My first few trips to Venice were spent on the Lido. As a young teacher, I enlisted a group of my students to travel with me to Europe, and I relied on a big educational tour company to do all the planning and guiding. This was great because I had no experience in Europe other than the three weeks i had spent there as a college student.
The hotels on the Lido were good enough, but we only had time to sleep and then we were off to ride a boat to Venice to see the sights. I can, however, remember one morning when we did have time to walk down for a look at the Adriatic Sea before getting on the bus to go to Florence. I remembered thinking it would be nice just spend a day here relaxing on the beach. But no, not on a student trip! There was way too much sights and itinerary to pack in.
My first student trip in 1997 found me traveling from Switzerland to Venice, then to Nice, and finally to Geneva. It was a lot of miles in just a few days! But I think on day three of the tour we arrived in Venice Lido. My group was mostly girls with just two guys. Anyway, Charlotte (my wife) and I got talked into taking the kids to a disco on the Lido. We found out later that this disco was strictly designed for students of this tour company and it invited in local boys from the Lido to interact with the mostly young teenage female crowd. You can only imagine the panic Charlotte and I had when faced with this situation!
So you have heard a little of my first experiences on the Lido of Venice. Why would I want to go back?! I will tell you more in my next post.
David