We started our 2008 trip to Europe Wednesday October 1 with
four flights – Shreveport to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, Miami to Madrid, and
finally Madrid to Marco Polo airport on the mainland across the lagoon from
Venice. I read Rick Steves’ 2009 book on
Venice essentially cover to cover during the trip, but we also referred to DK’s
Venice “Top Ten” book.
Once in Venice, around noon local time on Thursday October 2, we caught the Alilaguna (water bus) from the mainland to various stops on Murano and Venice proper, finally getting off with our four suitcases, two carry-ons and two shoulder bags at the San Marco stop about an hour and a half later. We didn’t actually have a map that showed where our hotel for the first night was, but before leaving Miami we’d narrowed it down to somewhere in the vicinity of the La Fenice opera house in San Marco. So we rolled our suitcases up and down one bridge up three streets to where we thought it would be (it wasn’t) then asked a helpful local where the Palace Duodo hotel was. He directed us right to it (unfortunately we had to cross one more bridge!) and we checked into our room around 2pm. You can look at picture of the hotel and the rest of our trip on our online photo album here.
Since we were not that tired, we had a quick lunch at a nearby restaurant on Campo San Luca, then Jamie went back to take a nap while I window-shopped. I got turned around, and accidentally found myself on St. Mark’s Square (which is where I took the picture) so I went ahead and went through St. Mark’s Basilica since I hadn’t been there before, I wanted to get a little more familiar with it before Jamie and I went through the next day. I then went back and we napped till about 8pm, since we wanted to see the city at night.
Venice at night is a totally different city – there are relatively few tourists, and everything looks completely different. We walked down to St. Mark’s Square and watched the dueling orchestras, window-shopped, and had dinner at a small restaurant on Calle de Teatro, across from another old Venetian opera house. We then walked down to the Rialto bridge and had gelato (and took pictures by the bridge) then back to the hotel.
Friday morning, October 3 we were up late getting ready to transfer to the ship. After Thursday’s fisco lugging bags to the nearest water bus, we splurged on a water taxi direct from the hotel’s canal door to the Emerald Princess at 4:30, which left us most of the day to sightsee. We started with a long tour of St. Mark’s Basilica, including a lengthy trip through the excellent museum (which included time on the balconies overlooking the square, where we took more pictures, as well as up close looks at the beautiful mosaics and the patriarch’s reception room – formerly the doge’s – which was now also a museum). We also took the separate tours of the Treasury, which had the best collection in existence of formerly Byzantine treasures (chalices and such) most looted in the Venice-led sack of Constantinople in 1205 (which I’m still irate about). The Treasury also had a couple of hundred relics of saints, and while few were labeled, there was a skull of saint someone, several arm bones (an arm and a leg of St. George) several leg bones, a hand, and many, many other fragments too small (and too poorly lit) to identify. There was also a fragment of the pillar Christ was scourged at, three of the stones used to stone St. Stephen, a thorn from the crown of thorns, a piece of the True Cross, and possibly a nail from the Cross – although that might have been at a different church – they were not clear at all on what was what. The highlight of the tour was a beautiful Byzantine gold altarpiece, the pala d’Oro, although the ceiling mosaics were a close second – they were amazing. When left the church apparently the tide was coming in because we had to walk on duckboards, and the square (which was raised an additional six inches just two years ago) was beginning to flood.
We next went across the square to the Correr Museum, which has some works by Canova, whose Josephine Bonaparte we (or at least I) ogled at the Borghese Museum in Rome year before last. It also had extensive displays of artwork and displays on the history of Venice, which we enjoyed – although by this point we were getting really tired. We picked up books on the basilica, the basilica museum and the Correr museum, as well as a children’s book about Venice for the boys. We had a quick lunch after that and wandered around another couple of hours before going back to our hotel to catch the water taxi to the ship.
I think I can safely say that we’ve never been so happy to see our ship after two days of walking and lugging suitcases. We breezed into the stateroom and got unpacked, thoroughly enjoying listening to all the moaning and groaning and complaining of the other passengers. The profile of the average passenger on a transatlantic trip hasn’t changed since our last one nine years ago – the average age is deceased, and they enjoy nothing so much as complaining all the time. Anyway, we had a very nice dinner four very nice older couples, and turned in immediately after dinner.
Saturday morning October 4 we were up at 5:30 am to get ready to meet our tour group at 7:15. We boarded a water bus and went to Murano, where we watched a glass blower make a vase and a “leetle ‘orse.” Jamie shopped for necklaces on the canal, and we boarded the shuttle to go to Dorsoduro (across the Grand Canal from San Marco) where we had a gondola ride across the Grand Canal and through much of San Marco, then back across the Canal. We really enjoyed the ride. After we boarded the shuttle we crossed the Guidecca canal to San Giorgio Maggiore, where I finally got to see an original Palladio-designed building. Jamie and I were actually not really impressed, with the exception of the beautiful altarpiece (see pictures) and the stunning cherry wood carved choir behind the altar. We then returned to the ship in time for lunch, and watched the ship leave Venice from our stateroom balcony. After dinner we toured the ship and watched a movie on deck (something about Las Vegas with Cameron Diaz which we really liked). We searched the ship in vain for a cup of hot chocolate, but did find a buffet somewhere up on deck 16-ish towards the back so we decided what the hell and ate dinner again, finally going to be around 2.
This morning (Sunday) we had breakfast in our room at 9am. I say “we” because I ate a little of it in bed and then went back to sleep till a little after noon. Jamie never ate or got up, suceedding in sleeping a good ten hours before she got up to go to a seminar on acupuncture and weird spa treatments. We met at the art auction at 2pm, after which she did some more due diligence on spa treatments and I did a lap around the ship. Seas are moderate today so the ship is bouncing all over the place, so I’m on half a patch just to make sure I don’t feel bad during dinner tonight – our first formal night,
That’s it from here for now – the next several days are
busy, busy, busy with stops in Naples, Rome, Livorno (Florence/Pisa),
Nice/Cannes, and Barcelona, so we’ll post again when that’s done.