Venice to Florence to Ferrara - Writing

Just outside of Venice, we heard you couldn't bring your bikes in the city. As neither of us had ever been, we couldn't understand how a city didn't allow bikes. I have never heard such a thing. Staying at a campground that sits along the peninsula across from Venice, we took a 45 minute passanger ferry. Always a fun way to travel for us, especially Ryan as he adores boats. Barely staying on the outskirts of a storm, cuddling in with our fellow passangers to avoid the rain on the boat, the sun was shining and the skies turned blue just as we landed in Venice. A city built on logs and traveled by canal and river boats. What a sight to see. Couples and families took the boats that are rowed by a person standing on the back, intended for tourists and tours of the city. Boats with motors take the locals around town, dropping them off on a few stairs that lead fromt he water directly into a building or sidewalk. It is an incredible city filled with tourists, shops, food, cafes, sidewalks and bridges to easy get lost, which of course we love. If you have a chance to visit Venice, I would in a heartbeat. It's so unique and who wouldn't want to spend some time on a floating city?

After a few days of relaxation on the beach, we set off to ride our way east through Slovenia. After 20 miles or so, for some unknown reason we decided to completely change directions and actually returned to where we came from and started riding south through Italy. There are little islands that sit south of the peninsula and east of the mainland and ferries that travel to each and allow bikes. We spent a day island hopping and getting to see these unique Italian islands with small cars and markets, and riding our way south.
Hitting the end of the tourist season, we spent many days just playing at the beaches. With the sun shining and blue skies surrounding us, we took swims and enjoyed the touristy towns in the slow season. Hugging the coast, we rode through lagoons, winding our way on our south. The mosquitos were so intense at times that I couldn't even stand to be outside. Ryan would take over the cooking and we would have dinner in our tent. He is so fantastic to travel with. So kind and always does the dirty work!

Taking the advice from people from the Netherlands, we made our way to the town of Ferrara, a place we absolutely love and will always stick out in our minds as one of our favorite stops along our journey. Ferrara is a walled city with a 10k path that can be walked/run all the way around ontop of it. Of course we couldn't resist taking a run on an ancient wall, which even led us through markets that are on this wall. Absolutely fantastic! We spent a few days here unexpectedly because we just fell in love with this city. The architecture, people watching, window shopping, and cafes are all so beautiful and a slice of true Italy. We would sit on the steps in town eating slices of pizza from the little woman who owned a small pizza shop of standing room only and watch the people going about their everyday lives. Everyone travels by bike, so we would see people in suits, women in dress skirts, kids on their way to school all weaving their way through this city. And it is so trendy. Ryan and I could have easily spent thousands and thousands of dollars refilling our wardrobes. That is something we are both excited for once we plant our feet. Clothes. We wear the same almost everydayy, having options will be such a treat. Selling most of our possessions before we left for this trip, we both will get to "redecorate" ourselves, as I like to think of it. This extended travel really makes us appreciate the littlest things in life and will give us an opportunity to rebuild and redecorate wherever we live next. It was refreshing to go through our stuff and get rid of the all the clutter we consumed in 5 years in Boulder. And it will be so nice to gather stuff again once we find a home that is not a tent.

From the great city of Ferrara, we traveled through Bologna that we heard so much about and could not wait to leave that city. We were dodging Vespas and car doors and could not find our way out. Poorly signed and extremely hectic, we left as quickly as we could and starting riding to Florence. Following a bike route from a piece of paper, no signs which at times is difficult, we made our way to beautiful Florence. The campground overlooked the city, literally overlooked the city, and was within walking distance. As always, we put on our walking shoes and spent 2 days of getting lost, admiring the sculptures, fixating on the talented artists that line the streets with paints or charcoal and relaxing with our books on random steps or benches. We even got to enjoy a movie while we there. We saw The America in this old school theater that had balcony seating like an opera and was gold plated and simply beautiful. What a treat! At times we would give our left feet for a lazy day of movie watching. Again, it's really the littlest things in ilfe that we miss the most.