Getting away from touristy Venice for a few hours is easy. All one needs to do (and listen up closely, it's a well kept travelling secret), is to board the vaporetto to the Lido, bus across the island, and board a ferry to Chioggia. Located at the far end of the Lagoon, this former Roman settlement will greet you with grid-laid streets and canals, with laundry flapping in the wind in the best traditions of Italian neorealism, and with the freshest fish at the fish market (best sampled at a local restaurant). Unlike Venice, this little island has cars, and after a few days in the "quintessential city", that may be a tad disorienting. Who, and why, may need cars in a city easily traversed on foot from one end to the other in a day? That remains a mystery. Still, the place is charming, and you will find very little tourists here. Families out on a Sunday outing, neighbours sharing an espresso, children dressed up for the Carnivale more in the traditions of Halloween than in the brocade and velvet of Venice... This is real Italy. And the only marginally unreal aspect is that golden, clear, incredible afternoon light of the Mediterranean in February.
© Bella Kuchuk Photography
