Day 40: Venice to Chioggia

August 30, 2015

We could see that there was a Vaporetto from Fusina (near our Camping) into the centre of Venice, and we had ridden briefly on a not overwhelmingly crowded Vaporetto that is an express from the bus station to Lido. And we knew that we could ride the Causeway, at least part way, from the Camping to the bus station. All these are little pieces of a puzzle that will mean nothing to you unless you have been here, and frankly, were sufficiently puzzling to us, even being here!

Just to review, our plan for today was to get onto the Lido, which is a long beach island, and to follow south down it, hopping from island to island by (hoped for) ferry to the town of Chioggia. From Chioggia it is about 30 km south to the Po river delta, from where we presumably can begin to ascend the river toward distant Milan.

Having concluded that there was no easy Vaporetto solution to getting bikes to the Lido, we could only use our original plan, which was to follow the long and convoluted route set out partly in the Bikeline guide and partly cooked up by us in our computer lab back home. We began by trying to shortcut a bit, to get from the Camping to our track. We took a road with a reasonable shoulder or sidewalk, but after a couple of km this devolved into a dangerous no shoulder road. We used the GPS to find another way, but ended up on a grass track, that itself ended on a road clogged with large buses. These busses were headed to and from the nearby airport. We plotted a route away from the buses, but got stymied by construction blockades and roadway with steel guard rails that blocked us from crossing to safer ways.

I noted that one of the buses had Jessolo - Lido as its destination, and commented that it would be good if we could get on something like that. Somewhere, as Dodie fought to get us away from the airport and the buses, a switch flipped, and she began to head toward them. At first, I think, she saw a route in that direction, but blocked by construction, she decided to head straight for the airport/bus station to look for alternative transportation.

Soon we found ourselves walking the bikes among air travellers, and we walked them right into the airport/bus station. If you can't beat them, join them! Well, not so easy. The bus ticket agent said there was no way to do it. go talk to tourist information. Tourist information was a lady hiding behind a counter, with an almost invisible sign.

Her internet was down, so she could not be of much help. She did, however, produce an interesting guidebook. It is almost a clone of the Bikeline book for the province of Veneto, with the big plus of being in English.

Beyond that, the info lady could only suggest talking to a bus driver to see if he would take our bikes on.

We went out to the bus area, and could get no help there either. No matter which possible destination Dodie tried naming, the answer was you can not go there by bus with bikes.

Stymied.

One last hope. There is also a Vaporetto station at the airport. Lots of people with luggage were heading there. On the Vaporettos closer in to Venice there is not the slightest hope of carrying luggage on (let alone a bike), as you are lucky to get your own body on board. But here ... maybe, and anyway we were out of options.

At the dock we first found that if we took off the luggage and folded the bikes, for something like 118 euros we could hire a speedboat. Hmmm. But then the Vaporetto ticket seller allowed that if ok with the captain, we could put the bikes on a boat that would indeed go to Lido.

Before buying any tickets, we walked the bikes down to the boat, and got a sort of grudging ok. Then Dodie ran back to the ticket office to buy tickets for us and the bikes. Meanwhile, the boat was loading. The captain seemed to change his mind and would not let me move the bikes forward. Dodie appeared (puffing!) with four tickets, and we talked our way on. Whew!

Doubtful captain looks on as Dodie packs the Friday in.

The boat followed a circuitous route, so we got a presumably good tour of the Venice lagoon. Only thing, we had no idea where we were. We did, however, stop at the Island of Murano, which is famous for glass - none of which we of course saw.

Finally, the boat arrived at Lido. Now from our maps, for all we knew, Lido was an uninhabited sand spit. It does not look like much in 2D on paper. But what we found was a whole different scene either from the drab urbanscape of Mestre or the fantasy land of central Venice. Here, there were rafts of bicycles parked around, and restaurants along a fairly wide street, with cars, but not too many or too fast.

Dodie declared that the first thing she needed was gelato, so we found a shady table at a gelaterria and worked with a surly waiter for the right to pay 7 euros each for ice cream. Still, we had arrived. But where?

Looking around, I tried to make sense of the scene, by linking it to something elsewhere in my experience. Ah, this is Venice Beach (California), I concluded. "This is Venice Beach, Venice - stupid!" Dodie sagely observed.

