Venice

 

2 July

Not a lot I can say about Venice but wow!!! Sensory overload. Sailing in to Venice is probably one of the outstanding moments of the cruise so far. I've been to Venice before, a long time ago but didn't sail up the Grand Canal or approach it by sea. Last time our arrival was by train. We each bought a 24 hour vaporetti ( small water buses) ticket for 18 Euros as we arrived at 12.30pm Thursday and sailed again at 12.30pm Friday. Princess provided a water bus shuttle from the dock to a couple of blocks from St Mark's square, and automatically charged us with $15 each with no consultation, and provided us with a ticket each. They were refundable if we didn't use them. Ours went in for refund today. It is very easy to get around Venice. Those people who used the shuttle would then have to either walk everywhere or pay 6.5 Euro per trip on the vaporetti. We did a vaporetti cruise down the Grand Canal out to the Lido yesterday, then back again to the Rialto Bridge. We met up with our 'family' from the dining table and had a few drinks at a place on the Grand Canal and then had dinner. Lots of fun but quite expensive (wouldn't have been too bad without the wine). We then took a vaporetta back to the ship. Today we were out early – went in a vaporetta to St Marks then walked back to the ship, quite a doable exercise. The walk back was meandering through back streets. We were lost once but all the guide books say you must get lost in Venice at least once, so we're following procedure. I managed to find a little hole in the wall hardware shop and bought some superglue to fix my ailing walking shoes.It was interesting being on the canals early in the morning because that's when all the business end of the day happens. There were grocery boats, milkman boats, garbage boats – you name it, they were there. It was a good time also to get to St Marks – no huge crowds but there was already a queue to go into the basilica. For those on next year's cruise how we got to P. Roma where the vaporetti leave from won't be current because they are building a grand new cruise terminal. You will probably just walk out the front of the terminal and on your right is a people mover – a monorail. Take the monorail to P. Roma Cost is 1 Euro (only 1 stop) or you can walk.. When you exit this you will see a large bus exchange area and the vaporetti terminal where you can buy your 24 hour (or 12 hour) vaporetti ticket. You will need to validate the ticket by holding it against the little validation machine, then, voila, you are in business. Can go anywhere for 24 hours. There are also a lot of nice little restaurants on canals around P. Roma, much cheaper than those around St Marks and Rialto and the other touristy areas. Princess have also paid us $300 each compensation for missing Safaga and the Valley of the Kings. It has been credited to our onboard account but the letter didn't make it clear whether it will reduce the balance we already have or it is for future spending. Will have to investigate. May have to spend up big in the next ten days...more stuff to pack. Dubrovnik tomorrow then Citatavechhia for Rome. We've decided not to go into Rome, despite the detailed research I've done of how to get there and around on the train. We've been to Rome before and after several days in port in a row, I don't want to deal with the traffic and chaos in Rome.

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