Five Cities, Five Distinct Personalities: Chioggia

We reluctantly bid farewell to Antonella and Padua and headed out for Chioggia.  By car, it's a simple 50 km, but to avoid major highways, we took the longer and scenic route and turned it into a 84 km jaunt.

The roads were flat.  The biggest challenge was avoiding the dead-ends caused by all the canals that inter-laced the Po delta.

You'll see from the map, Chioggia is 45 km south of Venice.  The main gate into the city tells the story of who ruled the town for centuries before Italian unification.

 

The coat of Arms of the Republic of Venice

Like it's more famous neighbor to the north, Chioggia is a city of canals.

View towards the other city in the lagoon

The principal difference between the two cities is that Venice is a tourist haven and Chioggia is a blue collar fishing village.

,Dinner in a fishing village

The main street is loaded with restaurants and shops to appeal to the few tourists they do get.  But if you cross one of the bridges, you end up in quiet and charming working-class neighborhoods, where the food is just as good and the Aperol Spritzes (called spritz aperol) are half the price, although the snacks are not as fancy, but great with aperol on a warm night.

Sit down, kick back and enjoy twilight, the real thing