We are trying to write a description of our visit to Venice, combined with a farewell to Italy, while trying to convince the campground owner’s dog to go away (the latter is harder than it might seem, because he is really good at begging for attention and we find we really miss having a dog).
There are several campgrounds on the Venetian lagoon. We are at Fusina. It is a fairly large place with what are called “unmarked pitches,” i.e., not too large open spaces between trees, so pull in wherever you wish. And so people do, trying to optimize the view. There are motorhomes here bigger than Rover--something we are finding more and more often. We are parked about 20 feet from the water, with our nose facing Venice. There is a shipping channel right in front of us and we have seen several tugs guiding massive container ships and car carriers past us. Great free entertainment.
We took the local ferry to Venice. It is right outside the campground gate: ferries every hour all day and half the night. We bought the ticket that took us to Venice and back and also gave us unlimited rides on the vaporetto (water taxi) in the city. We had been to Venice once before, but that was a cold and rainy March. Today was sunny and very warm. There were a lot of tourists, but nothing overwhelming like the Cinque Terre. We walked and walked and took the vaporetti five times , including to Murano, another island where the beautiful glass work is done: factory after factory and store after store selling gorgeous glass jewelry, dishes and imaginative art pieces.
We returned to Venice ,where we had dinner on a floating deck (we will have to eat in Rover for the next week to make up for that).
Venice is truly a unique place. Much of it looks like it is about to crumble and fall into the canals. But there are no cars, motorbikes or even bicycles. The streets wind everywhere and end at canals or go up steps to little bridges. Sometimes the streets are just narrow alleys where you can’t spread your arms out without touching the walls on both sides.
Because we’d done most of the tourist things when we were here before, this time we spent just one day in the city and then relaxed and did some laundry at the campground . We were adopted by the campground dog who wanted to play ball with a pine cone, and he fell asleep on David’s foot. Not everyone appreciates the dog, but we enjoyed his company, which he seemed to sense, for he kept returning to us.
This campground is a very active place with a noisy bar at night, like many of the large ones in Italy. Fortunately, we are on the far side by the lagoon, about as far from the noise as we can get. Others seem to appreciate the fact as well, because if a space opens up on the waterfront, it is quickly filled by new arrivals.
Tomorrow we will drive along the sea and into the mountains towards Austria. We have been in Italy for 7 weeks, quite a bit longer than we thought we would be. It has been wonderful and exasperating all at the same time. We know we are blessed to have this opportunity. But the opportunity tomorrow will be to get out of the country alive and well . . . and move north.