Italy: Venice, Po river + Mantua

We welcome you aboard your new home-from-home from 4.30 pm onwards, and then regroup for the introductory briefing – at 6.30 pm – with your tour leader, skipper and crew, along with a first refreshing “aperitivo”. After dinner you can savor Venice at night, now free of the crowds and at her most romantic: Benvenuti a Venezia!

After breakfast – and perhaps following a wander off the beaten track with your tour leader – you all meet up with our Venetian guide for a tour through the historic center. Christened La Serenissima (“The Most Serene”), the Venetian Republic held sway over much of the Mediterranean (and beyond) for centuries – both as a military power and a beacon of culture, her explorers reaching as far as China and Newfoundland. After your guided tour, you have the afternoon free to enjoy the city at your own pace.

Leaving Venice behind after a gentle cruise in front of St Mark’s square, our cycling adventure starts on the Lido, the first of the two islands you explore today. Fashionable in high society ever since the Belle Époque, the Lido di Venezia is now home to the International Venice Film Festival and its galaxy of stars. A short island-hop takes you into another world: Pellestrina, where you ride past the picturesque cottages and boats of this humble fishing backwater. You rejoin the barge and sail to Chioggia – a bustling and colorful fishing harbor known as “Little Venice”.

You open the day with a stroll through Chioggia, followed perhaps by a visit up the millennial clock tower – the oldest in the world – for some breathtaking views. Weather permitting, you can also bask in the sun at a fine-sand beach nearby: a dip in the Adriatic, a hot savory piadina – and you are well and truly local! Then onwards into the delta of the life-giving Po. This unique wetland is the prime reserve in Europe for herons and home to a colony of flamingos. You moor for the night in Adria, a key Roman port, once washed by the waters of the sea which bears its name. Adria is also renowned for its Etruscan and Greek heritage. An after-dinner passeggiata into town for a well-earned grappa or gelato is in order.

After a short cruise you saddle your bikes and, following the Po through farmland and hamlets, you reach Ferrara. Under its ruling family, the Este, this City State attracted architects, artists and scholars for centuries, pioneering town planning principles that have been emulated worldwide ever since. To this day, Ferrara University ranks among the best, and the town is dubbed the ”Cycling Capital of Italy”.  A private bus and trailer takes you back to your floating hotel in Zelo, a sleepy village on the Canal Bianco, the waterway which runs parallel to the Po.

This morning you head for the village of Bergantino, home of the distinctive Museum of Fairground Rides and its collection of street organs, all expertly restored (and thunderous!). But first things first: you are in the heartland of Grana Padano – the arch-rival of Parmesan – and after visiting the local cheese factory, you enjoy a degustazione of sharp and seasoned Grana, washed down with a glass of Valpolicella. After your customary picnic lunch, you leave Bergantino and follow the river to Ostiglia, famed for its medieval fortress and the fierce fighting that took place here in 1945, as the Allies and partisans drove Hitler’s forces back. You ride on and rejoin our barge at Governolo Lock, where Mantua’s River Mincio flows into the Po. Veering north, you cruise through the lush wetlands that finally emerge into the glorious “lakes” of Mantua.

A day dedicated to the discovery of this little visited cultural gem, its three picturesque “lakes” formed by the Mincio, and its surrounding countryside – once a City State ruled by the Gonzaga family and now considered by many as Italy’s “Sleeping Beauty”. This afternoon we meet our Mantuan guide for a walking tour of the historic center, and enjoy the rest of the day in town, at our own leisure.

Departure after breakfast.