Last night we walked the short distance into Mestre Centro to find somewhere for dinner. The experience turned out to be something like we had in Trento. Plenty of cafes but no restaurants. We had noticed a Japanese restaurant on the way in and it was starting to look good. We decided on one more circuit in a different direction and got lucky. We found a newish place that looked, on the outside, just like the cafes we had been seeing. However, the menu looked ok so we went in and got a table. By this time it was after 8pm and there weren't many people in there. As we were waiting, and more while we were eating, the place filled up and there were people waiting at the door. The good thing was that these were all Italian family groups - no tourist apart from us.
We shared a Parma Ham and Focaccia for entree and a 'Aphrodisiac' Pizza for main and both were good. So another serendipitous restaurant find. Oh, and the staff were great too.
Just as an aside, the centre of Mestre is all modern buildings and quite soulless. Probably most Mestrians head for the suburbs for their dining experiences, the centre being only populated during business hours.
This morning after breakfast we had to wait for Josef, our Eurobike rep who was to give us a briefing and also our bikes. While waiting I made a short call home and it is just as well that I did. As I write this I have all but lost my voice. Garth had a similar problem a couple of days ago so no doubt he has shared it with me. It was good to have a short talk to both Patricia and Dominic who seem to be doing Ok.
After the briefing we got allocated our bikes out in the car park and the first thing that Garth and I had to do was change the pedals for our own. Garth also changed the saddle for his own one. After that it was navigating out of Mestre over to Venice to catch the ferry over to Lido. The ride to Venice took us over the Liberty Bridge on a cycle path and was quite pleasant except for the last half kilometer or so where the path narrowed to about 600mm with bridge wall on the ride side and crash barrier on the other. I had visions of someone losing heir balance and toppling over the crash guard in front of a car or bus. However, we negotiated it ok and found the ferry terminal easily enough. The ferry trip to Lido is quite a nice ride and allowed us to get a different view of Venice from the lagoon along the way.
On disembarking on Lido we basically just had to follow directions to cycle down to the southern end of the island to catch another ferry to Palestrina. We probably didn't follow the advised route exactly but it is hard to go wrong as Lido is long and narrow and oriented North/South. We got there in plenty of time to catch the 12:55 ferry to Palestrina and once there do a similar ride to the southern end of Palestrina to catch the Vaporetto to Chioggia. The riding was quite pleasant with not too much traffic and nice and sunny. Sometimes we were riding alongside the beach or boat docks and sometimes just through suburbs. There were lots of cyclists about too and most of them looked like locals although we kept seeing two other couples doing the same as us. One couple is German and the other are Australians from Perth, WA.
Arriving at Chioggia we found our hotel right beside the docks/marina area and decided to cycle down through the town to have a bit of a look see. We also wanted to find somewhere to have a light lunch as it was after 2:30pm by then. We found a place where we got a Panino each, a coffee, and a soft drink before heading back to the hotel to check in. Our luggage was already at the hotel so we were able to check in and relax for a while.
Our cycling today was only 35km and that was broken up with the three ferry rides. The going was pretty flat all the way too. From the briefing, we know that our last day starts with some climbing followed by some good downhill into Florence via Fiesole. Something to look forward to?
