Venice—Queen of the Adriatic

After an overnight flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam, we arrived in Venice about mid-day Tuesday.  Upon boarding our ship, the Regatta, Susie, Wayne, LBeau and I made our way to the Terrace Cafe for lunch.  The day was clear and a little cool as we got our first views from the deck of the ship of this city of 60,000 residents and 20 million tourists.

Before departing home, LBeau had researched the Vaporetto, Venice’s system of water buses.  So after unpacking for our two-week cruise, the four of us headed out to explore Venice on our own.

The number 2 line took us from our ship to the station at San Zaccaria.  From there it was a short walk to Piazza San Marco.  The white and orange building in the photo above is a Vaporetto station.

A member of the ship’s staff had assured us before we set out that there would be plenty of signs to direct us to the famous Rialto Bridge.  Sure enough, we found it easily and got our first view of the Grand Canal.

After dinner at a nearby restaurant, we made our way back to the Rialto Bridge where we boarded a water bus on the number 1 line for a ride along the Grand Canal.  It was a beautiful night with a crescent moon over Venice.

Today’s guided excursion took us back to San Marco Piazza where we had a guided tour of the Doge’s Palace and the Basilica San Marco.  We learned that St. Mark is buried there but only because the Venetians stole his remains from his original burial site in Alexandria after he became the patron saint of Venice.

We said goodbye to Venice late this afternoon.  As we set sail at 4 p.m., Susie and I enjoyed a Belini, invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice.  It was good, but for my money, you can’t beat the Leaning Belini at Macaroni Grill.

Tomorrow Dubrovnik, Croatia.