On To Venice

Our last day of touristing and we had to get to our hotel in Venice for an early flight the next day.

After checking out of Hotel Miralena we thought we might go have a look at a route graded 1A which meant that we wouldn’t need the KISAs that we had returned to the hire shop (instead of touristing Venice). The route was between us and Cortina where the road takes you directly into Venice.

In order to get to the route we decided to go over Passo Giau which those following carefully will recognise as the road we had to turn back on the day it snowed on us. After so many warm days we were sure the road would be open but weren’t sure we wouldn’t make it snow again while we were going up. Coming from Arabba meant that we were going in the opposite direction from the other day and found that we had turned around still a few kilometres from the pass so the poor Panda would never have made it. (Mind you, I did spot a 4WD Panda in the car park – mmm…I wonder…)

 

The walk left from Rifugio Dibona which was up a skinny road that becomes a ski trail in winter. When we got there the peaks next to the peak with the route on it we had planned to do were shrouded in fog, so we had some lunch and a (good) coffee in the rifugio while we waited to see what happened. The rifugio was quaint on the inside and obviously had been there for some time. It contained a lot of history of the via ferrata in the region and climbers ascending the peaks behind it.

The fog was drifting across to where we wanted to be and, based on the fact that fog turned to rain yesterday, we didn’t want to get wet and then sit in the car for two hours to Venice. So we cut our losses with the weather and headed for our hotel in Venice.

The hotel was right on the bus route between the airport and Venice so we returned the Panda and went into Venice by bus. Just to prove that I did go here are some pictures…

 

We walked around Venice for about two hours and it never looked like the Venice I knew. I was expecting gondolas with opera singers and St Marks Square to be a bit smaller – just like the Venetian in Las Vegas :)

After being harassed by waiters in the various squares, just like they do in Lygon St, we had dinner at a cafe/bar with seats on the banks of a canal. At least I can now say that I saw Venice but I would rather visit natural wonders like the Dolomites in Italy and the Picos in Spain.

Our plane left San Marcos airport at 7am (Anni’s at 10-ish from Treviso) so Sylvia and Anni organised bus tickets (while in Venice) to take us from the bus stop outside our hotel to the airports. Ours was the first bus (at he ridiculous time of 4:50am). Sylvia and I were at the bus stop in plenty of time and made ourselves visible. We saw the bus come around the corner and accelerate. Despite jumping up and down and shouting at the driver he didn’t stop! After thumbing for half an hour, and despite there being plenty of cars on the way to the airport, we still didn’t have a lift. Finally a limo driver returning from the airport (that probably saw us when he took someone to the airport) stopped and offered to take us. Cost us 15 euros but the peace of mind was worth it.

I am writing this on the plane over Australia – 3 hours to go! We will have been on the go for around 32 hours by the time we touch down! We’ll stay at Matt and Erin’s before driving back to Halls Gap today tomorrow – not sure what day it is now so lets call it – Tuesday.