We proceeded out to the beach strip and headed south. At first the beach was lined with beach huts, and then a long series of break waters. There were a fair number of beach goers, but not really a crazy scene. In fact, unlike Venice, California, there were no sellers of refreshments, souvenirs, beach bikes, or anything like that.

In the first couple of kilometers, what there were were lots of people cruising along on bikes. Despite this being a theoretical car road, they filled the lane, in an unintentional "critical mass" experiment. Dodie pulled out to pass, and I observed to her that we almost never pass anybody. "These people are on vacation, I'm on a mission!" was her clearly bloggable reply!

We passed what was likely the main venue of the Venice Lido film festival - and area that looked set up to receive the movie stars on a red carpet. "Hey, this is like the Cannes film festival" I observed. "Well duh!", was Dodie's sage reply. That was it, though. We didn't see any movie stars or limousines, or stuff like that.

Bikes stacked up at Lido. It was great to see bikes as that meant we would have a chance to get soemwhere with ours.

Vacationers potter down the beach drive at Lido

The film festival is apparently super famous.

Most buildings at Lido seemed to be modern apartments, like these

Long stretches of breakwater/beach - with not a lot of people

Soon we came to a Vaporetto station with signs that promised to take us to Chioggia.A fellow pulled up by bike, and though his English was just rudimentary, he explained that he too was going to Chioggia, and that this was the place to get the ferry. We could see that it would be a car ferry, which would eliminate the issue of getting a bike on a little, crowded, passenger boat.

While we waited, we looked at the fellow's bike. It was a slick, self made e-bike, with a very small profile crank drive. As best as language would allow, our new friend explained its features. He was very proud to show that he had already gone 50-60 km that day, and still had most of his battery power remaining.

The ferry that came was quite large and elegant looking, and we rolled on easily, along with at least one bus that had come along. We paid 7.50 each and figured we were set to finally make it to Chioggia. We secured our bikes well, took our handlebar bags, and were heading to look for a seat at which we could eat our sandwich on our sea cruise. We had no sooner begun to walk toward a seat when a crew member informed us we had arrived. Our 15 euros had bought us passage only to the next island. Since we had already paid 36 euros to get from the airport to the Lido, it was already true that we should have bought the 20 euros (each) one day pass.

From this sign it all looks easy. That "E5" route, coresponds to the great new Veneto cycle guide book we got.

The Marco Polo - our elegant ferry for what turned out to be a ten minute 7.50 euro ride.

Now we set off down the new island, toward the town at its south end, Pellestrina. We followed our new friend at first, but he gradually pulled ahead, and out of sight. The road passed fishing hamlets, and again I struggled to draw a parallel between here and somewhere else. A blue and white house evoked the Greek Islands, but generally I decided it was most like Mexico. No, said Dodie, it's uniquely Italian.

Beyond Pellestrina, another 15 euros got us on our final boat, to Chioggia! Again, it would be hard to describe Chioggia by a comparison to someplace else. Ok, it's a Mexican village, with Venetian flair, and canals, and a large cathedral.

Fishing boats and gear on the way to Pellestrina

Pellestrna - we are almost at the kick off point for the next ferry.

Some touring cyclists from Munich had the Bikeline book for this area. It is almost identical to the one we got (for cheap) at the airport - put out by the District.

Beautiful singing from a church (not the cathedral) attracted us, and we peeked in on a wedding in progress. Outside, and Audi with white bows awaited the happy couple. But we carried on. We had 40 degree heat and not much idea about how to reach any campgrounds.

About a km from where the ferry docked, we spotted an Albergo. We had already spent 68 euros on ferries this day, and 14 euros on gelato and 5 euros on a sandwich, plus 7 for a new guidebook, and 4 for postcards, meaning the budget was blown. But the Albergo price was 55 euros and the office was air conditioned. We went for it.

Tomorrow is another day, and maybe it will also have uncertainty, heat, and expense. That's what bike adventure can be all about. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm going for a cool shower!

Arriving at Chioggia - this is out in the water.

The cathedral is quite plain, but it does have the remains of two martyr saints Felice and Fortunate. In 303 a.d. while Christianity was still outlawed, they wer caught praying and decapitated. They have been kept here since 1110 a.d. The Cathedral is our neighbourhood church, being just across the canal from our room.

Looking out the window of our room in Chioggia. The cathedral is just across the canal.

Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 1,871 km (1,162 miles)

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