Venice With Wet Feet...

Monday 24 September 2018. We sail into Venice. We leave the ship directly into a covered walkway leading into the Italian dockside customs. Then we buy tickets for the local water bus to St Mark's Square. "Will it be flooded?" someone asks. "Well, we have been here five times before and we've never seen it flooded," I say, truthfully but perhaps a little prematurely...

The unmistakeable and familiar sight of the Doges Palace and St Mark's Basilica. The cafes are fairly exclusive here...

The major buildings of the square are covered in posts from earlier visits. I always like a stroll round the arcades. If Miss Franny makes appreciative noises at any shop window it's best to put on a bit of a forced stroll if you know what I mean...

There are a couple of these tiny cafe rooms. The tables all bear a reserved sign.

These are what many come to Venice to see. There are around four hundred gondolas in Venice as opposed to centuries gone by when there were thousands. Before the 20th century many had covered cabins for passengers with windows having shutters with louvred slats - hence Venetian blinds...

You should do this in any large city but especially in Venice. Look up! You will be rewarded many times by many beautiful carvings, statues and architectural features. I was spellbound right up to the moment when we reached the steps up to a bridge over a canal and I tripped up. Ah yes... look up occasionally!

Each time we are in Venice we try to find some place we haven't been before. Usually by finding new routes between major sights but having now been six times, we may have to venture away from these in future! This time we found a free music museum and went inside to look at violins, contrabasses and mandolins from 500 years ago.

We ventured down a couple of dead ends leading to private gates and necessitating U-turns, but inevitably we found ourselves eventually at the Grand Canal.

We have our favourite cafe at the foot of the Rialto Bridge, which does our beloved latte machiatto and always has a tempting selection of hand-made sandwiches. Moreover they profess to understand my attempts to speak Italian and so have earned my undying love at least until some future point when they might say "what was that???"

Ooh! This caught my eye! A guitar made of Murano glass! It has real strings - but were the pickups real pickups or more glass? And I must admit my first thought was not "How much does it cost?" (enough not to display the price ticket) but "How much would it weigh?" I'm not sure I could wear that around my neck for hours on end!

The Rialto Bridge is, with St Mark's Square and the Bridge of Sighs, one of Venice's major attractions. It is the latest of a number of bridges on this site, and dates from 1591. Oh... well done, that young lady on the right... Nice gum bubble!

Looking up! Just at this point there are far too many people pressed against you for you actually to fall over anyway. Keep focussed on the pressure of your pockets and grip on your valuables!

We return to St Marks... Square... Oh... there's water, there's crowds milling about unwilling to paddle. There's crowds paddling. There are police officers herding people onto a far too narrow walkway expecting single-file traffic in each direction. With the unrelenting pressure of people being forced onto each end, idiots in the middle are trying to stop to take photos. I just pointed the camera without even looking at it and clicked as I walked.

"Uno oro!" said a news vendor, throwing his arms up in exasperation at my question that he must have heard a million times. So, one hour at high tide. Nothing to see here, keep moving...

We caught a water bus back well before the crowds would leave us panicking that the next boat would be the last that the ship would wait for. Then a relaxing hour before we gathered on the Promenade Deck on Deck 6 to watch the sail away.

I actually took this from the windows of the dining room as we were eating dinner.

Songs tonight included Creedence Clearwater's classic Bad Moon Rising and Herman's Hermits' sing-a-long favourite I'm Into Something Good.

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Through Venice Streets And Waterways

Monday 16 October 2017. In the last article we walked through Venice to the Rialto Bridge. In this one we'll take a look at and from the bridge then head back to St Mark's Square and the waterfront before returning to the Thomson Dream and sailing out through the lagoon.

The Rialto Bridge was built in 1591 to the designs of the appropriately named Antonio da Ponte. The high single arch was considered so daring and ambitious that other architects scoffed that it was bound to fall. It hasn't done yet. The stone bridge replaced a wooden one of 1255. This had several piers supporting the structure with twin drawbridges at the centre that could be opened to allow tall ships to pass. It too had shops along both sides of the central footpath over the bridge whose rents helped pay for the necessary maintenance. This one though had collapsed due to a large crowd watching a boat parade in 1444 and again in 1524. The earliest bridge was a pontoon bridge of 1181.

