This trip began on Saturday, October 20, 2012 with an overnight British Airways flight from Dallas Ft Worth airport to London Heathrow airport. It was an easy flight of about 8.5 hours and we arrived at the London airport shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, Oct. 21. With a 2:30 p.m. departure for the additional leg of our flight to Venice, we had some time to stroll around and get lunch before our gate info was posted shortly after 2 p.m. The time change for Italy (one hour forward) made our flight arrive in Venice at about 6:30 p.m. By the time we had collected our bags it dark. Boarding a large bus that we had pre-booked was easy and soon we were in Pizzale Roma in the middle of Venice with two large suitcases (on wheels), 2 large carry-ons (also on wheels), my heavily loaded backpack, a CPAP machine (medical "breathing"device), and 2 coats. The picture below (taken in the daytime) of the large bridge located near the Pizzale Roma where we departed from our bus--lost--with all our suitcases. It looks very inviting in the this picture, in the daylight, but not so in the dark of night when one does not know the route to the hotel.
Our hotel, Hotel Antiche Figure, advised on their website that '...the hotel is a mere 5 minute walk from the Pizzale Roma'. So, we started in what we believed was the direction of hotel. Within 5-10 minutes we had encountered a canal with a medium size bridge that we must pass over to continue in our chosen direction. Given the arc of this bridge and the steps one must climb to pass on it, we found it impossible to pull or push the 4 suitcases on wheels on this bridge. And, we were not certain that we were traveling in the correct path to our hotel. We were concerned about our personal safety--it was dark; there were very few "street lights" and virtually no people on any of the lanes that we were walking on. At first I left Sylvia with most of the bags and passed over this bridge, walking perhaps a city block on the "other" side of the bridge before deciding that we were not headed in the correct direction. So, I returned to the place where Sylvia stood surrounded by bags and I proceeded to walk down the side of the canal where I found a boat that was tied up. I located the driver. He spoke virtually no English so he couldn't help me very much, but he indicated that I might locate another boat tied up around a curve on the canal. I returned to Sylvia and we gathered the bags and walked in the direction of the indicated boat. This time the driver spoke some English and was able to tell me the direction to travel toward our hotel which was not our original chosen route. I asked if he would take us there. He replied "no, that it wasn't far and we could walk". (I later realized that from the nearest water taxi stop there was still a good 5-10 minute walk to our hotel). Anyway, we decided that we had no choice except to walk to the hotel.
We returned to the location where we would begin to pass over the bridge and, once again, Sylvia waited with all the bags around her as I walked over the bridge and continued on for about the equivalent of 2 city blocks in the direction indicated until I located the hotel. I returned to Sylvia with the news that the we were now traveling in the right direction but to reach we hotel we must pass over two bridges. After some discussion we decided that the only way we could pass over these bridges with the suitcases was for me to carry the bags, one at a time, over each bridge and set it down on the other side. So, we began that process which meant that after the first trip there were suitcases setting beside the bridge unclaimed. There was an obvious risk of the bags being stolen but we felt we had no choice. With my carrying over the 2nd bag, Sylvia walked with me and then there were 2 bags on one side of the bridge unclaimed. Below is a picture of the first bridge we passed over that night. (I returned later and took this picture in the daylight).
With the transport of the 4th bag and after a short rest we continued on toward the 2nd bridge where we completed the entire exercise again. Luckily for us, no bags were stolen at either stop. The second bridge is shown below.
Finally, we reached the Hotel Antiche Figure and proceeded to check in. The small boutique hotel with about 20 rooms was adequate but somewhat pricey (about $350 per night). Unlike the experience of our friends who had stayed at this hotel and recommended it because they were assigned a beautiful room that overlooked the Grand Canal, we were assigned to a small room on the 4th floor with only one window that looked out onto the side wall of another building. A quick check of the minibar revealed a limited and expensive supply of snacks, so once we were settled, we proceeded to the main floor and outside to look for a small store or nearby restaurant. Locating a small store was the easiest and we were soon back in the room and after some reading the day ended for us.
Monday, Oct. 22, 2012 began with a nice breakfast that was included in cost of room. In the daylight everything on the street looked much easier to maneuver and we soon were locating landmarks and ways to get around. We walked to the Pizzzle Roma and located a ticket office where we purchased a 48 hour ticket for the Vaporette (water bus) and began using it as we proceeded toward the Saint Mark's Basilica shown below.
