VENICE – The Ave Maria boat will meet you at Giudecca, the island opposite Venice's historic center. From the station we then take the vaporetto and symbolically leave the mainland. From that moment begins this week far from the everyday terrestrial world, our amphibious week guests of Girolibero.
It went that Girolibero, one of the main Italian cycling tour operators, invited us to participate in their trip Bike and Boat from Venice to Mantua. Eight days between lagoons and rivers, fishing villages and cities of art, pedaling during the day and using the boat as a floating hotel..
Now, the writer has very little experience with water holidays and this is the very first time he has embarked on a boat and bike holiday. Everything new, everything to learn and everything to discover.Which is why, without even thinking about it too much, we accepted.
A routine for everyone
The first dinner is free (all the others, however, will be served on the boat) and we spend it in a trattoria on Giudecca. Then only the next morning, with the help of the sunlight, we discover something more about the boat, about the other guests, about who will accompany us and about how the tour will actually take place. Staff Girolibero, or perhaps it would be better to say the crew, is made up of six peopleThe captain, the ship's engineer, two cooks, and finally the two tour leaders, the highly experienced Silvia and the newcomer Raffaele.
Breakfast is served between 8 and 9 a.m., depending on the itinerary planned for that day. After breakfast Silvia's voice announces over the intercom that they are getting ready to set foot on dry land, as soon as the Ave Maria finishes the short stretch of navigation from Giudecca to Punta Sabbioni, the last offshoot of the peninsula that closes the Venice lagoon. Once all the docking operations are completed, we, the passengers, We go down to the dock and wait diligently while the crew unloads our bikes one by one, each with a tag with our name on it.Some traditional, some assisted.
Travel easy and light
It's no secret that this tour isn't exactly, shall we say, an ultracycling event. The target clientele is made up of people generally aged sixty and over. (sometimes even from seventies and above), who want to enjoy a week of relaxation, culture and the right amount of exercise. After all, the motto of Girolibero is “Travel easy and light”. The trips they propose are based on the concept of slow and accessible tourism, designed for those who want to discover the area without physical or logistical effort of sport cycling.
On the first day we disembark at the dock at Punta Sabbioni. They're waiting for us. about thirty completely flat kilometers to discover Lio Piccolo, four houses scattered among sandbanks, roads at water's edge and artichoke fieldsBefore leaving, however, Silvia takes the time to give everyone directions on our future cycling trips.
Check on the bikes, how to use the gears and how to close the lock provided, explanation on how to interpret its stop signals, turn right and turn left, in-depth analysis of the conduct to be maintained on the Road. All this takes place mainly in English, since the majority of the guests, around twenty in total, come from abroadSome from Germany, some from Norway, some from Canada and the United States.
On the roads of the flamingos
Every now and then we take a break where Silvia and Raffaele show us some curiosities that would otherwise escape our notice. For example, the flamingos, the flamingos, which we discovered arrived here sporadically a few years ago, and which are now sedentaryAnd that's the good news. The bad news is that if they're now wintering in northern Italy and not in Libya or Egypt, it's because of climate change. In any case, they're here now, and we might as well stop and see them.
We cycle in the midst of a particular nature, with banks and fields reclaimed from the brackish water, and I realize that These are places that if I hadn't accepted the invitation I most likely would never have seen in my life.Because you can immediately feel it, from the first pedal strokes, that Girolibero he went to look for these streets, these passages between courtyards and farmhouses, these small deserted squares that seem to float between the water and the earth, with years of experience, passion and care.
Lido and Pellestrina, different twin islands
It's drizzling on the second day. Silvia suggests that anyone who doesn't want to pedal can stay on the boat, enjoy a relaxing morning, and, if they like, take a shorter tour with her in the afternoon. But when it's time to show up outside the boat to wait for the bike, they're all thereFully equipped with rain pants, shoe covers, and helmet covers, no one gave up, not even those who are now sailing toward 80 years old.
And even for us who don't come from overseas it's worth it, because we cross the Lido with its cinematic splendour and its Art Nouveau villas, where even if it's the low season and almost everything is closed, you can still feel the luxury of the early 900s. It's even more worth it, perhaps, when we travel to Pellestrina, the popular twin of the Lido, populated practically only by clam fishermen and wild beaches that look towards the Adriatic.
We spent the second night docked there, lulled by the rain hitting the cabin porthole. Waiting to move to Chioggia the next morning, saying goodbye to Venice and entering the mysteries of the Po Delta.
