canals.

Once more the weather did not work in our favour and most of the ride ended up being in the rain. Being of good humour, we laughed it off and sang songs ("Biking in the Rain", "Neverending Rainstormy") etc. and then stopped for lunch at a local restaurant in the middle of nowhere (we enjoyed a lovely lunch of salad and spaghetti bolognese) to wait it out.
It did not stop and we finally arrived in Padua after some 62km of wet riding.


In Padua we managed to stumble upon the Scrovegni Chapel before it closed and were in the second last tour group of the day.

One has to wait in an exterior anteroom of the chapel for 15 minutes while the conditions are normalized with the interior of the chapel and then one gets 15 minutes inside the chapel before the next group! It was well worth it. The Giotto frescoes are amazing!! We both particularly liked the opposing Vices and Virtues (such as Charity and Envy) running along the bottom of the walls on opposite sides.

Once more, we lucked out for dinner as we were the first to arrive at the amazing Al Fungo which is a "mom&pop&son" place that normally one needs a reservation to get fed at as the kitchen's shopping is based on that day's reservations! Fortunately, they make a few extra of each item and with us being only two and the first in the door, we were the lucky recipients of such!

Dinner included an amazing duck pasta, pasta with fresh porcini and veal with mushrooms all washed down with an 8 euro litre of very drinkable house wine!



The next day the storms were done and we enjoyed a glorious 40km ride to Mestre from Padua.

We cycled in magnificent sunshine past the old villas of the Venetian rich and famous. Lunch was a simple but delicious roadside beer and sandwich.

We arrived in Mestre (back at the Ai Pini hotel) and met up with Sheena and Paul again when they arrived and we all decided to head into Venice for dinner.

We took the bus to the terminus at Santa Croce and then marched through the city on foot until we tired and found a restaurant for dinner. As the restaurant was a bit off the beaten path but not exclusive enough that one needed a reservation days or weeks in advance it was good but not awesome.


We witnessed a fun street scene as the gondolas passed and one of the gondoliers was clearly parched! Fortunately a waiter was able to provide him with refreshment. Talk about roadside service!

We had an overpriced dinner with a less than attentive waiter (he recommended a poor first bottle of wine) but made the best of it with good conversation and a much nicer second bottle of wine!

After dinner it was a wander back to the buses with a stop for lemoncello both before the bus ride and back at the hotel. We slept very soundly that night!