Thursday October 26, 2023
Hi Gang! We made it to beautiful Venice, Italy! This is our final stop and we’ll be here overnight and get off the ship tomorrow. We have had a really nice cruise and the weather has really cooperated. We had no rain at all on any of our port days and most days were sunny and 72 which was perfect for site seeing and walking around. If you ever do a Mediterranean cruise, consider mid-Sept to mid-Oct.
Venice is truly Europe’s best preserved big city. It was born in a lagoon 1,500 years ago as a refuge from barbarians. In the Middle Ages, the Venetians created a great trading empire. By smuggling in the bones of Saint Mark in AD 828 and building St Mark’s Basilica Cathedral and Square, Venice gained religious importance. With the discovery of America and new trading routes to the Orient, Venetian power ebbed. Today Venice is home to fewer than 55,000 people in its old city, down from twice that number just three decades ago. But if you get away from the main tourist areas, Venice is truly magical!
We decided since we had both been to Venice multiple times we’d just do it in our own rather than excursion. We didn’t dock until 10 AM and we knew many people would want to get off right away so we slept in and didn’t get off the boat until 1:30 PM.
Since we didn’t dock on mainland Venice and were across the lagoon at the Fusina port, Oceania offered a free shuttle bus to the Trochetto car park, which took 30 minutes. Then we took the “People Mover” which is like an above ground subway to take us to Piazza Roma and from there we took a vaporetto (water taxi) to St Mark’s Square. Whew, all in all that took like an hour and a half! But the highlight was the vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal of Venice!
The Grand Canal is Venice’s “Main Street”. At more than two miles long, 150 feet wide, and nearly 15 feet deep, it’s the city’s largest canal, lined with its most impressive palaces. Venice is a city of palaces, dating from the days when the city was the world’s richest. The most lavish palaces formed a grand architectural parade down the Grand Canal.
After getting off the vaporetto at St Mark’s Square we walked around and took in all the impressive buildings. The grand square is surrounded by splashy, historic buildings and sights such as St Mark’s Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, the Campanile bell tower and the Correr Museum.
Behind St Mark’s Basilca is the much photographed Bridge of Sighs which connects the Doge’s Palace with the prison. Legend has it that condemned men were led over this bridge on their way to the prison, and take one last look at the glory of Venice, and sigh. It does give you a weird feeling looking at it. We took a picture in front of it but luckily didn’t have to cross it and sigh! Lol
We spent the rest of our time just meandering around taking everything in. Of course we had to do more shopping for the grands and ourselves! We took a vaporetto back to the Tronchetto area to catch the bus back to the ship. We got back around 7 PM, got ready for dinner and decided to eat at the Terrace Cafe since we had to pack and put our luggage in the hall by 10 PM.
Tomorrow we’ll get off the ship by 7:30 AM or so, grab a taxi to the airport and catch our flight to London’s Heathrow airport. We’ll get to spend a few nights with our good friends Sue and Stuart who we cruised with to both Norway and Antarctica. “Small world” item… they live outside London near the University of Surrey where my youngest daughter did her study abroad! We’ll fly standby back to Charlotte on Sunday from Heathrow.
Hope everyone had a great day! I’ll post the Venice pictures tomorrow.
The Wandering Italian 