If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
The hotel served a big buffet breakfast, we finished packing up, and the manager escorted us to our bikes. We appreciated the kindness of the staff during our stay and left with smiles all around.
Our destination for the next few days: Venice. Why? Our daughter, Meghan, went there on her first trip to Italy and loved it, and urged us to go before it is covered in water. We generally don't like to spend a lot of time in a large city, though we do like old buildings and history. I'm not sure we would have gone without Meghan's enthusiastic recommendation, but...
But we discovered during our research for this trip that Venice does not allow bicycles anywhere, anytime. The best option for us was to rent an apartment in Mestre, the city nearest Venice on the mainland, and take a bus to the island. The apartment we rented was half a block from the number 2 bus, which runs every 10 minutes.
The weather continued hot and sunny, the ride to Mestre was easy, and we made good time. We cycled through the flat Veneto region, along the Battaglia Canal, passing through Padua, known for its university and art. From there, we followed the Piovego to Stra, and then cycled beside the Brenta Canal, lined with villas built by wealthy noblemen from ancient Venice.
We had lots of things on the schedule for the day, starting with picking up new ear buds for Ken that I had ordered from the Apple store in a big (air-conditioned) mall on the edge of Mestre. We found the mall with no problem, and I drew the long straw and got to go in and find the store (and cool off). It was just like every Apple store we have been in: a bunch of friendly young people with iPads stood near the entrance, eager to serve the next customer; one of them scanned the QR code in the email I had received confirming that my order was ready; we waited until someone else came out with the package; and that was it.
Back on the road, Ken and I had a plan to stop at a barber shop near the bus station so Ken could get a haircut, and then visit a bike store a block away from that, where Ken hoped to have his tire repaired. The barber shop was closed but would reopen in a few hours; the bike store was closed until Monday. So we moved on to the apartment and arranged to check in a little early.
Showers, haircut, groceries, dinner in the apartment, planning session for the next day. We decided we did not want to buy Venice passes, which would let us go inside the museums and monuments, but would rather just explore the city and islands from outside. I purchased two-day passes for unlimited travel on the ACTV autobus (auto buses) and vaporetti (water buses). We found a chamber orchestra playing Vivaldi pieces in a church on our last night, and I booked tickets to that. We read the Venice sections in the Lonely Planet and Rick Steves guide books. Planning done.
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| Ken after his haircut. |
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| An immaculate horse farm just outside Montegrotto made me think of our daughter-in-law, Meghan, and my friend Mary, the horse people in our lives. |
