ch3 – blog

0km of 3828km so far…

I woke up with the nice view of Venice, but also some big boats crossing. We had already said with Justin and Sam that would cross to Venice together, so we got ready and took the little boat.

The sea in between the camp site and Venice

I got a little bit annoyed with the amount of money I spend with within the morning. The reason I chose this campsite was because it is just opposite Venice, so I thought with the 3 days vaporeto pass I would be fine, but I wasn’t. The pass didn’t cover the boat from the campsite, so I had to pay an extra €25 for these three days. But I guess that’s Venice

for you, so I just had to deal with it.

Approaching Venice

We finally got to the city which is as interesting as I had expected. You can only agree that it is a very strange but beautyful place. It is also packed with tourists and all the central places are saturated with souvenir shops, very expensive restaurants and cafes and gondola owners chasing you for a romatic boat ride, within the canals.

At the grand canal

The famous Rialto bridge

That reminds me I have to do the laundry

Venice is famous for its masks

During my stay, it happened to be the 53rd Bienalle of Venice, so I though I should take the opportunity and visit it. There are two massive exhibition spaces that require a ticket, but also several smaller venues that are free. I bought the ticket and since I wouldn’t make both places in one day I decided to start with the smaller one, which is located in Arsenale which is the place where they used to make boats. The exhibits were all kind of modern art, some very interesting, others not as much.

Colorful art

Repetitive art

It took me about two hours to go around it and by the end I was starving, so I left in a desire for one of those big and cheep sandwiches that I was seeing all day. Luckily the exhibition takes place in a quieter area of Venice, with more cosy cafes and bars, so I jumped into one of them and apart from food I took advantage of their toilet. As I said, Venice is a little bit expensive and one of the things that I find a little extreme is the €1.50 charge to go to one of the public toilets. I think they also accept credit cards.
After a little bit of wondering around the alleys, I ended up going to the National Modern Art Gallery for more art…

Bright art

I had my typical ice cream and started making my way to the south to catch the boat back to the camping. One thing with Venice is that it is a lot bigger than you first think. The small alleys and canals, gives you the wrong impression, but in fact it is big and with the amount of dead ends, you end up wasting time which are dangerous for missing the latest boat.

opst... wrong way

I made it back to the camp site at around 8pm, where I met Justin and Sam again and they kindly offered me food, which I was very glad to accept.

91km of 3828km so far…

I was thinking whether I should take the day off or not, since my last break was 6 days ago in Genova. I decided to continue so I can spend several days in Venice which of course has many more things to see. In fact the day before I only cycled for half a day, so I had a little bit of time to recover and also the slight tail wind helped with an easy and fast ride.
So the plan was to get to Venice and stay in the hostel which is located in a very good location at the Guidecca island. For the first time in my trip, I thought it may be a good idea to phone in advanced a reserve a bed. Unfortunately that hostel and the other three were all booked out. That ruined my morning a little bit, but luckily the weather was nice, so I thought I should go to a camp site. After asking in the tourist office, I found one which is just opposite of Venice and has access via a 20 minutes boat trip, which sounded ideal.

On the way to Padova

After my little morning adventure, I started cycling east with a first stop in Padova. I spend a couple of hours there for lunch and ice cream and a little wonder around the old city. The city has several sightseeing that can probable keep you busy for a couple of days. In fast forward, I saw the three main plazas, with the several churches big old buildings. I happened to be there on a graduation day and it seems to be a tradition that the graduate will do crazy things all around the city. Some were wondering around in weird outfits, others would read out things and people would laugh.

Graduate 1

Graduate 2

One of the biggest plazas of Padova

This church looked imported with many tourists and a pricy ticket

I left Padova at around 2pm, as I wanted to be close to Venice early enough, in case there were other problems. The road to Venice from the side roads and not the motorway is rather nice. It runs parallel with a canal, through the town of Dolo and Mira, which they kind of good samples of what you are about to see in Venice

.

