Day 7: Venice

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Port: Venice.

Finally. The reason we booked this cruise.

Venice.

Situated on a lagoon on Italy's north-eastern Adriatic Coast, Venice is one of the most beautiful, romantic and best loved cities in the world. This truly unique city, a maze of waterways, walkways, narrow streets and small squares, is built on approximately 117 islets which are separated by 177 canals and spanned by some 400 bridges. The buildings are supported by literally millions of poles driven into the marshy sediment.

My first and most important tip: be prepared to do some walking. Wear very comfortable shoes. There are a LOT of steps to climb in Venice - up and down, over the canals. As you can see, with 400 bridges - all done via foot - that's a LOT of walking. I'm just sayin'.....

For the first (and thankfully, only) time during the entire cruise, the seas got very rough last night – we were rocking and rolling all night. I went to bed with a scratchy throat, hoping it would disappear when I woke up.

I woke up with a worse sore throat. That’s not good. Nothing like being sick on a cruise. I finally drug myself out of bed at 8:30, and headed over to the Concierge Lounge for breakfast. But there’s a problem. My key won’t open the door. Uh oh. I went back to my room – and now my Seapass won’t work, either. Yikes. Nothing like going to Guest Relations – feeling half dead and looking even worse – to get the cards fixed. The line was long at Guest Relations – as usual – so I stood there forever. I made my way back to the Concierge Lounge – and the CL key still didn’t work. You’re kidding me. I knocked on the door, and thankfully, Katarina was inside and let me in. She quickly exchanged my card for a card that works. I FINALLY got some breakfast – smoked salmon, yum – and then checked email briefly.

Hubby and I went out up to Deck 12 around 10:30 am, as we were approaching Venice and we wanted a good ‘spot’ to view the scenery. It was pretty windy – and chilly. I had to run back to the room for a jacket – it was that cold! The wind is at 45 knots per hour. We find a spot on Deck 12 – right in the very front of the ship – you know, the “I’m king of the world!!” spot (if you have seen “Titanic”, you know what I’m talking about!). This spot was perfect as we could see both the right and the left sides of the ship. But - it WAS very windy!

We sailed into Venice around 11:30 am – it was beautiful. The deck was very crowded by then, and we managed to take some great photos.

We headed down to the Windjammer around 12:15 for lunch, as we weren’t going to be let off the ship until around 1:30 pm. We could both barely eat, in anticipation of FINALLY being in Venice!

After lunch, we head back to the cabin to grab our stuff to go, and we find that Alston, our sneaky cabin attendant, has already been to the room. He has moved Spot, our "dog", from the sofa to a chair by the balcony. And Spot has binoculars - there is a ship parked next to us, and it appears I have a "peeping Tom" - or "peeping Spot" - as he appears to be spying on the women at the pool on the ship next to us. Oh, that Alston. Always a sense of humor!

We got off and then took a water shuttle to near St Mark’s Square. The unlimited water shuttle tickets – sold by the ship – were $35 apiece. I think it was a little pricey – but it beat walking. We figured we would be doing enough walking once we got deeper into Venice, and so we didn’t want to have to walk back to the ship as well. Here's a photo of loading up the water shuttles - this was between our ship and the ship docked behind us:

The shuttle ride takes about 10-15 minutes; we got off the shuttle and waited for Larry & Kathleen, our Cruise Critic buddies, who we were sharing today’s tour with. We met up and then waited for Mike, our tour guide. Mike is from The Venice Experience, a tour company – he is a transplanted American from Baltimore who now lives in Venice.

While waiting for Mike, I have to use the Ladies Room. A curious thing about Venice - if you look down, you will find signs pointing you to the nearest "Water Closet" - or bathroom. Just follow the signs. Easy!

Mike showed up around 2:30 pm. Mike was very nice - but just very laid back; almost too laid back for my taste. Overall, his 4-hour walking tour did show us some things we may not have found on our own - but we really didn't get the stories, the history - the culture - that Hubby and I like to hear while taking a tour. This may be because Mike is not a Venetian - but a transplanted American. Oh well. Here's Mike on the left with Hubby on the right, looking very debonair in his new hat.

