The Times - UK (2022-05-28)

the times Saturday May 28 2022

Travel 43

ALAMY

book ahead and pay up to €10 to enter,
while visitor caps are also being mooted.
One way to help ease La Serenissima’s
burden is to travel further around the
lagoon, beyond its headline act.
Staying in Chioggia puts three of the
cycling itineraries in easy reach. It helps
that my base, the longstanding and
luxurious Hotel Grande Italia, rents out
comfortable, single-speed bikes and is
positioned exactly 10m from Chioggia’s
vaporetto dock on Piazzetta Vigo. (This
location also ensures terrific lagoon views
from its neat, neoclassical rooms.) Line 11
duly chugs me and my ride one
island north to wisp-thin Pellestrina,
southwest of the Lido, for an initial outing.
Though rarely more than 300m wide,
Pellestrina is seven miles long and com-
pletely flat, making for an easy up-and-
down pedal. A main road hugs its eastern
flank (there’s a car every three minutes),
bordering a driftwood-strewn sandy beach
and the Adriatic Sea. More interesting and
sedate is the westerly lagoon
side, which I follow via a
combination of lanes
and esplanades. In
the hamlet of San
Pietro in Volta,
more pretty pas-
tel-shade build-
ings fringe the
glinting water.
Pellestrina
is mostly quite
plebeian: ship-
yards, empty
arable lots and
vegetable fields
outnumber vivid
houses and some
handsome churches.
Yet there’s a joy in mean-
dering through its four sleepy
settlements, or watching islanders
set the world to rights over espressos.
I pause for an alfresco octopus salad and
beer at Al Gatto Rosso, just a thin pontoon
between me and the water, before pro-
ceeding in wobblier fashion along the
curving stone sea wall to Ca’Roman, a
small nature reserve at Pellestrina’s south-
ern end. Wandering along its empty forest
paths, I encounter more abandoned Nazi
bunkers than fellow walkers.
The itinerary suggests also riding up the
Lido island, further north, but since I’m

Colourful houses

on Pellestrina

Richard Mellor was a

guest of the Lidi di

Chioggia tourist board

(lididichioggia.it), Turismo

Venezia (en.turismo

venezia.it) and Hotel

Grande Italia, which has

B&B doubles from £103;

bike hire from £8.50 (hotel

grandeitalia.com). Seven

nights’ B&B on a self-

guided cycling trip from

Lake Garda to Venice

from £1,645pp, including

bike hire (skedaddle.com)

Need to

know

only an out-of-shape, occasional cyclist I

decide against that. Instead, with bum

pained and energy drained, I leave the bike

at the hotel and make the 90-minute jour-

ney to Venice on foot — via bus, ferry and

vaporetti towards Venice’s spires and

silvery domes.

I roam Venice’s quieter corners: the stu-

dent-trawled periphery of stately Salute,

grittier Castello’s striking squares and

glorified, wide towpaths in Cannaregio’s

northern reaches. The Rialto Bridge ex-

erts an irresistible pull, offering undenia-

bly idyllic views, but how horribly, over-

whelmingly busy it feels to me after Chiog-

gia and Pellestrina. Dozens of tourists

elbow, inch or nudge their way into photo

spots with no regard for personal space.

The Lido is quieter, perhaps because

today’s clouds have undermined its star

attraction: a long, lovely sandy Adriatic

beach with hundreds of huts. There’s no

one in the leafy Jewish cemetery either,

where orange and palm trees shade tombs.

Once more, a dreamy peace

reigns, interrupted only by

snorts of distant Vespas

or shrill birdsong.

The reliable 11

bus then speeds

me south to

where I might

have cycled,

past the grand

Hotel Excelsi-

or’s red-brick

fantasia, past

stilted houses

and an outdoor

sculpture

museum.

Posterior pains

eased, I get back in the

saddle a day later and fol-

low a circular version of the

tourist board’s Chioggia cycling

route, which soon deserts the lagoon alto-

gether by heading further south. It takes

me to the neighbouring, newer town of

Sottomarina, which has a six-mile sandy

shore famed for its iodine-rich air, benefi-

cial to ailing lungs. I could have pedalled

along the pier-like sea wall, but instead I

continue through plain suburbs.

Just before I cross the Brenta River,

something surprising appears. Can it be?

Surely not. But there’s no doubt: it’s a hill.

Admittedly only a slight, brief incline, but

nonetheless the first ascent I’ve had to

tackle all trip. Luckily, this being Italy,

there’s also a bar so I do the sensible thing

and have an espresso first.

Post-Brenta, a slumberous lane takes

me along the pleasant Canal di Valle

before another shadows the wider Adige

River. It is delightful: barely a car passes

me as I watch jays, then pause to spot

radicchio plantations, sugar-cane fields

and lonely casoni buildings inland. Farm-

ers once lived in these dinky shelters; now

they mostly function as tool sheds.

The best in-the-know places to visit in Venice

Best view

T Fondaco dei Tedeschi

This 16th-century trading hall

beside the Rialto bridge was turned

into a posh department store in

2016. Head to the rooftop terrace
      for a peerless bird’s-eye view of the
      Rialto and Grand Canal, past the
      domes of San Marco and campanili
      galore to the shimmering
      Dolomites in the distance. Book
      ahead online.
      Details dfs.com

Best artisan shopping

Paolo Olbi and Paolo Pelosin

Don’t buy anything at the Fondaco;

put your money into local hands.

