Carabinieri

I forgot to mention my encounter with the Ravenna Carabinieri (police) the other day.... I got pulled over on the road into Ravenna, for doing 60 in a 50 zone it seems. The cop asked to see my driver's licence. He looked at it and then went over to his partner. They both looked at it. Discussed it for a while. Cop #1 came back over and checked the car's rego. Registered to Hertz. They discussed it some more. Eventually he came back, gave me back my licence and waved me on my way.
I guess the paperwork wasn't worth it.

Yesterday I drove to Venice. I completely uneventful journey: flat and reasonably straight. I caught the ferry across to the Lido and parked myself at the hotel. The ferry is 18.50 euros for car and one person - much cheaper than paying for parking in Venice itself. The Lido (Italian for beach) is a long narrow island just across from Venice proper. I walked around today and checked it out. The Adriatic Sea side is where the beaches are - most are private though. I strolled on to the public beach but wasn't impressed. It may be perfectly fine but grey sand always looks dirty to me. The lagoon side is more interesting. The main bus station is there, on the water, and there's a nice walk along the waterside towards San Niccolo. Being Sunday, the church was occupied so I didn't go in. Being Sunday, most shops and even some restaurants are closed.
Nice views across to Venice all along the "Riviera".
Tomorrow I'll go across to Venice and start exploring. I've got my Venice Card (40 euros for entry into the Palace and ten other museums and churches) and a three day bus pass (33 euros, as opposed to 6.50 one way). I need to find a bookshop that stocks English books. Damn that kindle and its broken screen!
Internet in the hotel is a sham. There's a free computer in the lobby but I can't use that for flickr and it won't let me access yahoo mail for some unknown reason. Good for facebook and tourist research and that's about it. To use the hotel's wifi costs 5 euros an hour. That's just outrageous. However, someone close by has an open wifi connection that I've tapped into. It's not available all the time though, so uploads and updates might be a bit haphazard this week.

Later...