The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Cruise the Sile and be swept away by Venice’s charms
Robin and his family enjoy a trip round the Venetian lagoon on board Magnifique No 9
Sailing slowly down the sleepy River Sile with only otters and egrets for company, it seems unlikely one of the world’s great cities awaits just across her lifeblood lagoon. Welcome to Magnifique No. 9, the trusty aquatic steed we’re steering on what proves to be an epic adventure around one of Europe’s most charming and historic corners.
To say my children are very excited at the start of the week is dramatically understating things.
Their smiles are as wide as the Venetian lagoon as they meet their wee pals Lucy and Isla, who are joining us on our Le Boat cruise. Their mum and dad, Kate and John, are along for the ride, too, and come in very handy as they’ve much more experience of messing about on boats than my wife and I have.
Experience isn’t necessary at all for taking one of Le Boat’s motor cruisers out, we learn at our hire base. The affable Neil literally shows us the ropes after giving us a short briefing in the chart room, where we fine tune our plans for the week. The staff at the base talk us through the setup, answering all our questions with a patient smile even though they probably get asked the same questions all the time.
Soon we cast adrift and the wee ones whoop as we leave behind the world of road traffic and mobile phones, swapping it for the soporific banks of the lazy River Sile. Once alive with wooden boats serving the needs of the growing aquatic empire of Venice, we see far more swans, ducks, egrets and cormorants than people.
We settle into a gentle rhythm. By definition it’s a slow one as our vessel isn’t built to race. Our Magnifique is designed for comfort and there are four cabins that comfortably sleep eight of us - and crucially three bathrooms.
The open galley is spacious, too, with a brace of fridges to house the foodie goodies we pick up in the local shops and markets.
Italy is, of course, famous for its restaurants and we discover and savour a liberal sprinkling. It’s also a pleasure dining upstairs on the sun deck, which handily has a second helm. This sun deck is a great place to look out for the wildlife that is our constant companion and proves handy for arrival of prosecco aperitifs and a dram over a game of cards later on.
As the mercury is nudging 30C we make our first target the popular beach resort of Lido di Jesolo. Getting there proves fun as we have to negotiate a trio of low bridges. Mercifully we encounter few bridges and locks during the week but those we do are automatic.
The most we ever have to do is call a number to get someone to crank them into action. The girls love the first of the day’s ponte trio, which is a roughly constructed pontoon structure that floats off to let us through.
Handily our base, the Marina del Faro, is just a short walk from a sweeping Adriatic beach. We spend a couple of days wrapped in the charms of the shallow waters and Italy’s largest water park. It proves hard to pull my daughters (ten-year-old Tara and seven-year-old Emma) away but a bigger prize awaits in the shape of Venice.
The busy waterways can seem a daunting prospect when you are steering your own boat as they are occupied by myriad other vessels, from tiny wee fishing boats and chugging public vaporetto ferries, right through to speedy water taxis and zipping police “cars”. I needn’t have worried.
We have a clear target in the form of the Marina Santelena, on the eastern fringes of the main island. We plan out a course, carefully remembering the advice Neil has given us back at base. We eke, south away from the busier channels, using a meandering approach through marshland alive with all
manner of birdlife. Here the only other people we see are fishermen in their wooden boats using techniques that have changed little in centuries.
A final push takes us across a short busier stretch of the lagoon into the marina and the reward that awaits is two days with our floating hotel safely moored up in Venice. We meander around, checking out my favourite pizzeria, visiting one of the world’s most famous squares in the form of St Mark’s and venturing into the grand basilica that serves as a testament to the city’s devotion to their patron saint. The girls love the leafy park that is just a short walk from the marina, too.
You could spend a month in Venice and not see everything. On this trip we don’t feel guilty at not seeing it all as the format of a boat trip means there is always somewhere else to set a course for, another isle tempting in the distance.
That island is Mazzorbo,, a relaxed wee isle where Le Boat handily have moorings. By now we are well used to getting on and off moorings and are a slick ship-shape crew marshalled by Captain John Mucklow. Mazzorbo’s mooring is ideal as it allows us to explore not one but two islands.
First up is Mazzorbo itself. We chance upon a little shady park where the kids enjoy bouts of playing on the swings mixed in with time spent reclining in the shade. For me the highlight of our stay is delving behind the wall behind our boat to discover the hidden vineyard of Venissa. This impressive operation grows all of their own grapes. They also grow most of the vegetables for their superb Michelin-starred restaurant, where we savour lunch.
Just across a wooden footbridge by our boat lies Burano. The Venetian lagoon is sprinkled with myriad islands but they don’t come any more picturesque than Burano. For centuries, the island’s men were fishermen, while the local woman mended the nets with a sideline in creating intricate lace.
The legacy of those days is lace on sale in the souvenir shops and a small fishing fleet that furnishes the local restaurants with lagoon seafood. The most dramatic legacy of all are the prettily painted houses, fashioned in bright colours so the fishermen could make their way home easier.
There are so many advantages to having your own boat for exploring this corner of Italy.
One is that you can hang around areas after the day trippers have gone. Burano is busy by day but as evening draws in we are left with this picturesque island to ourselves.
All too soon we are turning tail and easing back up the Venetian lagoon as our week draws to a close. We are not done yet, though and sneak in one last night not at our base, but a few minutes further up the Sile at Casier.
This bijou charmer sports a wide bend in the river, a tree-shrouded waterfront, a pretty bell tower and a pedestrianised main square.
There are the essentials we come across in abundance on our week-long adventure - a pizzeria and a gelateria for our nightly cooling ice creams.
We ease the next morning reluctantly back into our base where Neil is waiting with a wave and a big smile. The girls genuinely don’t want to get off, neither do their pals. Daddy is reluctant, too, as I don’t want to leave the world of sleepy waterways, playful otters, delicious pizzas and a world-famous city behind.