The Lido, Venice

Arrived in Venice mid morning after taking a car, plane, coach and then vaporetta to The Lido.

I wasn't expecting to be blipping these sorts of scenes from Venice, having stayed in the heart of Venice on one of the canals when there in Oct 2010, but the B&B accommodation this time was on The Lido being an 11km island in between the Adriatric sea and Venice.

The Lido forms the main land barrier between Venice and the open sea. For many years a succession of Doges made their way out to the shallow waters of the Lido to celebrate a the Ceremony of Venice's marriage to the sea by dropping a ring into the waters. Acknowledging the important role the sea has played in the history of Venice, and illuminating how Venice depends on the mercy of the sea for its continued survival.

It is now where the Venice Film festival takes place in September and lots of people holiday. There are some rather grand residences and hotels.

The beach (on the Adriatic side) has fine sand with lots of beach huts and plenty of sand still left to stretch out on. The beach huts looked very nice all neatly lined up in there matching colours but I do love the multicoloured individual styled beach huts we have around the UK, for their character.

To be part of the scene your 'must have' accessories are a bicycle or a scooter (Vespa of course!) and a small dog (any breed, just small). I just loved the feel of the place and could have quite happily spent a bit more time there although it was heating up with the temperatures.

The Lido itself has a lovely relaxing seaside summer holiday feel about it and after a day in Venice, with the hoards of tourists, was a refreshing place to return to on an evening or just chill for a day.

Most people seem to get around on bicycles, with hundreds of bicycles being chained to the numerous bicycles racks around the main centre, next to the vaporetta 'landings' and residences. Some of the bikes looked like they had been abandoned years ago with just the wire springs left on the saddle. The island also has cars and even canals.

I'll add some photos of the bicycles to the blipfolio when I get on to the main computer as currently blipping from the app.

The drink is a Spritz, a typical aperitif in Venice. According to the original recipe it is made of white wine (1/3), carbonated water (1/3), Aperol (1/3), lemon peel, one olive. For a bitter taste you can include Campari instead of Aperol.

Thank you all for your well wishes and I'm only sorry I couldn't blip whilst I was away but will be catching up now :)

Nikon D7000