April 1st-4th – Venice

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The weather when we left Austria wasn’t bad but it was quite cool and overcast, but when we came down from the mountains into Italy it was like driving into spring; clear skies and about 10 degrees warmer. The mountains were beautiful and the road was great with very little traffic. When we approached Venice, Dorothy (the tomtom) had a fit! I don’t know how long it had been since Maurice had downloaded any updates for it but the road we were on wasn’t there and we couldn’t get off it straight away as it was a toll road. We eventually reached Padova, about 25km further on, and drove around in circles for 10 minutes before getting back on the autostrada (toll road) back the way we came. This would have been great but we accidently drove through the ‘tele pass’ lane so didn’t pick up the required ticket and when we reached our exit and tried to explain he handed us a fine for €50! No explanation, no appeals just pay it next time you drive through! I was not a happy camper! Anyway, after we got off the autostrada Dorothy seemed to pick up where we were and took us straight to the campsite which had a view straight across the lagoon to Venice. The campsite was actually in the middle of an industrial area but the many trees on the site hid it well. There was also a deepwater channel directly off the shore and there were many huge ships passing by during the day with tugs in tow only a stones throw away. The best thing about the site was that it ran a 20 minute ferry service every hour directly into Venice.
We were hoping to visit Venice the next day (my Birthday) but the weather gods didn’t play ball and sent cold wind and rain. We decided to postpone it for a day and keep our fingers crossed for the next. We spent the day catching up on washing, going for a walk, relaxing in the bus and had pizza for dinner. The following day turned out brilliantly, calm warm weather again - t-shirt and sunnies. We spent the day exploring the big and the small of Venice, from the huge Piazza San Marco and St Marks Basilica to the narrow alleyways, from the Grand Canal to the narrowest of waterways. We decided to forego the €80 gondola ride for a trip on the canal ferry - not quite as romantic but a lot cheaper. It enabled us to walk from one side of Venice to the other and catch the ferry back to the start. The most expensive part was the glass of red on the side of the Piazza San Marco complete with musical accompaniment in the afternoon sun. We did a lot of walking, took almost 100 photos and caught the ferry back as the sun was setting - all-in-all a brilliant day.
The next day we headed west to the opposite coast, but not before doing a few circuits around Padova trying to find out where to pay the stupid toll fine! We wanted to take a look at Portofino and the exotic sounding Santa Margherita Ligure on the Riviera Di Levante.

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Photos

Venice
This was the view we had of Venice from the campsite

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The Grand Canal

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Basilica di San Marco

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Piazza San Marco from the Basilica

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Piazza with Palazzo Ducale on the left, from the Basilica

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The bridge of Sighs

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One of the many small canals, somebodies back yard (not a blade of grass to be seen)

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Ponte Rialto on the Grand Canal