Aahhh Bella...Venezia - Venice, Italy
Venice, Italy
What a beautiful city to sail into in the early morning, through the Grande Canal past St Marks Square,with all the Gondoliers lined up. The weather was a bit cooler (28 degrees)than we have been having, which was great for our walking around Venice. It was a Sunday in Venice, so there were many locals out and about as well as 3 other cruise ships and a few River cruise boats. We lined up early to see the Doge's Palace and the prisons to beat the crowds. This place was magnificent and we spent nearly 3 hours exploring. Beautifully decorated walls and ceilings with paintings, and lavishly designed with gold staircases throughout. Huge place, which is still being restored. The Doges palace was also where all court was held to decide on prisoners' sentences. Then a walk through the prisons and across "The Bridge of Sighs" the last look at the outside world that prisoners would see before jail. The Doges's armoury was very comprehensive, housing many hundreds various types of swords, knives, pistols, rifles, armour, and bows over the Venetian history 800 years ago. There is no other city in the world anything like Venice and the only way to discover it is by wandering the streets and getting lost....which we did...and enjoyed. Every turn of a little lane way,there were new and wonderful places and buildings that came to the fore unexpectedly at times.... The Gelati in Venice was superb, and was the best yet ( and we have tried it in many towns now) and there are hundreds of hole in the wall type shops in Venice where you can buy the LARGE slices of pizza, Gelati, and focaccia type sandwiches. If you sit and eat in Venice, it is very expensive, with the service charges and taxes, so you can pay up to €10 for a coffee and if you get someone singing to you....more expense...so best just to stand and drink the coffee. It was lovely in the afternoon, as the crowds thinned out to stroll around listening to the singing gondoliers in the canals,it echoing through the town...also all the ristorantes would bring out their many tables and chairs into St Marks Square for the evenings orchestra entertainment.... We were lucky as we had 2 days in Venice and plenty of time to enjoy the atmosphere. We walked over the Rialto Bridge with its many stalls and shops....people everywhere all with cameras and maps all totally lost ....but you really can't go too far as the canals stop you and you just keep switching directions..streets are not all marked on map..all you need to do is follow the signs on the walls to either St Marc or Rialto... Fascinating city. Our legs and feet were aching by night, and although we had planned on staying late,exhaustion set in but had another day tomorrow to explore more. Watching the night sky from the ship we were glad we decided not to stay out as a thunderstorm hit Venice for a couple of hours in the evening catching many passengers in the drenching rain as they made their way back to the ship. Day 2 in Venice, we decided to buy a daily Vaporetto ( public transport / boats in Venice) ticket and cruise to Murano Island where the glass blowing is done. These are truly craftsman, and their pieces are exquisite but highly priced. I looked at a nice plate that was priced at €1500 ( lots of looking and admiring done here). There were about 6 large cruise ships in today plus the river boats, so crowds were bigger than day before, if that's at all possible. Onto the Vaporetto again for a relaxing cruise along the Grande Canal, churches and little squares dotted along the way all in various states of condition....it's quite expensive to buy property in Venice as a lot of restoration is required...many of their foundations are rotting away and upkeep is expensive. You can see water in most of the buildings ground floors and people live in the upper levels. Late in the afternoon we decided on a gondola ride,,again at €80 for about 30 mins...but how can you not do it at least once when in Venice... Most are very ornately decorated inside with lots of gold and traditional decorations of the infamous winged lion symbol of Venice. We saw Casanova's home, Musician Robert Wagner, the famous Grimaldi residences along the way and saw many canals that can only be seen if you go on the gondola. Venice was amazing, the Italian people all dress immaculately, with men mostly in suits or nice jackets everywhere, and the women in linen and dresses like we would go out to dinner in heels as well. We stood out you would imagine in our comfy walking shoes and clothes ( haha). We noticed the Asian people have taken over many of the leather shops in Venice, so many shops saying " not made in china" in their windows. There are so many bars and restaurants in Venice in every lane way. We stumbled across a supermarket type shop in Venice where the locals would shop, Bob found some local cans of beer ( 500 ml) at only .85 euro cents which is really cheap..considering that they would charge about €5 for it elsewhere. Our Sailaway through the Grande Canal was beautiful, and ending a thoroughly enjoyable 2 days in Venice. Enjoying your comments and catching up with all your activities from home...not much information about Australia on board.. As Australian government does not allow any Australian TV outside unfortunately...only get tit bits here and there on CNN & BBC...I'm sure you're all sick of the election lead up I'm imagining by now...