Tranquillity on a hotel barge in Italy’s Po Valley

September 25, 2011|By Emilie C. Harting, Globe Correspondent

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In the heart of the Po Valley we spent an evening at the 17th-century villa Ca’Zen, set in a five-acre park. Lord Byron is said to have written his best poetry there while having an affair with Countess Guiccioli. After wine on the expansive patio, we had a tour of the long, rose-colored house, and dinner, our only meal off the boat, in the formal dining room as warm breezes wafted in.

Chioggia, one of the largest fishing towns in Italy, is sometimes called “Little Venice’’ because of its canals and architecture. Originally an area of salt flats, Chioggia emerged in the 1400s when the barbarians were driving the Lombardians east into the swamplands that would become Venice. After a guided tour through the canals and town square, we stopped at the large outdoor fish market, where we helped pick out mussels and sea bass for that night’s dinner.

Chioggia was where we entered the canal that runs north and south inside the Venice Lagoon. We passed a number of small islands with fishing huts, and later the Lido with its multicolored houses. Soon we were approaching, head on, the classic travel poster view of Venice with St. Mark’s Byzantine domes at the end of the square. A local guide gave an excellent initiation to St. Mark’s Square, with its many entrances and exits. She also took us on a tour of the massive Doge’s Palace, where marble staircases lead up into the seemingly endless number of rooms whose walls and ceilings are decorated with gold framed oil paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese.

On the last night, after a seven-course captain’s dinner, La Bella Vita moored in the quiet basin of the walled-in Arsenal, where, until the late 1700s, Venice’s ships were built. The next day we said our farewells and began exploring Venice on our own.

Emilie C. Harting can be reached at echarting@gmail.com.

European Waterways 877-879-8808
www.gobarging.com
Prices for a six-night cruise in 2011 aboard hotel barge La Bella Vita, from $3,490 per person in a twin-double cabin, including all meals, wines, an open bar, excursions, local transfers. Full boat charters also available from $57,000.
Travelers on the Mantua to Venice trip are usually met at the Laguna Palace Hotel, a modern glass marina complex close to Venice’s Marco Polo Airport and train stations. nhlagunapalace.hotelinvenice.com
On the Venice to Mantua trip, travelers usually meet at the Papadopoli Hotel, close to churches and museums with famous art. www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-1313-hotel-papadopoli-venezia/index.shtml