Both Paolos work with paper:

Pelosin in Campiello dei Meloni, on

San Polo’s main drag, marbles it

before wrapping it around

notebooks and boxes at his store, Il

Pavone. Olbi, in his shop beside Ca’

Foscari university, binds everything

from diaries to bins with his block-

printed Byzantine and Venetian

motifs.

Details olbi.atspace.com; Il

Pavone, Campiello dei Meloni 1478

Best cicchetti Schiavi

Alessandra De Respinis is the

undisputed queen of cicchetti,

Venice’s finger food. At her bar/

wine shop Schiavi you’ll find

crostini with inventive toppings —

tuna with horseradish and

radicchio perhaps — dusted with

ingredients such as pomegranate

seeds, flowers or cocoa powder.

Details Cicchetti from £1.30;

cantinaschiavi.com

Best seafood

Trattoria al Gatto Nero

Enjoyed your meal? Thank your

neighbour, who is likely the one

who caught it. Burano’s Bovo family

runs a truly inclusive joint where

Cruise, Clooney et al dine with the

island’s fishermen. Try the sublime

risotto alla buranella, made with

lagoon goby fish.

Details Mains from £15;

gattonero.com

Best museum Museo Fortuny

Closed after the November 2019

flood, the designer Mariano

Fortuny’s old home and atelier has

finally reopened and it’s as mind-

blowing as ever: a 15th-century

gothic palazzo lined from top to

bottom with Fortuny’s opulent

textiles. Don’t miss his signature

Delphos dress, one of the many

fashion pieces on display.

Details £9.30; fortuny.visitmuve.it

Best church San Lazzaro dei

Mendicanti

Tacked onto a hospital, this lovely,

unassuming church is classic

Venice. There’s a gaudy Tintoretto

(depicting St Ursula and her parade

of virgins) and a moody crucifixion

by Veronese, but even they are

outshone by the swaggering

17th-century funerary monument

of Alvise Mocenigo — a baroque,

sculpted depiction of his victories

on sea and land, with ships

lurching drunkenly.

Details Fondamenta dei

Mendicanti 30122

Best budget meal

Orient Experience

Fast, cheap and delicious — there

are few better budget places than

this one in Cannaregio. It’s owned

and staffed by refugees, and all

the recipes come from their

homelands. Go for the five-course

platter; the aashak (Afghan

vegetable dumplings) and dajaj

(chicken thighs with potato and

lemon from Syria) are superb.

Details Five courses £13;

orientexperience.it

Best hotel Casa Burano

You’ll see a different side of the

tourist-swarmed lagoon at Casa

Burano, an albergo diffuso

(“scattered hotel”), where the

rooms are dotted around five

fishermen’s houses on the island of

Burano. The sunrise over the glassy

water is unforgettable.

Details B&B doubles from

£120; casaburano.it

Julia Buckley

Canal in Chioggia

ITALY Five miles

Venice

Venice

Lagoon

Lido

Pellestrina

San Pietro

in Volta

Chioggia

Sottomarina

Hotel

Grande

Italia Ca’Roman

Nature Reserve

Airport

The languid rural splendour gives way

to Isola Verde, a beach village with

funkily coloured (if ugly) apartment

blocks. A few country lanes and one more

riverside stretch later, and I’m almost

home, the 20-odd miles having proved a

breeze. On my left I spot Chioggia’s port.

According to recent news reports, millions

of euros are being allocated to create a

docking point here for surplus Venice

cruise ships — surely a threat to Chioggia

and its character.

I get a full dose of that charm as I finish

my ride on its main street, Corso del

Popolo. Thursday is market day, but this

Saturday still sees a fair number of stalls

selling regional breads or cheeses. Some

people are sipping wine outside aperitivo

bars, others stroll and gossip, disappearing

down narrow side streets. I slowly weave

around them before stopping beneath

Torre di Sant’Andrea, whose blue clock

dates from at least 1386 and might well be

the world’s oldest working example.

Up by Piazzetta Vigo, opposite that

white-marble Ponte di Vigo bridge,

mollusc, scallop and sea-snail shells hang

on twine outside a souvenir shop; breezes

coming off the nearby lagoon make them

tinkle like a foreboding Venetian remake

of The Wicker Man.

A celebratory last-night dinner is called

for. Many of Chioggia’s posher restaurants

have Venice-like prices, but the casual

Bacareto da Morgan is more reasonable.

Sitting canalside, I order cicchetti (Vene-

tian small plates, from €1.20) with a Chiog-

giotto twist: radicchio meatballs, marinat-

ed sardines, three buttery scallops.

Around me are families and couples on

seemingly successful dates; a fisherman

bobs past, shouting fondly to his friend.

Before bed, I loiter on the lagoon edge

and gaze north. Venice is out there some-

where, as magnificent and preposterous as

ever. Yet I’m perfectly content here, in its

almost forgotten predecessor.