Italy

another great day of big cities to visit incoming

after a few kilometers there was Treviso to visit and hence kinda no hotel or b&b got portafilters in use I ordered un caffé in Treviso.
No tourist in sight, I felt like an italian guy drinkin italian espresso for italian prices. Treviso is also surrounded by a river and got a nice old town as well, full of character

next stop: venice baby
After some 40ks in the arising heat (hitting 31°+ before 10am everyday) I found myself on a loong bridge in the ocean with a small town in sight, gettin bigger. Venice was a blast even I didn’t know that carry, pushing and riding a bike is forbidden for non-residents. The elderly of the residents made that really clear, in italian english and even german. I wasn’t sure what to make of it and went on. I thought riding was forbidden, what I‘m getting. Just prior to piazza san marco, polizia locale stopped my kindly an explained that I was in the wrong and that they have been called. At that moment I didn’t quite understand - when they saw me, I only pushed it. After ‚documenti‘ and paperwork they explained how and when I have to pay the 100€ fine. It sparked some ongoing controversies in my mind because at the moment of visiting I didn’t feel like doin some illegal stuff. But I also hate tourist not paying respect to what they visit. Never before I thought about it just because I didn’t know. Frankly, I don’t even know now what I‘ld have done to avoid that incident but visiting Venice. It came clear that the police enforces (in my mind) righteous rules of the city rightfully.
Nevertheless I‘m thinking about not paying at all because I didn’t find it disrespectful when considering what I am doing here. I also find that a hundred euros is way too much deterrence for an awfully dumb idea when thinking about the 1000 bridges in place. Whatever - I‘ll never do it again and will try to pay more attention to such things.
Whilst returning to the bridge I also had the first stranger-smalltalk whit a Canadian waiting for his wife and daughter to return from shopping; after I saw them returning it all made sense😅 he was nice and paid me a birra which we enjoyed talking about travel, the city’s regulations, life and my biketrip

next city: padova
I didn’t do a lot of research before the trip because it would have been a massive amount of gathering and then sorting information about hows and whens when I‘ve even let the dice decide my whereabouts.
consequently I‘ve let myself inspire of apple explore maps and me literally guessing which turn to take to see adorable things. So padova is the biggest and most unexplored city by me yet.

I then booked a kinda shady b‘nob‘ in Ferrara which was an exciting town to visit. I figured it has to be a student’s city because of the demographics of people I stumbled across. The city is a blast! Never before I‘ve seen such a uniform and lovely looking old town. Everything, I mean everything- was made of red bricks and a huge castello was lit in the night. I had a great dinner and a good drink in a very rushing bar. People were all over the place - inside’n‘out -and the 4 barkeepers tried to catch up with the incoming orders.

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