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Published: September 4th 2009
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It's been hot and humid since we've been in Venice--high 80s to low 90s with up to 100% humidity. We needed to go to the beach. Here in Venice that means going to the Lido, the island that has a seaward side away from Venice.
Now the beaches are a little strange to me, a native Californian who is accustomed to beautiful public beaches with bathrooms, showers, visible lifeguards and all those wonderful things that taxes pay for. Here, only some sections of the beach were open and free to the public. Much of the beachfront was "owned" by hotels and private companies that demanded rather steep payment for lounging space and bathroom facilities. These spaces were dotted with little cabanas for lounging and changing, and chairs. There were also spaces with chairs and umbrellas.
We decided to go for the full experience and paid 23 euros to get a third row cabana. A man in a white uniform (the bellhop?) took us to cabana #36 and opened it up, set up lounge chairs and showed us around the tiny space which shared walls with other cabanas on either side. The cabana, which consisted of a little patio,
Beach day
Ari and Gabriel frolicking in the Adriatic a changing room and a covered area on the sand had been billed as a "sea view" which meant that I could glimpse the shore in the gap between the cabanas in front of me--row two (30 euros) and row one (36 euros)--when I wasn't glimpsing the children from row two squatting to piss in that gap. The whole thing felt ridiculous, but it delighted the boys.
At one point another bellhop came around and asked if I wanted something to drink. He spoke English to me, asked if I was American. What gave me away? It could only be the Land's End tankini, making me the only woman on the entire Adriatic without a bikini--including the octogenarian grandmother in the cabana next to me. Dean was the only man not in a speedo, and my children seemed to be the only ones that kept their bathing suits on the entire time. A more relaxed attitude about bodies is something I am hoping we bring home with us.
The beach itself wasn't much: warm and trashy and jellyfish infested. Gabriel got stung, as I knew he would, but he thought of it as an adventure as soon as the pain subsided. The boys enjoyed themselves, and begged to return another day, and so we did.
This time I opted to splurge on bikes, not cabanas. So we cycled to the end of the Lido until we found another section of beach that was public and free. It was a bit nicer, cleaner and less crowded. There were no bathrooms on this end of the island, though there were extensive sets of color-coded recycling receptacles. Ari opted to change "surfer style" with me as an additional screen, but Gabriel cheerfully stripped down to the altogether right out on the sand.
"No one cares here," he declared.
"So you've noticed."
"Yep," he grinned.
I prepped the boys for various states of nudity on this part of the Lido, where I knew dress was optional. They got momentarily interested in this, hoping a man would come walking by, "jiggling around," as they put it. But other than a few bare breasts, there wasn't much going on in that department. They had a great time playing in the water, as they always do.
Our only difficulty came at the end, when we biked back and were dirty and sandy and had to use the bathroom. Because the bike rental only took cash, I had to apportion our money carefully. Even at the "free" public beach in town, it would cost a euro (about a buck fifty) to pee; 2 euros for a shower. This meant that I won: I used the toilet and nobody took a shower. The boys were remarkably cheerful about it all, and hot, sweaty and salty, we returned to Casa Artom for a (free) shower, and a renewed appreciation for beautiful beaches back home.
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lee pilon
non-member comment
keep em comming
I am enjoying your narratives. The kids seem to be doing wonderfully. I love the comments. They seem to be happy with everything. You prepped them well.