Vanishing Venice

For the first time in our 27 day odyssey we had, not one, but three slight glitches in our arrangements today. 

Ame came to join us again this morning as our private tour guide for the final leg of our trip in Venice, and what a timely entrance she made. Our drivers collected us from our Padua hotel right on time and we set out to drive the short distance to Chioggia, better known as little Venice, a quaint fishing village of canals and narrow alleyways. 

It had been arranged that we should store our luggage here, leaving us free to wander the town and have some lunch at Ristorante La Taverna before meeting our boat to Venice in the late afternoon. Our drivers diligently took us to the address given, but there was no luggage storage facility to be seen. To the driver’s credit, they stayed to try and sort this anomaly out, rather than simply dropping us at the address, but they were under time pressure with airport pickups to make. After much exploration of the street, questions at the provided address (a phone shop that had once been a storage facility), offers of storage from other businesses, even a phone call to the number provided with the booking (which insisted we were on the right street), we decided we had been conned. There was nothing left to do, so hey drove us further into Chiogga, and left us there, luggage in tow. 

We decided finding the restaurant where we had a lunch booking would be a good start, although we were an hour early.  Thankfully, the restaurant owner owned a BnB opposite his restaurant and offered to take our luggage until after our lunch. We were free to wander and absorb the uniqueness of the village. 

The second glitch of the day became evident when we arrived for lunch and food that we hadn’t ordered started coming out before we had seen a menu. Again, we were grateful to have Ame and her command of Italian, on our team. She explained that when the ristorante was booked, it was booked as a ‘set menu’ meal designed to provide an authentic experience of local food. The eyes of the tiny creatures on our plate, seemed to be following us though, and few could bring themselves to eat this unknown dish. After much conversation between Ame and the owner, it was decided we could order off the menu!  We all felt so bad as we returned plates, but did enjoy the meals we ordered. Due to siesta however, we needed to take our luggage with us when we left. 

Next stop was the gelato shop where there was outside seating and room for our cases. The lemon and basil gelato topped with gin and tonic sorbet was a mix I would certainly be willing to try again. Some sat with the luggage while others explored and then we changed shifts. Our next move was to the cafe next door where we ordered Aperitivo squeezing our luggage into space between tables, much to the chagrin of some local, elderly men who felt their space was being unfairly impinged upon! Anyway, it was soon time to move on and catch our boat-ride. 

This part of the day went smoothly, if more slowly than we expected, but with our cases stowed underneath, and us seated on the back we took off in the direction of Venice. 

 It was a perfectly warm and sunny trip and we sat happily watching the towns on the strip of land that borders the Venice Lagoon,  pass by, until finally Venice itself came into view. The third hitch for the day became apparent when there was no room for our boat to dock at San Marco square which meant an 18 minute (instead of 5) walk, pushing and dragging luggage up and over a series of bridges in order to find our home for the next three nights. 

Dinner in a quiet street with gondolas floating silently and serenely through the corner of canal we could see between the houses, was delicious and very surreal. What a day!  We are glad to be in the magical city of Venice.