There we met our first of 3 semi-private tours that we had scheduled and prepaid for the Venice area. This tour, called "Best of Venice Walking Tour and Grand Canal Water Taxi Ride" included 6 people with a guide who spoke very good English. We began the tour with the water taxi ride. The famous Bridge of Sighs (shown below) connects the New Prison to the interrogations rooms in Doge's Palace. It was built in 1602. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. A local legend says that lovers will be granted eternal love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the Bridge of Sighs.
Boarding the tour boat we headed up the Grand Canal toward Rialto (finance) Bridge.
and small canals that connect with the Grand Canal.
The Water Taxi ride ended very near where it started.
And from there, we began the "Best of Venice" walking tour. We passed by the markets with both fresh food and fresh flowers.
We learned that some of the plants growing out of the walls were capers.
This bridge gave easy access for the gondolas to pass through it.
We came upon a square with its original, old community well and found the well not being used for water but rather for the children to use as a play item. Reaching the size to climb on the well seems to be a right of passage. By this time of the day (about 3 p.m.) small children were arriving in this square, one--no more than two--children accompanied by an adult seemed to be stopping off at the square for playtime for the children and a refreshment for the adults as they visited with each other.
Below are the exact replicas of the original horses that were set into the facade of St. Mark's Basilica. The Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of St. Mark's is a set of bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga (a four-horse carriage used for chariot racing) were set into the facade of St. Mark's Basilica after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. In the early 1980s ongoing damage from growing air pollution forced their replacement with exact replicas. Since then the originals have been on display just inside the basilica.
Also filmed from the porch of Doge's Palace from the Clock Tower of Venice are the two great bronze figures, hinged at the waist, which strike the hours on a bell. One is old and the other young, to show the passing of time.
When our tour ended using our 48-hour pass we caught a Vaporette (water bus) that took us back toward our hotel. After a short rest we reviewed our itinerary for the next day which included two tours: (1) Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries Tour and (2)Venice By Night and Gondola Ride. Later we decided to return to the area where we had walked the previous evening when we were lost. After strolling as far as anything looked familiar, we turned back and as it was now dark and almost 7 p.m so we stopped off at what appeared to be a nice outdoor cafe for dinner. There were a number of full tables and we assumed the food must be good with all the people eating there. We both selected pasta for dinner. Sylvia had the meatless pasta; I had the regular pasta with meat sauce, a salad, and a couple of glasses of red wine. We returned to the hotel to find no television that interested us (very few shows in English) and settled in with our kindles to read before falling asleep.
By 9 p.m. Sylvia was feeling sick with what seemed like horrible gas on her stomach. We dug out that over-the-counter medicine for such pains that we had with us and she swallowed some of those. An hour later she felt worse with more severe pains. This continued most of the night. Before midnight I inquired at the front desk of the hotel for some help. I was offered a fizzy-type soda which she drank. It gave no relief. Later, I talked with the night manager of the hotel about locating a pharmacy. After some research he told me that the only pharmacy open at that hour was about a 30-40 minute walk away and most likely I would get lost. I asked about contacting a physician and was told that the hotel had no way to reach a doctor. The night manager did locate a nearby pharmacy that would open the next morning at 9 a.m. (I was there at 8:30 waiting for it to open, obtaining the item recommended by the pharmacist). Note the green cross on the building on the right side of street. That's the pharmacy.
Sylvia continued to suffer. At about 2 a.m. I fell asleep for a short time but within a couple of hours was awake again. At about 5 a.m. Sylvia's pain seemed to subside slightly and, totally exhausted, she fell asleep, sleeping until about 11 a.m. And, we missed our scheduled tour, "Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries", which began at 10 a.m.
This being Tuesday, Oct. 23, it was the day our cruise on the Silhouette began. We were allowed to board the ship after 2 p.m. So, as I returned to the hotel from the pharmacy I inquired about our obtaining assistance to get our suitcases from the hotel to the "People Mover", a cable-operated tram system that is similar to the automated shuttles in many large airports. The Venice People Mover was located in Piazzale Roma with a connection to the Marittima cruise terminal where our ship was at tied at dock. The assistance, a man with a homemade looking wheel barrow, transported the suitcases for 20 Euros. That is the same service we needed when we arrived by bus in Piazzale Roma two days previous. I'm told that in the daylight hours there are many such transport people waiting in the piazzale to take tourists to their hotels. But, after dark we were unable to locate anyone offering that service. The hotel allowed us a late check out and shortly after 1 p.m. Sylvia decided that she thought she could make it to the ship. She was very weak and eating very cautiously.
