The Countryside of Venice

So we're back in Italy for what will likely be the last time for a long while. With our cruise leaving from Venice tomorrow, we're pretty much resting at the Venice Resort Hotel near the airport. With a late flight, it was much easier to get here - and alot cheaper to stay than the Venice Island hotels. However, besides its proximity to the airport, this hotel has really turned out to be a cool place for a runner to bed down. The hotel is a converted farm and is located right next to many square miles of country on the outskirts of the mainland Venice suburb of Mestre. It's a perfect place for another Steve J run - Italian style!

Farm runnin' is the place for me....

With the late night arrival (on a delayed flight), running this morning was out of the question. This forced me to go for a high noon running departure. At 92 F, it was a little bit cooler than Bucharest, but the 55% humidity at this hour negated the advantage. Although not as bad as Florida, Venice is not the driest of places in Italy for sure. With a little help from Google maps beforehand, I set out with my GPS "buddy" and hit a country road called Pezzana. The sun-baked road is surrounded by mostly soybean fields and some good looking corn which was well over 6 ft high. With a rare shade tree every now and then, it was stinking hot! Besides the heat, the only snag was that I had to divert my route when the road dead-ended into some kind of military barracks. I saw some tractor paths which were obviously on private land, but I decided to give it shot anyway. After all, I could either play the dumb foreigner (I'm really good) or count on my Italian heritage as a last resort if I got in any trouble.

Hot as it was, the run was quite peaceful. There were only 2 cars during the whole 4 miler that passed me. The flat-as-a-pancake fields with irrigation canals dividing them up could have easily passed for inland Florida farm country. Well, that's all for now. There is a chance I could squeeze in another mainland Italy run tomorrow before we head to the ship. After that, any miles I get next week will have to come on my portable track called Splendor of the Seas courtesy of Royal Caribbean. See ya!