2006 Venice, Italy

2006 Venice, Italy

Where do I begin to tell you about Venice, Athens, Ephesus, and the islands of Crete and Corfu? How about the floating palace we called home for a week and the superb food, activities and service? Then there were the walks on deck at sunset and the brilliantly blue skies and waters.

Let me start at the beginning.

Cindy and I flew from El Paso to Dallas to Zurich to Venice starting on a Thursday and arriving on Friday. The only thing to be said about the flight was that it was long. Since we were excited the length of the trip didn’t matter. The important thing was that we made it there and had no problems that is until we tried to get into Venice from the airport. The water taxis were on strike. So now what do we do? After some anxious moments we ended up on a bus that took us to where we needed to go. On top of that he didn’t charge us.

Once into Venice we needed to find our hotel. Venice is an island with no roads only waterways. The map we had was only mildly helpful but it served its purpose. We had packed fairly lightly but we still ended up pulling our backs along canals, over bridges, thru piazzas, along narrow paths in the heat of the day after not sleeping on the plane. Just as we were about to get grumpy we found our hotel.

Casa Rizzonico is a beautiful little place along side a canal. It has 7 guest rooms with ours overlooking the backyard. It was perfect.

We settled in and then began to explore. We walked over bridges, along narrow paths, into different piazzas but this time without luggage. I took so many pictures. We were enthralled. We enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere and sights. We ate at side-walk cafes so we could watch life happening around us. There were tourist shops along side shops where Venetians shopped for everyday things. Kids kicked soccer balls around while running and laughing. Mothers with strollers walked along chatting with one another. Little old ladies with shopping bags marched by with food for the evening meal. Into this mix came tourists with backpacks or pulling luggage trying to figure where they were going. Gondoliers sat off to the side trying to interest people in a ride.

We found our way to St. Marks or the Piazza San Marco. There was the ancient church, the Campanile (bell tower), the Doge’s Palace, pigeons and tourists. We went up the bell tower and got a wonderful panoramic view of Venice. The tour of the Doge’s Palace (the Doge was the title of the elected ruler for life) was too long but interesting. If you remember Venice was a leading power in that part of the world 500 or more (I’m guessing here) years ago. Their influence was felt all over Europe. It was from Venice that Marco Polo ventured into the East. Casanova was imprisoned in this palace at one point.

We walked along the waterfront and then took Vaporettos (water taxis) up and down the Grand Canal. My spell check isn’t sure about spelling Vaporettos but I’ll go with it. The crowds were big but not really a problem.

Daughter Laura and husband BJ were in Venice a month earlier so we made sure we took our picture in the same spot they did. It was something I wanted to do.

The buildings along the Grand Canal are a mix of ordinary and ornate. Since Venice still floods the first floors of many of the buildings are not used. There were fancy hotels, restaurants, shops, museums scattered all along the canal.

All of these sights were seen on Saturday. It was on Sunday that we had to go to our ship for check-in and the beginning of our cruise. So we bid farewell to our quaint hotel and the piazza where we took our gelato and Coke-Light (Diet Coke) breaks dragged our luggage to the Vaporetto stop where we boarded for our final trip up the canal. We discovered that the pier where our ship was docked was a fairly short walk for us so that worked out fine. Then at 4:00 p.m. we shoved off. The deck railings were filled with people taking in the last views of Venice. It was beautiful and a real highlight of our trip.

Venice is a beautiful and beguiling place. We saw only a portion of it and didn’t get to do everything we wanted so we will simply need to go back some day.