Day 57 - The Trenino of Treviso

It was a fairly early start this morning - I just had time for a quick breakfast before going to catch the bus to Treviso parkrun. Having got to the bus stop though, it became apparent that you could not buy a ticket on the bus, meaning that Ashleigh, a young woman from Australia who I befriended at the bus-stop, and I had to go to a nearby shop to buy a ticket and then catch the next bus. Luckily Ashleigh speaks Italian, so that made it a lot easier for me.

We met two other park-runners on the bus, and may have led them astray by getting off when Google told us to; rather than apparently a better stop later on. The four of us walked the 2km-ish to the start, pleased of each others’ company as it was properly in the middle of nowhere, and arrived about ten minutes before the start.

Even on that short walk, I knew I was going to have a bit of a problem. It was woodland, aka the home of biting insects and mosquitoes. I was being attacked throughout my time there!

It was a very small parkrun, with only about 40 of us - as you will see from this event photo from social media.

The course was a mixture of gravel and wood chippings, which was quite hard going. Still, I had a really good first 1.5km and the thought of a PB even crossed my mind. I ended up not even being close though - I can partly blame the insects, as I did nearly vomit halfway round when one flew into my mouth (is it too much information to say that I had to pick parts of it out of my teeth!?), but really, I really wasn’t feeling it again today, which I was very annoyed with myself about with hindsight.

Still, I did my 5km, have run an Italian parkrun, ticked ‘T’ off the alphabet list, and met some lovely people, including Ashleigh, who I travelled back into the city with.

I had a couple of hours back at my hotel, not entirely appreciating my shower’s temperamental nature (I did end up singing Katy Perry’s ‘Hot N Cold’ in the shower….?), and feeling very itchy from all the bites. Weirdly the mosquitoes seemed to prefer my right leg to my left. I don’t know what to make of that.

At lunchtime, I walked to one of the main squares in the city, and enjoyed a lovely (and well-earned?) pizza. I then had a nice walk around the city known as ‘Little Venice’ and could understand why, with some lovely views.

I went to have a look around the cathedral next, which is apparently quite a big deal, partly as a saint is in the crypt and partly because of the art there, including a piece by Titian.

I then discovered that as there is some kind of festival on at the moment, they were running a little train around the city today. Those who ever travelled with mum would know that little trains - or a Trenino, as it was called here - were about her favourite things, so I did just have to have a ride on it! Strangely it wasn’t covered by my Interrail pass. It was really nice as it gave a bit of the history of Treviso - the home of both Tiramisu and Prosecco (so probably wasted on me!), and let me see even more of the city.

Struggling quite a bit with the bites, I have subsequently headed back to the hotel, where I will probably stay in and watch the baseball tonight.