Venice, 1st day

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

Venice, one of the top two attractions for us on this cruise.  We arrived at around 1pm and cruised slowly past the city and St Mark's Square on our way to the out of the way cruise terminals.  Once off the ship, we walked a bit to where there was a shuttle boat for the first day.  It ran every 10 minutes or so until evening and then the sailings were spaced farther apart. 

We had one goal for today and that was to take a gondola ride.  We walked past the most congested tourist areas and found a gondolier and he spoke passable English.  That made it a most enjoyable 40 minutes.  He claimed to be the best chef in Venice.  His Brazilian wife has a restaurant in the tourist area but he said the food was so bad that he would not tell us where it was!  He is the black sheep of the family.  His father teaches medicine at the Venice University and his sister helps the father.  Mom is an attorney.  But he loves his city and is likely the happiest member of the family.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the island of Murano, which is famous for its blown glass and the island of Burano, another scenic island known for its lace.  If we have time, we will revisit the main parts of town.  If not, we will return on Friday, when the ship doesn't leave until 6pm.

Colleen & John