Sailing into Venice

I thought that I had posted my Venice blogs and then found then today, so I will post them in a series. We had two wonderful days in Venice... too much fun for just one blog..

 

Advertised as one of the most beautiful cities in the world to sail into, and despite the overcast skies, we weren’t disappointed, everyone was on deck, braving the wind, to enjoy the picture postcard views.

The night before, we returned to our cabin to find shuttle tickets on our bed - Princess had arranged a water taxi to take us from the ship to St Mark’s, tickets were $15 each but we wanted to soak up the atmosphere so we handed them back in and opt to walk.

We left the ship early, and decided to brave the ominous skies and walk into St Mark’s square – the hardest part was finding our way out of the port to Piazza Del Roma – a transport hub – we ended up buying a map which came in very handy especially on the first day.

 Once off the main tourist routes, Venice is a rabbit warren of small side streets and laneways – wonderful for just strolling along and taking in the atmosphere, window shopping and a stopping for a spot of people watching.

 Because it was a Sunday, our meandering along the canals and over the bridges was accompanied every hour on the hour by the ringing of the church bells all around us …. lovely.

There are three main landmarks from my observations, St. Mark’s Square, Rialto Bridge and the railway station, and most street corners have signs pointing to one or the other. It seems that all roads lead to St Marks, with a multitude of signs (some obviously just put up by local residents) to show you the way. But, what to do when the signs point both ways?? I guess that since we are on an island, it doesn’t really matter……..

Finally we arrived at the Rialto Bridge where a man approached us to take our photos with our cameras – Jo was worried that he was going to run off with her camera, but he didn’t – just demanded 1 euro before he gave the camera back!!!

 

We had been warned that if you sit down at a table the coffee is more expensive, so we tried to stand at the bar and act Italian (Venetian??), but obviously the waiters wanted to get us to sit down and pay more, so we couldn’t get served at the bar despite being right in front of the server…. oh well …. this is Venice!!!