Riding the flatlands of the Po River Delta

We were fortunate to catch one of the last connecting regional trains to Ravenna (TrenItalia permits travelers to bring bicycles onto regional and intercity trains by rolling them into a designated space in the first or last car of the train, you never know which so each time we just guess. If we guess wrong the conductor will shake his head and point to the opposite end of the train. I almost prefer the mad rush of pedaling down the length of the platform to get into the right car before the train departs). We arrived just after sunset, and set out for the youth hostel. Arriving late meant that most businesses were closed down, thus ordering take out pizza was our only option for dinner.

We spent the morning following a brisk itinerary taking in the amazing mosaics that the town is known for. We were struck by the number of people, young and old, riding bikes. We were particularly impressed by the older Italian ladies and gentlemen navigating the cobblestone streets with ease. We departed for Ferarra near mid-day, and proceeded to push a high tempo to cover ground. Highlights included 2 short ferry crossings, the Comàchio Lagoon with its narrow dyke-top nearly vacant roadway, flamingos, and the final 20km along the Po di Volano River. Otherwise the majority of the day was flat, pretty, but quite dull. We arrived to a campground just outside of the ancient walls of Ferarra late in the afternoon; we set up our tent on the gravel car park because the ground was saturated from recent rains. Our longest day to date at 125km.

Our intent was to be able to have more time in both Ravenna and Ferarra, but due to our late departure from Rome we were now short on time. We spent an hour and a half taking in the cyclo-fied town of Ferarra, and then rolled out to follow the Destro Po River cycle-path. Again it was pretty, and peaceful with only a handful of cars over the first 55km. We were again struck by how tolling flat riding can be - it sounds funny, but when you ride flat terrain you must always pedal to make progress, and since we had lots of distance to cover we pushed ourselves a bit. With hills you grind up, to be rewarded by coasting down the other side, in general preferable to both of us. The final 10km into Chioggia returned us to congested roadways, round-a-bouts, and many large trucks. We made it to Camping Adriatico at Sotto Marina, a built-up resort beach town replete with amusement park rides, hotels, and kitschy beach resorts. We learned that it was Italian Freedom day, and the campground was almost at capacity. We were pretty tired after covering 235km over the past 2-days, so we passed out and barely noticed the campers pouring in and setting up around our tent as we slept.

Riding into Chioggia the next morning to catch the ferry was an impressive experience as there were thousands of people, a good number on scooters and bikes all going to the market near the ferry dock. Hundreds of folks were also heading out on the same ferry as us to enjoy a day of site-seeing or bicycle riding. It turned out to be the perfect way to approach Venice from the barrier islands that enclose the larger Venetian Lagoon. After a short 30km of pedaling the final of 3 short ferry rides deposited us on the outskirts of Venice, from there we rode to Piazzele Roma and quickly learned why no one rides bikes in Venice. Carrying our loaded bikes over the bridge spanning the grand canal along with thousands of tourists was memorable, but no huge deal as we are getting pretty adept at getting our bikes trough all manner of obstacles. We had arrived to Venice at last!