Venezia...

I pulled off the A4 at dusk 40 EUR poorer than when I left Milan.  The toll roads in Italy are crazy expensive.  It looks like I'll have another 30 EUR still to pay before I get to Croatia.  Add to that the $8 per gallon in fuel and this will end up being an expensive side trip.  I thought paying 110 EUR per night for a hotel in Milan was expensive but it may end up being cheaper than riding and camping.  Oh well - at least I visited Venice and will ride through a sliver Slovenia and get to see a little bit of Croatia. 

So I didn't run into George and Amal in Venice but I did see Matt Damon and his wife zip under a bridge I was on in a water taxi.  I would never have noticed if it weren't for the people on an adjacent restaurant patio screaming MATT, MATT, MATT.  Supposedly there were a whole slew of celebs around for the wedding but I only saw Matt and his wife.  

Venice is a pretty crazy city - it took me several hours to figure out how to navigate it.  You are pretty much walled in 90% of the time and are constantly hitting "canal jail" - when you choose an alleyway that just dead ends into a canal with the only choice to retrace your route backwards.  Occasionally the street opens up to huge courtyards with beautiful historic buildings, statues and restaurant patios.  To say Venice is a unique city would be a ridiculous understatement.  I'm glad I went to check it out.  I only stayed until midday as I had a 300+ km ride to Croatia ahead of me - although I did get on the early bus and got there before 7am.  I even had to wait for a cafe to open to get my first espresso doppio of the day.  The campground was only 4 km from Venice with busses running every 15 minutes from a stop just down the street - very convenient.  I had another espresso and a slice of delicious pizza for lunch before heading back to the campground to get the bike and got the road.

Some random pics from my morning in Venice...