Oh dear. First step of Venice to Greece by ferry, car free… i.e. getting to the big ferry from Venice. Ugh.

Even the swamps of the internet provide no useful information and there was a perpetual sense of the best laid plans being defeated and our booked and paid for ferry sailing by without us.

Google maps was no use here. The key local ferry from Venice to its detached main ferry port didn’t appear and the ferry terminal was just blank space. Somewhere deep in the bowels of a Google search was a post of glee suggesting that this blank space was actually one of the largest fenced car parks in the world; the irony felt cruel.

We dug further, we asked around … we finally found how to get the local ferry. Phew.

Not so fast… Whilst the local ferry delivered us in sight of the big ferry to Greece, we also had living proof of the rumoured colossal fenced car park. Argh! Hot sun, no signs, no information. Asking a few people led to a rough handwave down the only dusty road out. We walked 2 miles, no idea if it was the right way apart from the view through the haze of a woman with rucksack doing the same and a sense it was roughly the right way. Why was a Morricone soundtrack in my head? Time was ticking…

First or last (2) mile(s)?

We were rescued by an Austrian couple in a car who we had spoken to earlier. Whoever they were, we are eternally grateful.

The staff at the big ferry check in were not just amazed we had walked from the small ferry (but confirmed, depressingly, there was no option), but almost despaired that the next section was another 10 minutes…

Red carpet for foot passengers? Ferry in the distance…

With the absence of trains to  Greece, I feel there may be one or two improvements to be made to seamless integrated approach travel. Report on first/last mile on the 6 component model…”needs work in some places”.

Service designers out there – Venice & the Veneti then a boat down the Adriatic…