Journey: No driving!
Distance: 0 km
Campsite for the night: Camping Venezia Village
YouTube link: Day 7

Venice! Today was all about Venice. I have always wanted to visit Venice but was a little worried that it wouldn’t live up to expectations and Emma wasn’t bothered either way. We set off on our bikes to cycle in and followed the directions from the campsite to stay on cycle paths because google was sending us back on the roads we’d driven in on. It was a very stop start route and we kept changing cycle paths. Some of them had good signs to Venezia but the signs quickly ran out so it was a bit tedious getting to the start of the bridge to Venice. The bridge is actually a causeway lasting nearly 4km and we thought it would be really good to cycle in and get amazing views of Venice. The reality is it’s a very long busy road — the cycle path is completely separate to the traffic with big crash barriers, so felt safe enough — but alongside you there’s a busy road, and next to that train tracks. The views weren’t that great either because Venice is quite flat. But we made it and after a lot of faffing around, we parked our bikes in a secure bike park. There’s meant to be cycle parking for 800 bikes but we never found it — again, the signs ran out and google didn’t help much but at least we knew our bikes wouldn’t get nicked.

First impressions were there’s a lot of traffic, which was unexpected, but that quickly ran out as we reached the grand canal. The traffic being replaced by a lot of people. So we kept walking away from them and headed towards the Jewish Ghetto, which Emma said was the place to go.

Once the crowds dispersed, we got to see the Venice I was hoping for. Lots of little canals acting as the streets and lots of bridges crossing them. It is truly a bizarre but beautiful place and more than exceeded my expectations. We just wandered about soaking it all in and enjoying the novelty. The Jewish Ghetto was nice but not that exciting (sorry Emma) and we found a spot for lunch nearby alongside one of the canals. It had good vegan options so I had a falafel plate and Emma had a selection of toasts with different dips on. And we sat enjoying the sun, which had suddenly appeared while watching the world go by. I was endlessly fascinated watching Venetians go about their business by boat and saw a boat carrying a new door and another filled with building supplies, including a cement mixer. It was truly a lovely spot for lunch.

After lunch, we headed back to the crowds to see the must sees — the Rialto bridge and Saint Mark’s Square. They were ok, but so busy they were hard to really appreciate. We then got a water bus back down the grand canal to enjoy Venice from the water and cycled back to the campsite.

After a short sit, we wandered out to get a bus back to Venice for dinner. The bus was a LOT easier than cycling, it only took about 10 mins on the way there and even less time on the way back. We were heading back in because we’d found a vegan restaurant that only opened in the evenings, so we wanted to try some classic Italian dishes veganised. La Tecia Vegana was a lovely little place situated on a quiet street well away from the crowds. We enjoyed the house spritz and I had ravioli while Emma had the lasagna as our pasta dishes. We both thoroughly enjoyed them and Emma declared her lasagna the best she’d ever had. We then shared a mushroom omelette as the second dish, which was ok (Emma didn’t like it at all), and then a tiramisu despite both being full after the pasta! While we’d been eating, it had started to rain heavily and it continued all night, so we got wet on our way back, but the bus worked really well and I got to see some pretty canals in the dark.