Make Time: Lido Beach

Our initial plan for Saturday was to get up early and then head over to Lido beach, which is a 30-40 minute boat ride from Venice. We get up around 11:30am. OK, so the first part of our plan failed, but obviously we needed the sleep. There is a very cool mask shop directly across from our BnB, so we walk in there and check it out to start our day. Great masks. Amazing artistry. Apparently this is the mask store that provided all the masks in the Stanley Kubrick film, Eyes Wide Shut. Nice. We don’t buy anything but we ask the store owner how to get to Lido, and luckily the boat landing where Reka arrived also takes us directly to Lido. That was easy. As we walk out from the mask store we remember seeing a great little hidden restaurant while we were walking the day before, so we head over there and luckily it’s open. The restaurant, called Al Vecio Marangon has room for no more than 15-20 people inside this place. It has more character and style than any other restaurant I’ve seen in Italy. The waiter is incredibly nice. We order what becomes the best meal of my entire trip. Wow. Prosciutto and melon. Tuna carpaccio with white pears and arugula. White sauce lasagna with zucchini. Unreal. We wash it down with a nice rose wine. During lunch we sit next to a girl from Argentina who now lives in Milan, and her aunt, who runs a restaurant in Barcelona. Interesting crowd – very cool. Reka and I agree that we’re coming back here for dinner again. It’s our last night together. It’s my last night in Italy. Can’t take any chances on going to a subpar restaurant. We tell the waiter that we’ll be back tonight, and he bids us a good day – says he’ll see us later. We head to the water taxi stop and then jump on the next boat that comes bye (no more than 5 minutes wait). A 30-minute boat ride later and we’re in Lido – a nice beach-type community. We hit the beach and relax in the sun for a few hours. Swim. People watch. Peanut gallery. Always a good time. It’s not the nicest beach in the world, but it feels good on this hot day. After a few hours we head back towards the boat, but first we see a pool hall on our walk so of course we play a best-of-three match. I win the first handily. Reka the second. Then I squeak out the last win for the overall victory. We’re both pretty competitive guys, so it’s fun to get serious in the games. After that we grab a boat back to our BnB and then decide to grab a few slices of pizza as a snack before dinner. Reka secures a spot at an outside bar that’s showing the Argentina vs Iran world cup match, and I go get the slices. As I am walking back with our food I hear the crowd erupt in cheer as Argentina scores with 3 minutes left in the game. Wow. Crazy game. Lots of Argentinians at the bar, so it’s fun to hear their excitement. We hang for a bit and people watch, and then head back to the BnB to clean up and then head back to our favorite restaurant. The waiter greets us with a smile and says it will only be a few minutes. I use the bathroom and as I come out I see that Reka has made friends with a nice-looking Italian couple. They are actually from Padova, which is a town not far from Venice, and they just came into town for the day. Reka had preached to them about how fantastic the restaurant is, so they get excited to eat as well. We all have an Aperol spritz together, and they end up paying for ours. Too nice. Very sweet people. They sit down first, and then when it’s time for us to sit as well we’re luckily seated right next to our new friends. Her name is Annelisa and her boyfriend is Andrea. They are in their 50’s, and couldn’t be cuter. You can feel the love between them. It’s a very comfortable type of love. Nice to be around. We talk a lot during dinner about traveling, music, painting, and life. So refreshing to meet such great people and share a meal. And yes, the dinner was just as good as the lunch. We tried a typical fish appetizer that Annelisa recommended, and it’s unreal. So great. We get the prosciutto and melon again, and then cap it off with seafood pasta. Amazingness. After our dinner we head back to the main square near our BnB for a drink and then onto the club again. Not as fun as the night before, but still some crazy dancing. We meet some fun people from the UK and have a nice dance circle. We end the night around 4am and close out a fantastic last day together in Venice.

Some videos from lunch:
Walking to lunch
Reka at lunch

We ran into some modern dancers on our way back from the beach:
Modern Dance Video 1
Modern Dance Video 2