Life in the Army- Chapter 27

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roger Marsh of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of Arthur Ward, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Refer to Chapter 1-- A4345544 -for links to other chapters.

LIFE IN THE ARMY

by
ARTHUR WARD

Chapter 27 - My Holidays in Venice, Italy

May 28, 1945
I went on 7 days' leave to Venice.

I was in charge of a party of 8 gunners. We travelled by truck which took 2 hours, and this time at the railway station, we disembarked and caught a steamboat called the `Concordia'. On the Grand Canal, we travelled past the town and it looked as though we were heading for open sea, but we went to an island called The Lido which is 1½ miles from Venice, in the lagoon. We found out later that there were many islands like this in the large lagoon off the mainland.

I had my instructions and we caught a trolley bus to 55 rest camp which was the other Ranks' (Gunners and privates) leave hotel called the `Excelsior'. This was about the largest hotel we had ever been in; about 10 stories high and it was right on the beach.

We were told that pre war, many well known film stars and celebrities stayed in this hotel and The Lido was the favourite place where Betty Hutton the film star stayed when in Europe.

The W.O.'s and Sergeants had a separate smaller hotel, a few minutes' walk away.

I shared a room with BSM Purdle who was in 13 Corps HQ. The rooms were very good and we had good food and were well looked after. During the week, we spent our time swimming (the beach on The Lido was first class and clean).

We sunbathed on the beach. The sun did not burn us as we were all very brown after our time in the Middle East.

We went to quite a few cinemas and I saw `Greenwich Village', 'Remember the Day', `The Road to Frisco', 'To Have and to Not' which were all very good.

There was a very modern cinema right on the sea front on The Lido.

We went several times to Venice, had a ride on a Gondola, went up the tower in St Marks Square, saw the Bridge of Sighs and went round the cathedral.

From the shops I bought brooches and a large snap album, although we found that all the prices had gone sky high since I came a short time ago.

I bought 5 reels of film and had some films developed and printed, and I decided this had been my best leave since going overseas.

June 04, 1945
We travelled on the Concordia boat to Venice and down the Grand Canal to the Piazzola Roma, which was the ferry stop for the station and car park. We disembarked from the ferry, and a truck was waiting for us. We travelled for about a mile on a road which was above the water on pillars, to Venice Mestre, then joined the main road to Padua and then to Fauglis.

1981 HOLIDAY TO VENICE
In 1981 I had a holiday at Lido De Jeselo, which is in the Venice Lagoon and I had a full day in Venice. Everything had gone up in price to unrecognizable levels, but we enjoyed seeing all the sights I had seen before.

We visited The Lido and found my leave hotel, the railings around it and the porch entrance to the garden were just the same, but the trees and bushes had grown much higher. Then the main difference was the TV aeriel on the chimney stack.

The Excelsior was much the same, but it now had a canal right to the front door so that people could board the hotel's own boat and cross the lagoon to Venice.

The Lido itself was very run down, the beaches untidy and not very clean and a lot of the boundary walls and buildings showed many signs of neglect and decay. The trolley buses had gone, but the Concordia, the large ferry, was still travelling across the lagoon, although it had been modernised and changed from the coal burning boiler to diesel.

In St Marks Square, we had our photos taken sitting at a table in Florians as a reminder of my visit when in the army. We did not have a drink, as the coffee was about £2 a cup.

We had a ride on a gondola and this was also very expensive.

Pr-BR

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