Lido Shuffle

We write this moored on the island of Centosa, looking out over Venezia after an evening sundowner trip around the Venice lagoon sipping spritzers or Moretti beers and seeing Venice from a whole new angle. Today is a public holiday in Italy, coinciding with the Feast of the Assumption. While the fish markets in Chioggia were closed, their weekly Thursday markets continued in full swing, so the ladies of the party took the opportunity after breakfast  to browse all the stores and pick up bargains in dresses or footwear. At 10.30am we departed on the boat for a short trip to the island of Pellestrina, where we explored for a short while before ending up at the village of San Pietro in Volta where a festival was taking place and we managed to have a great lunch in the local ristorante, together with a few small carafes of wine - this wasn't to be a day of exertion. The lunch continued past two ferry departures, but eventually we made the departure point on the north of the island to take the ferry to Lido - a long island lying to the west / southwest of Venice itself. This is a very prosperous island, and here we finally managed to get our swim in the Adriatic Sea. Beach space in Italy is hired , as well as sun lounges / umbrellas / changing rooms - and it is all on a patch of black sand very different to anything we have in Australia; but we slummed it and changed on the free section of beach  then took to the water for a cooling dip. The weather today was back to blue sky after the storms of yesterday, but with a bit of wind that perhaps reflected our position next to the ocean. The swim was very refreshing, and once done we hopped back on our bikes and headed to the nearest gelateria for an ice cream. Then it was a quick ride to the village of Malamocco where we boarded the boat with our bikes for the last time. Today's travels  were only 16.5 km  on the bike, so it was a very easy day compared to earlier this week. Nevertheless we enjoyed a few drinks as we motored around on our cruise, and then had the usual three course dinner that we have come to enjoy so much. Tomorrow we explore Venice from the water in kayaks, which should give us the opportunity to escape the crowds on land and see this city from a different perspective. Hopefully the weather will be kind ...