Last Day of 2018 : Strolling Around Chioggia

First of all, Happy New year! or in Italian, we say 'Buon Anno Nuovo' or simply 'Buon Anno'

Where did you spend your last day of 2018 and New Year's Eve?

My little family and I spent the last day of 2018 in a small Venice-like city which is 2,5 hours away from San Donà di Piave.

Chioggia

We decided to spend this very last day of 2018 in Chioggia because we couldn't go to Milan for the bad weather. Some days before, we planned to go to Milan and stay like 3 nights there including spending New Year's Eve in Milan's Famous landmark: Duomo Milano but bad foggy winter days were all around Venice and even Veneto, there was even a yellow alert for the traffic. So, the plan screwed up, and instead of doing nothing at home, we chose to visit Chioggia. This was our first time.

We departed from San Donà di Piave in the early morning. That day, was really cold yet it seemed to be a sunny day. From San Donà di Piave to Chioggia, we could see the beautiful landscape of Venice at all because both are still parts 'comune' of Venezia.

At the time we passed a provincial road, we had seen a small quantity of winter fog. The road turned misty, then it got thicker and thicker. I checked my phone, the temperature dropped to -5° Celcius. My husband complained that it'd be better to stay at home on days like this. I barely responded.
We finally made it to Chioggia around 9.30 am and it was so foggy that the visibility was only one meter or so. So humid and cold at the same time and we could hardly see Venice's beautiful scenery.

Chioggia is situated on a small lagoon of Venice. It is about 25km south of Venice with the inhabitants of approximately 50.000. Most of Chioggiotti (people of Chioggia) are dedicated fishermen dated back to its ancient time.

Chioggia by far has it's 99 percent resemblance with Venice except the fact that for us it looks more habitable. Don't get us wrong, we love Venice, only it is so fricking crowded, expensive and a bit overrated. The era of social media has made Venice into a living hell. Inhabitants can't really live because you know, roads, gangs, aisle are packed with tourists (even most of them are so uneducated). Not to mention the flooding (high tide) that constantly hits Venice over the last decade). So seeing Chioggia's original vibrancy, brought fresh hope, that maybe one day, Venice would turn to its ingenious shape. Finger crossed.

One of Chioggia's bridges. The fog is indeed visible

Looks extraordinarily like Venice, right? It's called Canal Vena

Chioggia's Main Duomo

We spent like some hours in Chioggia center and then headed to sottomarina, beaches belong to Chioggia in which most of them are private. This 'sottomarina' part is quite new compared to the center, the myriad of modern housing complex gained Chioggia its metropolitan title, unlike Venice that is 100 percent historical.

such a tourist boring pose 2018

Weloming 2019 'pose'

By the late afternoon, Chioggia was blessed with such abundant sunshine, and we decided to visit the dock of Chioggia which in Summer are full of tourist for its boats and waterbus services. These boats will bring you to Venice, Murano and Burano, unfortunately, the service is not available in winter, it is ended in late September. 

I always wanted to go to Burano, to see its colorful small commune, and Murano, to see the making of the most renowned glass in the world. Murano glass or Venetian glass is one of its kind, it is made as special glass which also considered as high-quality art. Art of glassmaking in Murano has started since the early 13th century and still continue until now.

I'll make a special post about Murano and Burano once I visit them. Stay tuned!

So here are some pictures from the dock

As it got darker, we chose to end the strolling in Chioggia and headed Home. Yes, we didn't stay until midnight to witness the New Year's celebration, why? simply because we are parents now and we can't just bring Dario in a crowded place that full of the sound of fireworks and people screaming, in addition, it would be so cold, we didn't want to risk ourselves. 

How about you? Did you spend New Year's celebration outside and bring along your kids? 

Anyway, before ending this post, here's my picture with Dario, much love from us to yours