Venice Charm

Day 16    Venice, Italy    Saturday, August 9, 2014

We arrived at The City of Bridges at about 1 pm, cruising in with pomp and circumstance (by just being on a cruise ship) and getting to see the glory of this town on a perfect day. Ahead of us on the far left you can see the Campanile of the famous St. Mark's Basilica at San Marco Square. We disembarked at about 2:30 and enjoyed many sights until returning to the ship at 6 pm for our final night on board the Spirit.

The first land we passed by as we came in from the Adriatic Sea was this outer barrier island with tons of Saturday beachgoers. We were still several miles from Venice at this point.

East of Venice as we were still approaching, I spotted this "leaning tower". I did some Internet research to find out what it was, and it turns out there are five leaning campanili around Venice (and here I thought the one in Pisa was the only one!). So, I had to carefully compare my photo with the others to determine which it was. It is the San Pietro di Castello campanile and was the first Renaissance bell tower in Venice, built in 1463-64. It's actually the third one built for this ancient church, the first built in 774. The tower is completely clad in slabs of Istrian stone, and it’s the weight of those slabs that causes it to lean.

 A view of our approach, although you still cannot see the famous buildings of Venice. It was a beautiful cruise as we passed canals and churches and Venetian architecture. I will be including many many photos as we passed through Venice because the approach from the cruise ship was actually a highlight of being in this famous town.

Eventually we were passing between the Venice Island on our starboard side and the Lido Island on our port side. So, I hustled to the port side of the ship and took this photo of the Lido. It had canals too!

Soon we were cruising past San Marco Square. The building in the front is the Doge's Palace, which Janet and I toured later in the day. Look at all the tourists at this very touristy spot.

And then just ahead was the mouth of the Grand Canal, where later in the day we would be coming down in a water bus (vaparetto). The church on the left is Santa Maria della Salute. In 1630, Venice experienced an unusually devastating outbreak of the plague. As an offering for the city's deliverance from the disease, the Republic of Venice vowed to build and dedicate a church to Our Lady of Health. Janet and I would tour it the next day.

As I turned my camera back toward the Doge's Palace again, I saw all these tourists on the bridge taking a photo of the Bridge of Sighs (with two gondolas headed under the first bridge). We had yet another link to Lord Byron because he was the one who gave it its name, coming from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice as they were taken from the court room in the Doge's Palace on the left to their cells in the prison on the right. Later that day when Janet and I toured the Palace, we looked out those windows at the tourists taking our photo from the bridge in front.

A Saturday afternoon in San Marco Square was beyond jammed crowded, and with all the gondolas lined up for takers. Actually, the area where all these people are is called Piazza Ducale (duke), another name for "Doge". Later in the day at about 4:30 we were there, but luckily the crowds had thinned out.

Our ship continued down the main waterway called Canale della Guidecca. That campanile you can see on the right is another one of the five "leaning towers" in Venice, the Santo Stefano.

 Here is a close-up of the San Stefano leaning campanile. At some point Janet and I walked past it as we were wandering the streets of downtown Venice.

 One of many water taxis plying the "roads" of Venice. This particular one passing our ship was especially cool with all its polished wood.

Continuing toward our dock. Lots of small boats passed us during our cruise in, and many of the people on them waved to us. It's hard to believe how huge we were in their busy waterway. I learned after the cruise that they have just passed a new law prohibiting cruise ships from entering Venice on the course we followed. Instead, cruise ships must go to the south completely around all the islands and enter the port from the southwest. This will be good for all the water traffic, but I'm glad we got to enter this scenic route before the new ban takes effect because it was a major highlight of the entire cruise.

Looking ahead we could see other huge cruise ships docked at the port. Soon it was time to return to our cabin to prepare to go visit this charming city.

When it was time to depart the ship, we happened to be at the front of the line, and this is what it looked like behind us. Everyone was anxious to see Venice starting in the afternoon.

While waiting to disembark, between our ship and another Norwegian ship we saw all this black smoke appear and we wondered what caught on fire. It kept pouring upward for about 15 minutes, and it looked like something pretty serious. We heard the sirens coming, and finally it stopped. We never heard a word about what it was.

When we did disembark, with computer in tow, we walked about 700 yards to a "people mover". On the way we bought our tickets at a small shop, but when we tried to use the tickets we thought we'd been taken because they wouldn't open the turnstiles. But we finally figured out how to do it and we caught the train for all of about 3/4 mile to the Piazzale Roma. This is where all the trains and buses and cabs and water buses (vaporetti) all converge to transport tourists and locals alike because the bridges from the mainland end there.

We bought a 24-hour ticket for the vaporetto and found our way to the #1 line toward San Marco Square. It was completely packed, and very hot and humid. Interestingly, in our 24 hours we took 11 trips on vaporetti, which pleased us that we got our money's worth.

It was SO exciting to be in Venice on the Grand Canal. The architecture was amazing and fun to see. There's about 25 miles of waterways in this town, so think of all the bridges that cross them (378 of them).

Here we are about to go under the famous Rialto Bridge, with all its shops. Engineering of the bridge was considered so audacious that architects predicted future ruin. The bridge has defied its critics to become one of the architectural icons of Venice. Janet and I visited it on foot later in the day.

Although we saw dozens of gondolas up close (Venice has about 400 total), this was our first as we passed it on the Grand Canal. And look at those beautiful buildings behind.