You must be patient to get a spot at the parapet to take photos over the side of the bridge. There will be several hundreds of people wanting to do the same!

And the other side! Miss Franny by now had left me to go look round the market and shops at the foot of the bridge.

One of the shop windows of a shop actually on the bridge. This sold pens made of Murano glass. I very seldom write with a pen these days which I think is a shame. I used to especially like writing with a fountain pen, but with central heating and days of non-use I find that cartridges are inevitably empty even if I've only used the pen once or twice since fitting a new cartridge. I do have a few old dip pens though.

I find Miss Franny without any bother and we decide to head back to St Mark's Square by a more direct route - though not worrying if we stray from any path we have taken before. It's no problem finding your way between these two most popular of Venetian sites as all you need do is follow signs for either Rialto or S. Marco.

Down through the narrow streets are many tempting shop windows. Here's one with a display of Murano glass sculpture. Think of the fun those airport workers will have with your case, loading it onto the plane for your trip home... Best to have the shop send large pieces by separate carrier!

We come into St Mark's Square and pass an archway between St Mark's Basilica and the Doges' Palace. A Doge is the equivalent to our Duke, so these were very high-ranking rulers. The winged lion is the symbol of Venice and you will find many examples of it in St Mark's Square and indeed all over the Mediterranean as Venice had one of the largest navies in Medieval times. The winged lion can be seen in various parts of Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and elsewhere.

Here is another over the balcony of the Doges' Palace that faces onto St Mark's Square.

We turn at the waterfront and head along the rows of shops and stalls in the never-ending search for fridge magnets. We now have a row of eighteen fridges just to hold them all... I'm thinking of knocking some of them together to make a cool haven in times of very hot weather. But then again, how often do we get very hot weather in the UK...?

The covered walkway along the front of the Doges' Palace. It is a seriously striking building.

At the point where St Mark's Square comes out onto the waterfront is another Gondala point. Perhaps the most lucrative point for the Gondoliers. We heard one couple being quoted 300 Euros for a trip - but in fairness we didn't hear where they wanted to go! You will also pay extra for a singing gondolier. Especially one with an orchestra in tow...

St Mark's Bell Tower or Campanile. It reaches 323 feet (98.6 metres) and has been in this form since 1514, though it has been rebuilt since following a disastrous collapse in 1902 just a few days after a crack appeared in the north face. Miraculously the only death was that of the caretaker's cat. The first tower on this site was built in 912 and the present one was finished exactly 1000 years later.

We carried on past St Mark's Square towards the terminal for our waterbus back to the cruise terminal. This presented us with further fridge magnet possibilities!

We returned to the ship and spent the afternoon talking to people we had met during the week. We came back up to the Promenade Deck to watch us sail out and found that the fog was beginning to come down again.

By the time we reached St Mark's Square it was starting to go dark, though as yet only a few lights have been switched on. Never having seen Venice by night it would have been nice to see it all lit up. Thomson Dream sails out through the Venetian Lagoon and back down the Adriatic Sea. For the next two days we will be calling in at ports in Croatia.

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One More Time in Venice

Tuesday, 16 August 2011. We have, I must admit, been here before. So, as I don't want to repeat myself and bore my readers (Heaven forbid!) I decided we would stay away from St Mark's Basilica, the Bridge of Sighs and the Rialto Bridge and look at some things I haven't shown before.

However, just to keep everyone happy and so as not to disappoint, here is a shot from the deck of Thomson Spirit of St Mark's with the bell tower, basilica and Doges' Palace. The Bridge of Sighs is just off to the immediate right but was surrounded by screens and scaffolding.

