95km of 4014km so far…
Once again it was cold in the morning and for the first time after Pyrenees and the rainy days I cycled wearing my water/windproof and gloves. By accident I noticed a cycle path running 20 meters parallel to the main road I was cycling, which of course was not shown on the useless map of Italy I’ve been using all these days. Generally maps and finding the way around in Italy is a little harder than France. Neither the maps or the roads have enough number signs. Then finding the right map is another problem. Where in France every book shop or supermarket would have at least 5 copies of the region and the nearby ones in various scales, in Italy it’s a matter of luck to find what you want. I’ve been to bookshops that only have ten random maps. One for a Greek island, one for Peru, one for Tokyo, but non for the region.
On the cycle path
About an hour later I got to Ferrara which was my first stop for lunch and a quick wonder around. The city has an impressive castle in the middle of it and today it happened to be the local market. Within the castle there was a small exhibition of photos taken with electron microscope and since it was free I had a look and found it rather interesting. I left the city at around 2pm and headed for Bologna, my final destination for the day, where I knew there is a hostel.
Clasic car parade in Ferrara
The castle in the middle of Ferrara
The other side
It would be nice if cannons were just shooting pumpkins
Unfortunately when I got there I found out the hostel was 6 kilometers out of the center, which was a little annoying as I wanted to go around the city during the night. I did spend about an hour to see a few things and then headed to the hostel. Even more annoying was the fact that there were no restaurants around the hostel, but just a pizza delivery. So there goes the Bolognese pasta that I was graving all day on the bike!
The big church at Bologna
One of the roads in the city
The leaning towers of Bologna
rock 'n' troll
And why not?
91km of 3919km so far…
I woke up very early with a massive hung over, as I think I drunk two bootles of wine by my self the night before. I managed to go to sleep for another hour, before starting to pack my bike. Justin and Sam were leaving as well, so we said goodbies, exchanged emails and left the camp site.
From Venice you can take the ferry to Greece and initially I was thinking to end my trip there. But I don’t want to stop cycling yet. Since my knee feels better and I am not in a hurry to get back, I decided to go a bit further down and maybe take the boat from Ancona.
After spending three full on days in Venice, I wasn’t much for much. I took the quietest roads and headed for a hostel in a remote location by the Bianco canal. For most of the way there were cycle paths, so I didn’t have to deal with traffic, which was a good and smooth transition after spending three days off in a city without cars.
The morning cycle path
At Piove
Another nice cyclepath
One of the rivers I crossed
Train crossing
The Blanc canal
I got to the hostel at around 5pm. The staff there were very friendly and helpful with me. I was given a ground floor room so I can keep the bike with me overnight. The room had bathroom inside and six beds, but again nobody turned up, so overall a very good deal for just €17, the same amount I paid for camping opposite to Venice. It didn’t have wifi, but only a computer with a coin slot that charged €2 per hour. But again they appreciated the fact that I was traveling for so long, so they lend me their personal 3G USB key to use for a couple of hours for nothing.
0km of 3828km so far…
Sam, Justin and me
Today it was a little warmer than the yesterday. We caught the 9am ferry to Venice again, to have plenty of day light, as it was the last day there. My last important visit in the city was the Peggy Guggenheim collection of modern art, by the grand canal. It has a permanent exhibition of paintings and sculptures, some of which are in the nice garden, as well as a temporary exhibition. I spend about an hour in there and then I continued my day with wondering around the city.
One of the churches, that I don't remember its name
The big boy with the little frog...
Even Venice has graffiti
Loads of laundry
Last minute souvenirs
While wondering, I was always checking the Biennale map for additional near by exhibitions that are scattered around Venice. They are small, so I think I visited more than 15 within these days. The only problem was that they were hard to locate, as the map in the brochure was not very detailed and in general it is hard to find your way in Venice in the first place.
In one of the Biannale exhibitons held within a palace
Magnetic art
After 12 hours of walking it was time to head back. Before heading back, I went to the supermarket for some shopping, as this time it was my turn to cook dinner for Justin and Sam. Their little caravan has a small kitchen with everything you need, plus it’s warm so I was happy to spend an hour in there.
Late in the afternoon
Sunset by the port
0km of 3828km so far…
Me, Justin and Sam caught the 9am boat to get to Venice. We walked together up to the Saint Marco square, where there were small patches of water and apparently Venice floods every 5 years around October and they put raised pathways for the people to walk on.
- Gondollas, many of them
The pathways just in case...
After we separated, I took the vaporeto for the south east edge of Venice to go to the big venue of Biennale. The venue was build in 1895 and apart from its main exhibition space, it has several smaller pavilions for individual countries. The whole exhibition was rather big and I got out of it completely overdosed at around 3pm.
La Biennale it self!
ropy art
blue art
dead art
I took the vaporeto which went all around Venice and then crossed to Murano island up north. Murano is famous for its glass making furnaces, but to be honest that was all about it. It was very similar with Venice it self in terms of architecture and the canals and all the main streets were full of glass shops, one after the other. I wasn’t interested in buying anything that can be broken, so I went around some alleys in fast forward and then I caught the vaporeto again. I went even norther to the island of Burano. This is indeed a very beautiful island. It’s very small and quite, with only three or four canals running within it. Its main feature is the colorful houses, as each one is painted with a different bright color. Burano is about an hour away by boat, so as it was getting late I had to catch the vaporeto to Venice and then the last one to my camp site.
Murano and its glass
Burano
Colorful canals
... and windows
... and me
Sunset from the vaporeto
At the square the big cafes always play music to creat atmoshpere
Today was very probabe one of the coldest days of my trip and as I was not cycling it was a little hard to keep warm. I am glad that about a month ago I bought a silk liner for my sleeping bag which improves the warmth a lot, as the temperature within the tent was around 9 degrees when I went to sleep.
