Press Release Digest 14th May 2007

LAST MINUTE!!
VENETIAN BANK HOLIDAY BLINDER
PLUS VOGALONGA REGATTA

Venice, one of Europe’s most romantic cities, hosts the annual Vogalonga regatta on the 27th May. The event sees over 1,000 rowing boats and up to 3,000 competitors take to the city’s historic canals in an epic 30-km ‘race’. Lakes & Mountains Holidays offer 4-night city breaks coinciding with the Vogalonga, departing London 26th May 2007. (Other dates and extended stay available on request).

Venice and its labyrinth of canals is beautifully different to anywhere else in the world. A variety of water taxis and gondolas transport guests around many sights, including Doge’s Palace, the Rialto Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs. Based at the stylish Hotel Belle Arti, guests are ideally situated for the festivities, a few minutes from St Mark's Square. Every year, hopeful contestants gather in St Mark's Basin in front of the Ducal Palace for the non-competitive, 30-km race in which any kind of rowing boat can participate. The Vogalonga regatta passes many of Venice's small islands and through the most attractive parts of the Lagoon of Venice before re-entering the city via the canal of Cannaregio and the Grand Canal, arriving at the finish line by the Point of the Dogana in front of San Marco. Other than flamboyant water-sport spectating, a cappuccino in Piazza San Marco, dominated by the Byzantine gold mosaics and great domes of Basilica of St. Mark, is the ideal place to soak up Italian atmosphere.

The break costs from £567 p/p including scheduled flights from London, boat transfers, 4-night 3* B&B accommodation at the Hotel Belle Arti.