We elected to get off at the stop where our BnB was so that we'd know how to find it the next morning with our luggage. The stop was about 2/3 of the way along the Grand Canal, and called Rezzonico after the palace there by the same name. We hunted down the BnB based on the directions from the webpage but eventually didn't know where to go next. We stepped over into the shade of a door overhang to read the directions one more time. It turned out the door we were in front of was our BnB door!

Nearby was an Internet Cafe that doubled as a custom T-shirt shop, and we were the only ones there as we spent 45 minutes catching up on e-mails. One I had to send was to the BnB owner to confirm our arrival time the next morning to drop off our luggage (since check-in was not until the afternoon, and he did not live there). Six months earlier when I made the reservation, he had said we could indeed drop our luggage early.

Back at the vaporetto stop, we got this picture of me with the Accademia Bridge in the background. It is one of only four bridges that cross the Grand Canal.

Soon the vaporetto picked us up and we continued to San Marco Square. Here we are about to go under the Accademia Bridge.

On our way I took this photo, which would turn out to be exactly where our gondola ride the next day would take us. It was such a cool ride on these narrow charming canals.

I also took this photo of where it would turn out our gondola reservation was set to begin the next day.

Virtually everyone exited the vaporetto when it arrived at the San Marco stop. We walked down a narrow lane and emerged onto the square.  Late in the afternoon the crowds had mostly dissipated. On the right is the library, and along the left is the Procuratie, or government offices. At the end are the Basilica and Campanile. It was too bad the basilica had so much scaffolding because the building, from 1117, is so richly decorated.

On the square's far left side (as you face the basilica) is this old clock tower from the late 1400s. At the top are two statues who strike the bell at each hour.

Even with so much of the church in scaffolding, at least we got to see some of the elaborate faҫade with its paintings and the famous four horses above the main portal. No one knows the origin of these horses, whether Greek or Roman, 4th Century BC or 2nd Century AD, or even the composition of the metal alloy. They did arrive in Venice when they were stolen from Constantinople in 1204. Napoleon stole them to Paris in the early 19th century, but they made their way back when he lost power.

 We took a self-guided tour of the Doge's Palace, where the Venetian rulers lived and where the republic government convened. We're in the courtyard, but the dome in the background is from the basilica.

 This is a mail drop (his mouth). Citizens were allowed to submit letters of complaint about someone, and they had to mail it in this drop.

Any Venetian citizen could accuse someone of misdeeds by writing the denunciation down and slipping it through specially placed Bocca di Leone ("Lion's Mouth") slots in the Palazzo Ducale's walls. - See more at: http://www.reidsguides.com/italy/destinations/veneto/venice/sights/palazzo_ducale.html#sthash.vAIZhYyV.dpuf

Any Venetian citizen could accuse someone of misdeeds by writing the denunciation down and slipping it through specially placed Bocca di Leone ("Lion's Mouth") slots in the Palazzo Ducale's walls. - See more at: http://www.reidsguides.com/italy/destinations/veneto/venice/sights/palazzo_ducale.html#sthash.vAIZhYyV.dpuf

Any Venetian citizen could accuse someone of misdeeds by writing the denunciation down and slipping it through specially placed Bocca di Leone ("Lion's Mouth") slots in the Palazzo Ducale's walls. - See more at: http://www.reidsguides.com/italy/destinations/veneto/venice/sights/palazzo_ducale.html#sthash.vAIZhYyV.dpuf

The Golden Staircase. There was so much grandeur to see in the palace, but after this shot, the signs said no photos were allowed (which sure did not stop most people). One of the most famous pieces in the palace is the Paradise, an enormous 14th century fresco depicting the Coronation of the Virgin surrounded by the celestial hierarchies. The original was destroyed in a 1577 fire, and the replacement was done by the most famous painter at that time, JacopoTintoretto. However, he was very old and apart from its sheer scale, the painting has been considered "entirely forgettable". I did read that it WAS hailed as a masterpiece by the 500 powerful Venetians he painted into the heavens, most of whom were Tintoretto’s patrons.

This photo is from the Bridge of Sighs.I thought it was interesting how many gondolas there were. I'm just glad that when we took our gondola ride, we were the only ones around and it was nice and quiet.

The other direction from the Bridge of Sighs. So many people were taking our photo.

As we were departing, we got this photo of the Giant's Staircase in the courtyard. Those statues on either side at the top are Neptune and Mars. Over the arch is the famous symbol seen everywhere in this city: The Lion of Venice. The winged lion originally was an ancient bronze sculpture in St Mark's Square and came to symbolize the city — as well as one of its patron saints, St Mark.

 Also in the palace courtyard is the original statue of St Theodore that had been atop one of the two giant granite columns in the piazzetta outside by the lagoon (the one there now is a replica). He was the city patron before St Mark, and he has the spear he used to slay the dragon. On top of the other granite column is the winged lion, which, again, is the symbol of St Mark.

When we left the palace and were back on the lagoon, we saw what we must have looked like when our ship entered the city. This ship is departing, but it sure is imposing and I can see why the city will soon no longer allow the ships to ply these waters other than from the south, farther away.

 For the next hour we meandered the maze of streets and canals and bridges, and got lost! I thought we were walking one direction (westward) and it turned out we had walked north toward the Rialto Bridge. This photo of Janet is at a "typical" canal, and notice the locks on the bridge. This continues the fad we saw so many times the previous summer in Europe.

 We walked over the Rialto Bridge with all its shops -- and tourists. Then we caught a vaporetto back to Piazzale Roma, got on the people mover, and walked back for our final night on the ship. We had lots of packing, and felt anxiety when our dinner service was slow when we wanted to be packing and getting ready for ship departure the next morning.

What a wonderful cruise it was!