He began by walking us by the Bridge of Sighs - which is partially blocked due to some construction going on. The Bridge of Sighs is a baroque stone bridge built in the 17th century, connecting the Doge's Palace with the old prisons. It was named after the despair of prisoners who were led across to be executed or incarcerated.

We walked by the Doge's Palace, a residence of the Doges and the seat of government.

We then made our way to the front of St. Mark's Basilica. It was beautiful - pictures never do it justice - you have to be in front of it to really appreciate the beauty of it. It was built in 830 and was originally a chapel for the Doges.

My teenage son - who is quite a historian - had said the only thing he wanted from Europe was a picture of the 4 horses. I asked, "Where are these 4 horses?" He said, "I don't know - somewhere in Venice." Well, that's certainly helpful. As we were standing in front of St. Mark's Basilica, I looked closer and screamed, "There's the 4 horses!!!!" Mike must have thought I was crazy. I was so excited - I found the 4 horses and my son was happy and life is good.

Once we had taken in the beauty of the Basilica, all we had to do was turn around to take in St. Mark's Square. This square is the center of life in Venice, a popular meeting place where people can stroll, listen to music, browse in the shops, or feed the pigeons. BUT - if you are caught feeding pigeons OUTSIDE of the square - that is illegal and you can be fined! Just a heads up.


We walked by the Grand Canal - the main waterway of Venice, approximately 2 miles in length, lined with over 200 marble palaces. My photos - of which I took hundreds - don't do the beauty of the Grand Canal justice. You have to be there. Seriously.

Hubby and I are weird (perhaps) in that we like the weird things about cities that not too many others know about. Mike indulged us in explaining about the "pee blockers", for lack of a better term. They installed these in every corner of Venice to prevent men...or ahem...little boys....from "doing their business" in the corner. So now you know.

Mike walked and walked and walked with us. We got off the touristy path and into some back streets - they were beautiful. We were so lost - but Mike kept us on path - we would never have found our way around without him. We stopped for delicious gelato and drinks; we peeked into churches; we went into courtyards and squares....it was great.

Venice is beautiful - but you really DO need to get lost to appreciate it.

Our gondola ride reservations were for 7:15 – but we were to report 15 minutes early – so we left Mike and the others and quickly walked back to the Hotel Griti Palace. We were assigned a gondola that included a mother and daughter from the States, as well as a gondola singer and his accordian player. The singer sang quite a few songs – including “My Way” in Italian. The accordian player cracked me up at one point when he played, “New York, New York” – not something you’d think you would hear in Venice! The ride was worth it – we enjoyed it immensely. The singer’s voice was very good – and when we got off the Grand Canal – and into the back, small canals – the buildings would cause his voice to “bounce” - creating a really nice effect on the music. It was twilight – so the lighting was wonderful. Our gondola operator never interacted with us at all – other than to initially tell us where we were to each sit.

The scenery we saw on the ride - wow. We also saw evidence of Venice sinking.

After our ride, Hubby and I got lost trying to find the restaurant where our reservations were. After much walking, and much looking, we finally had success. I had pasta with red meat sauce; then, veal in marsala sauce with salad. The veal was good. Everything else – just okay. We waited and waited and waited and finally got our check; after settling up, we began to make our way back to where the shuttle was.

We found ourselves at St. Mark’s Square around 10:10 pm and it was flooded! Water was everywhere – it was still burbling up through the manholes on the ground – and the barbarians were everywhere, taking pictures. Of course, we had to take a picture, too! You don’t get opportunities to see this every day!

We managed to snag the last seats on the shuttle and we head back to the ship. We get in line on the pier to go through security; and then go through security again once on board. I feel really safe. We were back in our room at 10:30 pm.

There are no activities tonight onboard, as the ship crew is assuming that people are spending their entire evening in Venice.

My sore throat – which began last night during the show – has now gotten progressively worse. Tylenol is helping a little – but I’m congested and tired and cranky. I just want to go to bed.