The canal by Mira

Approaching the camp site

The last 5 kilometers were a slight disappointment though. Venice is extremely beautiful place and it is there for hundreds of years, so I don’t understand why at the exact opposite side of it there is a heavy industrial area. The camp site it self is nice and it has a great view of Venice. But from one side of it, there are all the big chimneys, there are frequent planes landing to the nearby airport and every now and then you a massive ferry or tanker will sail just 50 meters from my tent. It’s not a big problem, Because you don’t see any of these within Venice, but it’s just the bad first image you get from the city.

The not so romantic view of Venice

After I pitched my tent, I went back to the near by town to buy a few things so I can once again cook my dinner. As I was cooking, a girl approached me and invited me to join her and her boyfriend for dinner. Sam and Justin are from Australia and they are on a big road trip from England to all around Europe, with a small caravan that they bought from eBay for just £100. After Europe, they are going to Egypt and then Malaysia to get married and finally return to Australia for good.

51km of 3737km so far…

I woke up and went back to the old city within the walls for a last wonder around, breakfast and to buy a map. By the time I did all these, the weather turned from a perfect clear sky into a dark overcast, an obvious sign for heavy rain. I didn’t mind at all since I was prepared for it and it was during early cycling hours. On the other hand it made the morning a lot more interesting, as the cloud formations, the thunders and the distant rain made the scenery a lot more spectacular. When the first heavy drops started falling, I found some shelter in a big plant store. Ten minutes later it was hailing and within the next ten minutes it stopped and the sky cleared again. The rain also cleared the morning mist and with the increased visibility I think I could almost see the beginning of the Alps.

Today’s destination was Vicenza, which was not far at all. I got there at around 2pm and after a short cycle around the old city I checked in to the hostel, had a shower and went out again. The city has a typical nice old part, with cobble streets, nice plazas and several churches. The hostel this time is a lot better, the €20 euros include breakfast and the owner is very friendly and reasonable enough to let the guests use the internet freely.

Next to the town's garden

82km of 3686km so far…

The morning dense fog

Me and Christoph cycled together to Mantova which is only 10km from Rivalta Saint Mincio. He would spend the entire day there, where I wanted to move on, but instead of going to Verona where I was planning to go and meet Romeo and Juliet, I was convinced to head east toward the little town of Montagnana.
Mantova is a very nice city indeed. It is surrounded by a river and has an old nice city in the center. Maybe I should have spend a extra day there as well to explore it but also get some rest.

Mantova's main square

One of the entrances to the old city of Mantova

The weather was a lot nicer today after the morning fog was cleared and I wouldn’t mind going back to a camp site. But being Sunday with everything closed the easy option was a hostel again that I knew where exactly it is.

- Put me in your living room!

The only interesting part of today’s ride was the town of Legnago, where I stopped for an ice cream. There is a river just at the border of the town, with a really nice, but short cycle path.

Legnago riverside

Three grades of brown

I moved on quickly, as I wanted to have plenty of day light light in Montagnana. I got there at around 5pm, unpack my stuff, had a shower and I was out again in an hour. The main point of interest of the town is the medieval castle. It dates from 1400, is surrounded by very tall walls, the best preserved examples of medieval walls in Europe and inside there are many houses, a few churches and of course many restaurants and cafes. I spend a good couple of hours wondering around, before I started getting hungry.

One of the four entrances

Montagnana's walls

The wall towers

The main church

I went to a restaurant for dinner, in desire for some good pasta. Without understanding much of the menu and without paying much attention, I ordered something random from the page where I saw carbonara, thinking that’s the pasta section. But unfortunately it was a pizza. It’s the last three days that I am having pizzas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I am in Italy and the pizzas are great here, but it’s a little too much for everyday. I’ve been in so many restaurants and that’s all they have.

The hostel it self was ok, but I was unlucky that its section within one of Montagnana’s towers was closed. Other than that for €21 is the most expensive one I’ve been so far in Italy. It didn’t have breakfast and they wouldn’t give away their internet to the guests.