Sunday & Monday - Venice

After the rain and slightly bumpy seas of the night before, we awoke to a beautiful day. We arrived in Venice ahead of schedule and had a beautiful cruise through the lagoon on the way to our dock on the west side of the Venetian islands. After a brief bus ride from the pier to the edge of the city, we boarded a vaporetto (water bus) in search of the gondola station for which we had reservations later that night. After some stops and starts we finally figured out the vaporetto system and got to the proper stop. When we debarked we were amazed at how narrow some of the “streets” are – less than two people (well, two Americans, anyway!) wide. Needless to say, the vast majority of transportation here is on foot or by boat. I didn’t even see any motor scooters, which makes sense as most bridges have stairs, not ramps, so it would be extremely hard on tires.

At 6:30 three of us took our gondola tour and it was a bit cool out on the water. There was a group of about 6 boats and one of the boats had a singer and an accordion player to serenade us as we went along. It was truly amazing to watch the gondoliers as they maneuvered these long, narrow boats down the waterways, sometimes using their feet as bumpers to keep the boats away from the buildings. Though only booked for about 30 minutes, it was closer to 50 minutes by the time we all debarked. I know it’s a cliché to ride a gondola in Venice, but it was great fun and worth every penny. After the gondola we wandered the streets and alleys of Venice, just losing ourselves and every now and then figuring out where we were on the map. We eventually found a side street with a small café and we popped in for fresh-made ravioli and lasagna, which was both excellent and cheap. By the time our dinner was over, most of the shops were closed but we did find a few open and had a great time checking out all the various glass pieces made at the nearby island of Murano. It’s amazing the things those glassmakers can do! We finally made our way back to the ship, too tired for our nightly hot tub visit.


Monday morning we were up and off the boat and into the city. It didn’t take us nearly as long this time since we had a clue what we were doing! We went back to the Piazza San Marco and walked through the Doge’s Palace. The doge was an elected-for-life ruler of Venice, though his power was not absolute. There were a series of councils that handled various matters, but the doge was in charge. The building itself was the doge’s residence, the senate chamber and courtroom. Connected by the famous Bridge of Sighs was the prison. The bridge was used to transport prisoners back & forth between the courtrooms and the prison and is completely covered so that prisoners could not escape. There are small openings in the bridge walls and it’s said that it got its name as prisoners used this opportunity to smell the fresh air of freedom as they crossed it. It’s currently undergoing a restoration and only a small part of it is visible.

After the Doge’s Palace we spent the rest of our time wandering around town. I’m not a shopper but I really enjoyed just wandering the streets, window shopping, and just seeing where a path would lead us. Though I hated to leave, my feet were awfully glad when we boarded the shuttle back to the ship!