The next leg of our Italian adventure was a 6 day cycling trip from Venice (actually Maestre, which is the mainland part of Venice) to Florence.

When I saw this graffiti in Florence, it made me think quite a bit. Why would an angel, wearing goggles, be asking “What is the Urban Prophesy?”. It was quite a beautiful piece of art, in the same vein as Michelangelo, who, of course, was also from Florence. If Michelangelo were painting today, would he be a dirty hip-hop graffiti artist, chased down by the police and fat politicians? Not a nice thought, but I think that the Urban Prophesy is the fall of the cities due to climate change.

So, back to the adventure… The first day we traveled all along the Lido di Venezia, which is a long strip of sandbar extending south of the Venice island. We had several chances to swim in the Adriatic. Most of this trip was through flat farmlands, and we had to cycle in up to 35C temperatures. But surviving that, we made it to the crazy traffic of Florence, completing the cycling part of our trip.

Do you often have music in your head?

When you’re on a multi-day bicycle trip, there’s lots of time to think about almost everything. After about 20 replays of CCR’s “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” in my head, I switched over to “Magical Mystery Tour“. Then I realized that this is great… head music is safer than mp3, you don’t need any equipment, can change tracks without even pushing a button, and you even get to play lead head guitar. Sometimes I even have 10,000 fans cheering me on!

Ok, enough BS, let’s look at some photos…

[click on any photo for slideshow]

Fishing nets along the Lido shore

The Adriatic Sea

Chioggia canal at night

Chioggia

Chioggia

Adria

Our favourite bar in Comacchio. Went there several different times.

The Comacchio bar owner was flirting with Chantal (or was it the other way around?)

Comacchio

As in everywhere in the world, Comacchio has old men solving the world’s problems.

Comacchio canal

Travelling around the Lagoon on the road to Ravenna.

Flamingos in the Lagoon.

Ravenna

Along the road to Brisighella.

Florence

We had lunch in this little box of a cafe.