So maybe I should start telling you what happened from the beginning. I arrived, with my friend, in Venice at about 2 in the afternoon after flying all night. We didn’t get a lot of sleep but we were functioning. The hotel we stayed at was right off of St. Marcos Square so we just had to get there. So, we got on the water bus, at 13€ each, and started the bus ride through the city. It was a great way to get there because of the route it took and I learned something, I get seasick on small boats. (Not a good thing to find out when confronted with no cars!) So we made it to St. Mark’s square and then proceeded to try and find the hotel. The first problem was that I didn’t know exactly where it was and after walking around for a bit we found it. By the way, St. Mark’s square is crazy busy at any time of day, well, at 730 am it was fine.
So, by the time we got there is was about 5 or so in the evening and we thought it might be best to look for dinner. We wanted pizza. So we asked the front desk where THEY would go for pizza not where the tourists go. We walked that way and crossed the Rialto Bridge. This is one of the major bridges across the Grand Canal and I didn’t realize it was a big deal until I saw all the postcards of it later. We looked for a place and we found a place right on the Grand Canal for pizza. I had ham(J) and mushrooms on mine and it tastes better if you fold it in half. The pizza is a very thin crust and I would have taken a picture of it but then I would have had to stop eating it.
So after our expensive dinner, my portion was about 16€ or $24, we went walking in town. And then it got dark so we figured we should figure out where we were. Finding ourselves on the map took about 10 minutes. Then we walked back to the hotel. It wasn’t very far but since the streets are rather confusing it took about an hour and a half to find our way back. We also found out that businesses close at about 730pm on a Friday night. (There aren’t many locals left in Venice so people leave the town to go home.) We got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and crashed into bed so we could have the fullest day possible the next morning.
The next morning we got up, got European breakfast, and started walking around the city. Took lots and lots of pictures and then found a yarn shop (YAY!) and then went back to the restaurant for another pizza. We got back to our hotel about 1:30 pm, got the bags, and then went to get the boat to take us to the boat.
It was very easy to get on the boat, we dropped out bags off, got our boarding number and waited until with was called. We had to go through about 4,000 security checks before we got on the boat but it worked out ok. Our cabin was much larger than I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t large but we had room for our suitcases, carry-ons, and all the other stuff we carry around. I was pleasantly pleased with the size, especially for the price we paid. The ship was big and confusing. I finally figured out my way around the 6th day which didn’t do me a whole lot of good.
I don't know what this building is, but it was a pretty picture that I took from the cruise ship as we left Venice.
The tide was a little high the day our cruise left which meant that seating at some cafes was limited.
These carts are how things are transported throughout Venice, talk about some strong arms!
Rialto Bridge, with really good pizza off to the left with the red awning.
St. Mark's Square is a major tourist destination in the city, hence all the people.
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