We walked with our "suitcase transport" to the People Mover, obtained our ticket from a vending machine and maneuvered ourselves toward a rather steep set of two escalators that were designed to move the rider upwards two floors to board the tram. Have you ever attempted to board an escalator with two large rolling items? One is fine, place it on a step then move yourself directly on the next step. What do you do with the other rolling item? Drag it, trying to hold on as you weave around almost falling. The second bag ends up trying to share the space with your feet which doesn't work very well but you get hold of everything as best you can with backpacks and purses on your shoulders and suddenly it's time to step off and you begin a similar "dance" to get off the apparatus that stops for no one! Then, it's take about 6 steps in which you almost have everything again under control and suddenly it's time to step on another moving set of steps.
One woman watched our "dance" and said, "I feel your pain". I assume that means we're not the only people who has been faced with this trying exercise. Finally, we boarded the tram and in a very short while we arrived in an area where we could see our ship at the dock. The tram doors opened and once again we were faced with two rather steep escalators, moving us down 2 floors. But, oh, this time we located an elevator and quickly moved toward it. Soon the door in front of us opened and we were the only riders to board. As we quickly moved downward we discussed how much easier this movement was with the suitcases. Reaching the ground floor doors opened behind us and in front of us and we realized that we had choices. The front doors offered an approximately 8-foot high chain-link enclosure, about 10 X 10 feet square with no obvious exit. The back doors opened into an area where there were located turnstiles that were set to be used for those boarding the elevator, not exiting it. We waited for the area to clear of those boarding the elevator and once departed I tried to make the turnstile work for us. I looked for a place to swipe a ticket but there were none on "our" side of the unit. I tried to force the turnstile but it did not budge. Finally in desperation I shoved my two suitcases under the arm and then followed them crawling along the floor. Sylvia proceeded to do the same. Luckily for us no one arrived to see us crawling under the arm of the unit and we were soon on our way walking toward the ship.
On board the ship we walked directly to our stateroom on deck 6, stashing our carry-ons and putting our valuables in the safe. Then we proceeded to the buffet for lunch. After lunch we returned to our cabin, locating our checked suitcases and began unpacking. It was a nice warm day and it seemed appropriate to have the door to the balcony open. After some unpacking I decided to take a break and went out on the patio to enjoy the view of Venice. Almost immediately I started smelling cigarette smoke and then the odor became so strong and the smoke completely engulfed our balcony. It was obvious that the people in the stateroom next to us were smoking on the balcony. (More about this later). There were a number of ships in the harbor.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting everything unpacked and stowed away for the week. Evening arrived and with Sylvia being very tired and still not feeling up to par we decided that we didn't have the energy to leave the ship and return to Venice for our scheduled (and paid for) tour, "Venice By Night and Gondola Ride". After a light dinner at the buffet we explored the ship some and returned to our stateroom and retired for the night.
The next morning, Wed., Oct. 24 was our last day in Venice with the ship sailing at 5 p.m. We departed from the ship after an early breakfast in the stateroom and made the trip back to Venice to use some of the time left on our "48 hour Vaporette card" which actually expired at about noon that day. Once there we could get our bearings and began to locate the places we still wanted to visit. We watched the gondolas on the Grand Canal.
And then, and then after helping some fellow passengers (two elderly women) to understand the ticketing process for the Vaporette we boarded the Vaporette at the Rialto Bridge stop.
At St. Mark's Square we met another couple who indicated an interest in sharing a gondola ride. This was our last chance for the gondola since we had missed our scheduled excursion that included it.
We traded off, the first half hour they rode in the back; the second we rode there. But the gondolier did not sing. (I assume that happens only on the evening ride through the canal that includes the Bridge of Sighs).
The Grand Canal was very busy with boats of all sizes. The larger boats in the left center of the picture are the Vaporettes.
We returned to the ship, this time with no problems on the People Mover or getting out of the elevator since we used the escalators.
As the ship began to sail, shortly after 5 p.m. we gathered, along with a number of Cruise Critic friends, on the rear deck of the ship to see the sail away and the sunset. We sailed past a very nice yacht and a river boat.
And began to admire the beautiful sunset through the skyline.
What an experience! I've thought about visiting Venice but I don't think I could deal with handling bags the way you did and the other challenges of travel. Too bad Sylvia was sick for so much of the time.
ReplyDeleteShould we ever go there again we'll stay in a hotel that has a Vaporette stop directly in front of it. Or, have pre-arranged baggage transportation booked. Regarding bad food I'm not sure how to avoid it. At the health club on the ship I met a British health official who was on the cruise. When I told him about Sylvia's illness he said it most likely was "cross contamination" from a person not washing their hands after using the bathroom. Sylvia continued to feel bad and take pain killers for 3 days after we were on the ship. Eventually she took Ciprofloxacin which she had brought from home. After taking 14 pills over a week she no longer had the pains or need for pain killers.
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