Pleasure Cruising in the Po River Valley: It’s a Beautiful Life on the Barge La Bella Vita
Benvenuto a bordo!
Cruising through the authentic villages and historic cities between Venice and the Po River Valley, the Charming class, 20-guest La Bella Vita lives up to her name of “the beautiful life”.
Originally built in 1960 to carry cargo through Italy’s Po Delta, in 2010 she was thoroughly refurbished for her second career as a pleasure vessel. These days, La Bella Vita leisurely glides from mooring to mooring, offering her pampered passengers a floating festival of Northern Italy’s culture and cuisine.
Barge Lady Cruises is delighted to feature La Bella Vita in our cruise collection as an attractive option for multi-generational family charters, enthusiastic Epicureans looking to drink and dine “Italian-style”, or for casual travelers who have already barged in France.
Read all about what Barge Lady Cruise Correspondent Elizabeth Heath had to say about her beautiful experience on La Bella Vita!
CRUISE BETWEEN VENICE AND MANTUA
Italy lovers, take heart. France may seem to have cornered the market when it comes to barge cruising, but you don’t have to leave Italy to take a slow-mo voyage on a waterway cutting through the countryside. The 20-guest, Charming class La Bella Vita is the only commercial barge cruising the route between Venice and Mantua that caters to the English-speaking market and isn’t charter-only.
The all-inclusive 6-night cruise visits the Venetian Lagoon, the Canal Bianco, Po tributaries, and, depending on water levels, the Po itself.
Cruises either begin or end in Venice, combining excursions in that city and its lagoon islands with an unhurried tour of the sights and scenery along the Po and the man-made waterways of its wide valley.
REGIONAL DISHES AND SEASONAL PRODUCE
La Bella Vita is staffed by a small, friendly crew, including the Captain and a Chef, whose daily lunches and dinners focus on regional dishes and seasonal produce.
All gourmet meals and drinks — with well-curated wine pairings — are covered in the cruise fare.
The emphasis on La Bella Vita was on locally sourced ingredients and recipes that reflected the culinary traditions of wherever we were moored for the evening.
HISTORY, TRADITIONS, AND HIDDEN LOCATIONS
Small things somehow take on bigger meaning on a cruise of this scale, such as being urged by the Captain to try sarde in saor, a traditional Venetian appetizer of sweet and sour sardines (surprisingly good!), the playfulness of the dining room staff, the simple joy of a bike ride along the Po or a late night walk back to the barge to tuck in for the night.
The Captain and crew shared knowledge of the lagoon and its caprices, the nuances of the Po and the Canale Bianco, and the history, traditions, and hidden destinations that lay on its shores.
We enjoyed a cruise on a traditional bragozzo fishing boat, dinner in a regal 17th-century villa where Lord Byron was once a guest, and a private winetasting amid formal gardens.
A SMALL, SPECIAL MOMENT
These activities and experiences are the product of Captain (and barge owner) Rudy Toninato’s intimate knowledge of the Venetian Lagoon and the venues and purveyors of the Po River Valley.
In La Bella Vita tradition, barge Captain Rudy led us all to a local bar, where an aperitivo spread of traditional lagoon-style cicchetti awaited us.
This simple happy hour remained one of our favorite experiences of the week—a small, special moment in an unlikely location that many of us may never visit again.
THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE
Captain Rudy chose an apt name, La Bella Vita, for his trusty barge, and he and his team absolutely bring “the beautiful life” to their guests.