Chioggia in March Day 2

This short break is a bit of a gamble, so I take it easy first thing the next day while Andrea goes out to explore. We are both out again by 10 o’clock and stop for breakfast number two, this time a more Italian version involving a brioche. Then we set out to explore Chioggia in detail. It’s not too large, ideal. We walk along Corso del Popolo admiring some of the palazzi. Chioggia, even this central part, the heart of the historical centre, is not rebuilt, clean and tidy and polished for tourism. There are cars parked, because people actually live in the centre, it hasn’t become just a short stay area for tourists. Signs and cafè chairs and tables and awnings may not please those looking for the perfect photo, but there are many corners which are pretty and the overused word authentic comes to mind, or just a place getting on with business as it has always done without bowing down to tourist stereotypes.  

At the end of Corso del Popolo I study the timetable for the boats to Pellestrina for a future trip and then we go over Ponte Vigo and down Riva Vena. This is the most attractive canal of Chioggia, with the ancient palazzi, numerous small bridges, and boats. In the shade it’s cool but the sun is doing its best and just a few minutes are enough to warm up again. We walk slowly. This part of Chioggia is very photogenic and the spring sunshine shows it at its best.

We go all the way to the end of Riva Vena and have a look at a couple of churches, then return to the apartment before going to Trattoria Lanterna Blu for lunch. This is an old-fashioned trattoria, come una volta, like they used to be. We book for 11.45, a good idea, because by 12.15 the place is absolutely packed, chairs and tables as close as they can be, workers, labourers, local people, a few tourists.

They do a fixed menu for 18 euros, so we have one fixed menu and a ‘bollito misto di pesce’ supposedly an ‘antipasto’ but enough for  main course. It includes two scampi, two razor clams, octypus salad, baccalà mantecato, a sort of patè of dentice with sottoaceti, a bit of smoked salmon, the edible part of some scallops and maybe some other bits and pieces I don’t remember. For the fixed menu we have fusilli with pancetta e trevigiana and then smoked herring with polenta and a side of baked Chioggia insalata. Water, house wine, coffee. Total 45 euros. Not expensive. Good portions, wholesome food. But the noise and the amount of people, not to mention the queue of people hoping in a table, don’t make for relaxation, so we soon head back to the apartment to rest. 

The plan for the rest of the day is quite ambitious as things are – to walk from the apartment to the end of the ‘diga’. It’s a round trip of just under ten kilometres, easy under normal circumstances, not so easy at the moment. But we take it slowly and it’s a very pleasant walk, through ’old’ Chioggia, across the bridges and Isola dell’Unione on the walkway next to the boats, along the Lungolaguna of Sottomarina and then the final part past the campsites to the start of the diga. It’s a beautiful day, sunny with a perfectly cloudless sky, calm sea with hardly a breath of wind. There are lots of people around even though it’s just a Monday afternoon. It must be a popular place to stroll, past the Trabucchi, 

with the sea on either side and a view of the Mose dam which is part of the system to protect Venice from the Acqua Alta. We get as far as the end of the diga, where are a lot of people are sitting sunbathing, and then walk back, stopping at the “indiga” bar for a coffee. By the time I get back I’m tired but happy and still have the energy to go to see the sunset. A man is fishing with some success – several large cuttlefish. A fantastic day!