Day 30: Longarone to Venezia- 11km

Headed out just after 9:00 after another fabulous and relaxing breakfast. Felt really well taken care of at the Casa Gilda. Another beautiful day. Hoping to catch the Cortina Express to Venice, at 10:30?

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Talked, with very few words, to a lady at the train station who was waiting for a different bus with her cute black dog “Rocky” and she interfered when the Cortina Express finally arrived so they waited for me. The bus stop was on the opposite site of the train station which made total sense as we were heading south but for some reason my sense of orientation didn’t work this morning. There is no eating on the bus as a lady behind me found out!!! The coach was absolutely spotless!

Kind of sad leaving the mountains behind after hiking for so many weeks but I guess it’s also time to continue. It’s the wilderness, loneliness, and being alone with yourself in nature that I am going to miss and this intense sense of being present.

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We joined a toll road, there are quite a few of them in Italy, and went through sets of very long tunnels, still basically following the Piave River to the south which has a lot of wider sections so it often looks like a lake.

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As soon as we left the mountains behind the landscape changed drastically. It turned into this huge flat basin, a lot more populated and orchards, nurseries, and especially vineyards everywhere. The architecture looks very “Italian” with old towers here and there and the vegetation changes. There are tall ornamental looking pine trees and the typical tall and slender cypress trees.

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And then quite a bit of corn (for polenta?), peas, and olive trees.

Got off the bus at Mestre and had to take the train to Venice from there, 11 Minute ride.

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Made friends quickly and found the Hotel Santa Lucia easily.

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Was so early that I headed out mid afternoon to explore. Easy to do these days if you have a phone with gps. You just go wherever it takes you and as long as your battery doesn’t die you can find your way back to the hotel when you get tired. No need for paper maps!

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Love Venice, especially the less famous sites! Although there are a lot less tourists this year I still prefer the less popular and less frequented places. It is like a maize, you never know where the next corner or bridge or alley will take you! Also reminds me of my struggles to find the right path while hiking,

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Found a lovely quiet place by a canal for dinner and had to have an Aperol Spritz which is Aperol with white wine or Prosecco and some sparkling mineral water.

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The oranges, reds, and yellow colours are just gorgeous!

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Mask makers everywhere! Lots of „paint your own mask“ options too and you can have your photo taken in costumes. Cheap plastic masks and even cheaper souvenirs but many original paper mache masks too. The first Carnival of Venice took place in 1268. During the carneval was the only time when upper and lower classes would mix. Wearing a mask allowed participants to move and behave more freely. An interesting feature really whereas today we think it restricts us.

Kind of ironic that I am in Venice looking at some of the old style masks with the long noses that came to exist during the plaque as a precaution to not get sick and now the whole world is wearing masks due to Corona. Originally, the doctors treating plaque victims wore these long nosed masks, an outfit invented by the French physician Charles de Lorme, and worn as a protection. It is tightly linked to the history of Venice, as the city was hit by several plague outbreaks between 1361 and 1680. As a city living off trade, and ships around everywhere there would have been rats everywhere as well. And it wasn’t the rats that carried the plaque but their fleas.

There was already an outbreak in the 6th century and the bacterium was even found in an ancient Swedish tomb linking this to the Neolithic Decline. The bacterium was first discovered in 1894 by Alexandre Yersin, a SwissFrench physician and bacteriologist during an epidemic of the plague in HongKong. With antibiotics the prognosis for victims today is a much better one.

The long nose of the mask was stuffed with herbs and flowers and sealed with wax to prevent infection but also protect the nose from the horrible smell of the dead people. During the 14th century the Black Death has killed about 50 million people. Vaccines have not been found to be useful and there are 3 versions of Yersinia Pestis, the bacterium responsible. It can enter the body through the skin, the bloodstream (flea bites), or can be airborne, likely infecting anyone inhaling it with a short incubation period of two to four days, but sometimes just a few hours. It still exists today with a few thousand cases a year. Talk about being there for the long term! Could there be parallels?

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Pigeons taking a bath, dogs were next and then people filling their water bottles.

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Beautiful sunset over the Grand Canal.

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