Having been before, we decided to forsake the ship's offer of an excursion and even the special boat solely for Thomson passengers and instead saved around sixteen pounds by buying return tickets for a water bus that picked us up right next to the ship. The excursion boat would have cost us forty pounds for the two of us and we would have been stuck to the allotted return time. The water bus cost us twenty six Euros. Having said this, we knew we had to come back fairly early so as not to arrive for the final returning boat only for it to be full! Everyone who misses sailing time has gone ashore independently! It is an expensive thing to do, missing a ship...

So this time we had a walk around the arcade which surrounds three sides of St Mark's Square. Florian's Restaurant had a small combo doing their refined thing outside, seen here as I walked behind them in the arcade. Usually they play classical or opera pieces. For some reason we got there in time to hear the final bars of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da... Just the thing to bring medieval Italy to mind!

The arcade shops include several narrow booths, part of the restaurant where customers can sip their champagne or espresso.

Of the actual shops, jewellers are the most represented traders. Miss Franny was paying close attention to these and I curried a bit of favour by purchasing a matching necklace and earring set of Murano glass.

We have walked away from St Marks here and cross a street that looks down towards the lagoon of Venice.

Now, whether I've shown gondolas before or not, you can't visit Venice without doing a spot of gondola gazing. They are everywhere, from the lagoon shore at St Marks to piazzas where canals meet, to the Rialto Bridge. And at all points in between, gliding down narrow canals and under tourist-filled bridges.

"James behave! We're being filmed!"
"Oh, not again...!"

We just gave up on direction and wandered down the side of canals and along shopping streets until we were hopelessly lost. I knew where we were roughly but we couldn't find ourselves on the map. The map had all the street names. The streets have all the names of the piazzas... It gave us a fresh perspective.

Bits of street furniture brightened up the sometimes quite dingy alleyways. Such as this wonderful apartment building collection of doorbells. Then we found ourselves back at St Marks Square and headed down the lagoon front to a pavement cafe where we could enjoy a cool drink and a spell of people watching. I've always found that knowing how to count up to five and say please and thank you will get you a long way. I know only a very little Italian beyond that, but have never had a problem. They all speak excellent English anyway, but appreciate you making the effort.

Then we made our way back to the water bus station and waited for a boat back to the Thomson Spirit. Sailing out of Venice on a cruise ship is one of the great cruising experiences. It also brings home to you how big these huge ships are. The Thomson Spirit is tiny next to some of them but even on that - we were up on the highest deck which is Deck 10 - we could look over the rooftops of Venice and pick out a few decidedly wonky-looking church towers!

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Venetian Sunset

Sunday, 3 May 2009. We have left our berth in the Port of Venice, to start our sail past the city and out through the lagoon to the sea.

The Carinthia VII is ranked 22 in the list of best yachts on Earth. She is owned by Mrs Heidi Helmut, widow of the creator of the Helmut philanthropic organisation. When I put the photo up at Flickr, it was viewed 140 times in the first 24 hours... (2019 edit - My Flickr account is no longer active)

We start to sail down towards St Marks Square and the Lagoon as the sun sinks ever lower behind us.

The lower it gets, the more beautiful Venice looks. What a viewpoint we have! Seeing how high we are reminds you what a huge ship Ocean Village Two is. The ferries that towered over us when we were in the shuttle boat, we are now looking down on far below. Talk about floating skyscrapers!

We reach the junction with the Grand Canal and the familiar buildings of St Marks Square. Looking backwards up the Grand Canal we can see the sunset starting to turn the sky orange.

St Marks Square comes and goes, each second providing a different perspective as we glide past. It was a struggle to select the photos for this blog entry. Every second a different viewpoint, a new angle, a look up a canal that wasn't visible a moment ago.

It's not only Pisa that has leaning towers in Italy!

The group of bridged islands that we think of as Venice get narrower as we approach the turn in the channel to the sea.

At last we reach it. MSC Musica is long gone but top right, above the buildings on her way out into the Adriatic, is Costa Serena.

The Venetian tugboat accompanies us until we are well into the Lagoon and about to enter the Adriatic Sea. As we turn the bend, whilst the tall tower of St Marks is still discernible, I look back and take photos with both the normal lens and my telephoto lens (below). These are our final views of Venice for this trip.

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