When I arrived at Austria's Wien Meidling station to board an overnight train from Vienna to Venice last year, the informative screens said that my train was going to Switzerland.
I took my mum to Venice – it was instantly special
10.08.2023 - 20:27 / theguardian.com
My mum is not a sun bunny. She likes active holidays: walking about interesting towns, gazing at historical things (churches, art, gardens), plus non-spicy food and, possibly, some water to paddle in.
When my brother and I were young, our summers involved much traipsing through National Trust properties and banging seaside windbreaks into blustery British beaches. Before that, my parents travelled quite a bit: they drove round Europe in a Mini, even making it to Russia. But my dad can’t really manage a holiday these days, so my mum’s options are more limited. Day outings with her book group, occasionally further afield with a friend. And sometimes she goes on holiday just with me.
My mum and I are good at holidaying together, as long as nobody else comes, too: teenagers require too many compromises around food (never-ending pizzas) and activities (no museums, no secondhand shops, nothing “dead”). We both like to be busy but not hectic. Bit of culture, bit of window shopping, bit of people‑watching.
Our most recent jaunt was late last September to Venice – an exciting holiday for anyone, because it’s instantly special. Just getting to your hotel is a delight: a shared boat taxi skimming across the lagoon and into the canals, chugging up to rickety walkways and shadowy hotel doors, the driver helping passengers off the boat into unknown adventures.
We were last to disembark, as we were staying in a hotel on the Lido: another island, a slim strip of land in the Venetian Lagoon, a little way away from Venice proper. My mum had camped at the Lido when she was expecting me (“They wouldn’t let me go water-skiing because I was pregnant”), and it’s good for anyone wanting to escape the city’s tourist madness: cheaper and more everyday than higgledy-trinkety-glitzo Venice. It has a wide main street with a few restaurants. We kept meaning to have our evening meal in Venice itself but never did. The people-watching was too good, especially in Ristorante Gran Viale, a large local place filled with all ages, from a young couple with a tiny newborn to a boisterous group in their 70s, the women rattling with jewellery, the men with long hair combed back.
The Venice Biennale was on. The official part of this international art show is held at Giardini, a couple of vaporetto (public waterbus) stops on the way from the Lido to Venice proper. There are pavilions from each country, lined up like Lego pieces along shaded boulevards, each showcasing a representative artist, so you can pop into one, stay longer at another. Beware: you have to book for the Biennale, and, indeed, for almost everywhere else. I managed to snaffle the last couple of tickets for the fantastic Ducal Palace, but many of the main tourist haunts were
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