We get up early, have a quick coffee as a starter for the day and get into the TWIKE.
Our goal for today is to get to Venice as quickly as possible in order to have as much time left over as possible to explore the city together.
Since there is a direct Autostrada from Milan to Venice and my friends in Brescia assured me that the road surface was good, I decided to give this option a try:
We join the Autostrada with just a few cars – we expected more for 7am – and easily take part in equally unexpected slow-driving traffic at around 90-95kph which we can easily be part of since this is around our max speed when driving with two people and some luggage.
The road surface is pristine! Since we TWIKE pilots like to pump our tyres to rock-hard 7 bar, anything less than perfect at 95kph will make your ride a long one and quickly make your vehicle disintegrate.
We are greeted with another perfect day – after a dramatic red-circle sunrise temperatures in the TWIKE start to get very comfortable and we are both looking forward to an equally perfect day in Venice!
Soon it’s time to re-hydrate – Italian-style!
Whilst we’re enjoying our coffee, as usual, when a TWIKE ventures anywhere outside of Switzerland, it attracts a fair amount of interest. Incredulous Italians – one small group at a time – walk around TW560 and ask themselves: How did this thing get here? How far can it go … and how fast? Thanks to the QR-code on both sides, I’ve had a fair amount of traffic to TW560’s extensive Q&A page.
After our break, we continue on our trip to Venice.
Although most of the drive is flat, I was very surprised to encounter some climbs during our drive to Venice – some of which were very steep. Luckily, TW560 produces a very rich set of telemetry data anytime it moves and with some software, I can visualize our drive and the climbs I’ve just written about:
I really like Italian road-signs … especially those with just one name such as VENEZIA, MILANO or ROMA.
At 10am we arrive at the causeway to Venice – as last time, we have to block the left hand lane, since there is a super-mean rim-busting single rail in the middle of the right hand lane. The indentation between the rail and tarmac is wide enough for a TWIKE tyre. Getting a front wheel in there isn’t too much of a concern, since simply stopping and lifting TW560’s front will do the trick… fully loaded back wheels however, they will not take even slight forces off the axis kindly and will break (as they already have on TW560!)
At the end of the causeway, crossing the rail is unavoidable – we slow down to 10kph and cut over the rail at a large angle to make 100% sure everything will be OK.
Having gingerly avoided major damage, we arrive at the toll booth I spent lots of time last time we were here.
Things are better this time around: They already know TW560…you’ve already taken this ferry, right, Sir? Yes, why? Well, we have a new directive on how to handle this kind of vehicle! Wow. I’m impressed.
I really love driving on ferries with TW560 – it’s something I usually don’t get to do at all.
And seeing TW560 in such an environment is very interesting, too!
Now it’s time to enjoy the 45-minute ferry ride to Lido di Venezia that takes us past many famous Venetian places.
More father-daughter quality-time 🙂
After parking our TWIKE at our villa and plugging it in to charge, we set out to discover the city together. I, personally, in Venice, like to get thoroughly lost in all the small alleys and discover new things every time I go…and never find them again 🙂 (as with one of the best bakeries in Venice, Farina, of which I had forgotten both the name and location…just to stumble across it again, totally randomly)
We hop on a Vaporetto and head to the Rialto bridge, one of Venice’s best-known sights.
Venice itself is always worth a visit – although I’ve already driven past Venice with my TWIKE without visiting
Best time to visit Venice is either beginning of November or February. Rather cold, good chance of clear weather and near to no tourists. Compared to my last visit over Easter, there are still many people but it’s not unbearable.
As with my younger daughter, I invested in an extended gondola trip with a very chatty Gondoliere.
A third-generation Gondoliere with a 16-year-old son who also wants to become one, he had a wealth of super-interesting information absolutely wanted to share with me and my daughter.
The rest of our day was filled with my daughter shopping and myself enjoying the discovery of new parts of Venice I didn’t know yet.
This day’s perfect weather, coupled with rising humidity created a scenes of surreal beauty whilst the city bade its farewell to us.
As we weren’t in the mood to eat early, we sat at the sea on L’isola di Lido and waited for the sun to set – a beautiful and fitting end to yet another perfect day!
Tomorrow, we’re going to leave Venice for Ljubljana. We’ve decided to make a small detour to visit the northernmost point of the Mediterranean sea. Both of us looking forward to this drive and visiting Ljubljana – a gem of smaller world capitals.
