Venice to Comacchio 2nd June
We are finally adjusted to the late rising characteristics of the Old Hostel Montin - we haul our cases down at 8.30 just as the breakfast doors open - we partake - walk with mostly obedient suitcases trailing behind - pause to assist the cases up and over the ponte and onwards to the Alilaguna pier at Zateere - Board for a final journey across Venician waters to the airport and our rejuvenated steed awaiting us in the Marco Polo 2002 parking lot.
If the Marco Polo 2002 carparking establishment was a train service it would be a worthy competitor for Vic Rail - given that service ranking we thought it unwise to await the airpark shuttle - how did that Taxi driver do that? - I watch the meter - 8 Euros when we stop - when I look again it is 18! - a good return for a two kilometre trip - never mind - as John Lowenstein would say - "not much in the scheme of things"
We front to the Marco Polo 2002 - how much we ask - we hear him say 70 - oh hell he is a rippoff artist as well - pull out the rapidly tiring credit card - no! - cash only! - we fumble we only have 50 between us - what will we do - we fumble some more - what you doing? - I say 17 - we peel off the money and bid him farewell.
Southward from Venice along the Adriactic - fields of teenage corn, poplar plots, village after village, speed change sign after speed change sign all dutifully ignored by our Italian friends - why are they slowing down? - Tommy screams at us "radar" as soon as he stops screaming our Italian friends have become a speck in the distance - was Tommy quick enough to alert us? - the Australian postman will tell us when we get home!
Ah - Chioggia - little Venice - we stop - park in the old town - stroll - lots of beutification work going on - note some minor earth quake damage - get an Italian sim card - lovely lady - E10 for sim and initial credit - 250Mb for week - amazing how a transaction can be completed with handsigns.
Given that Chioggia is moving to increase its tourism we have some advice for the town - establish a by-law as follows - "young ladies shall not ride their electric bicycles at speeds in excess of 5 kilometers per hour" - this law is proposed in the interests of minimising hospitalisation costs for tourists - we believe these hospitalisation costs can arise from two sources - heart failure of ageing males or severe brain injury as a result of an impact to the head inflicted on the tourist by their partner - the risk of hospitalisation is believed to be influenced by 5 factors - the age of the tourist, the speed of the bicycle, the bumpiness of the road, the extent of female endowment and the efficiency of their bosum restraint mechanism.
The old town is busy at midday on a Saturday morning
- everyone - young and old seems to have a modern electric bike - they all use them to their maximum potential some by use of the throttle and some by use of the pedals - we have been warned about Italian drivers but they seem tame compared to an Australian "tradie" - no one warned us about Italian cyclists - they rush about with skill and agility using a set of unpublished rules of transit that are understood by pedestrian and bike rider alike - watching as they go about their business is something that should be on the itinerary of every foreign tourist .
Onwards to Comaggio - on the Po delta - we turn to Port Garibaldi and the lovely Hotel Julia. - what will the be like? - we approach the beach - the town is busy with weekend holiday makers -there is Julia- not a carpark in sight - Bernie and the suitcases are deposited at Julia's portico - the Eurocar is tethered a few streets away - back to Julia - what is she like ?
Magnificent - we are special - she will look over us as we sleep.
Complete the siesta - rise to join the hundreds of people making the promenade along the town's shopping strip - look for the stylish Italian - hard to find! - the walkers are joined by amazingly skillful cyclists in ages from 10 to 100 - they speed and weave their way through the crowds - their way made secure by their skill and by their shared knowledge of those unpublished rules of pedestrian / cyclist interaction that remain a mystery to observers like us.
We leave the promenade - to the beach - thousands of umbrellas, a mullitude of identical sun lounges, beach volleyball courts, complete extended families, kite surfers, swimmers - Lots of Tony Abbott lookalikes - nothing like Bondi - ah - an Italian in a Bondi tee shirt - Bernie chats to him - photographs him - he loves Australia - we are in an Italian beach holiday haven swollen by the flock of sun starved locals keen to set aside the deprivations of winter.
