Venice Part 1

Our Arrival

When we plot a new route, we do (99% of the time!!) check the sat nav and when our route from Lake Garda to Venice showed message “includes toll/ferry roads” we thought, yes, toll roads, that’s fine, and we ploughed on. The sat nav is set up to show us as a “Lorry, 15m long and 3.8m high”!

Our eventual arrival in Venice was delayed by a couple of hours when, as we approached the City, the sat nav decided to send us the shortest route – using a ferry from the main town across the lagoon onto the peninsular where our site was! We had not anticipated the ferry crossing and had no idea whether we could board it or not, so we continued past the ferry port into the town, however, the military police guarding the entrance to Venice realised, as we did, that we had made a mistake and turned us around, only to add another 70kms to our journey all around the edge of the lagoon!

We got there eventually, got to our pitch right beside the Adriatic Sea, and were joined by Mum and Dad for a couple of days. We established later that we could have got onto a vehicle ferry at a cost of €75, which would have taken half an hour, instead of the 1.5 hours to took to drive round the coast!

Having been on the site a few days, we were suddenly surrounded by Germans in their motorhomes. We selected a large pitch, away from the facilities, in a short road of 5 pitches on either side, all looking towards the sea, so when a small Eriba caravan parked right behind us, in our shade, without a view of the sea, we could not work it out. Maybe he was posing to capture a photo of little and large! Then another German in an old dirty rusty scrappy motorhome parked in front of us – we wondered what we had done to upset them!

The peninsular is a long sandy stretch of land, home to 31 camp sites ranging from 2* to 5*, small to huge in size, and several hotels, a few bars, several restaurants and small shopping areas. Nothing else! The beach is the attraction, 30kms of gentle sandy slopes into the Adriatic, with camp sites offering their facilities such as sun beds and umbrellas, cafes, dog only beaches and games areas.

Venice City

Venice City is an island, it is said it was built by fishermen, who sunk wooden posts into the soft sand in the Lagoon and built on top, creating a road free canal city, accessed only by over 417 bridges.

On a Friday, we took the passenger ferry from our peninsular the other side of the Lagoon to the island of Venice, disembarking right by St Mark’s Square, along with half the population of China and a boat load of Germans off a Viking River cruise ship!

We saw St Mark’s Square being prepared for a ceremony, what a wonderful place to hold a university graduation. The Basilica was closed when we were there, so we made the most of admiring the exterior, the covered old cafes and hotels skirting the square and the beautiful buildings and narrow streets that fed off it.

St Mark’s Square waiting for the Graduation ceremony.

One café advertised “hot tea at €9.50, Americano coffee €11.00, Espresso €10.00 and Cappucino €12.00”. However, you would have had silver service waiters and a brass 3 piece ensemble playing softly in the background. We didn’t stop.

Venetian gondolas were full of Chinese/Japanese people or young students, they looked idyllic but were pricey, a 20 minute journey around the canals will set you back €80 for up to 6 people, €100 when it’s dark! It would seem that 20 minutes is ample time to see all the sights, as the drivers know all the short cuts to all the famous bridges and locations. So we made do with our feet and walked several miles through the city to the north part of the island and made our way back to the south by river taxi.

Considering the age of the city, it’s in fairly good shape, some buildings could do with a scrub to remove water marks and mildew but that would detract from the age and look, and would possibly harm the exteriors which are often very decorative plaster or carved wood and full of stained glass windows. Lots of buildings are baroque style, full of ornate carved wood, most are water front, tall and narrow, creating busy narrow water ways and alleys.