Venice: July, 2007

Several of us had purchased one night post-cruise in Venice through Royal Caribbean, so we had transfers from the pier to the hotel included.

Rather than getting off as early as possible and toting our own bags as usual, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before heading to the hotel by transfer.

This proved to be a mistake, as the transfer turned out to be an inconvenient wait for a bus that took us about halfway to our hotel.

From there, we hoofed it, and I can tell you that many of the passengers were none too pleased by this arrangement.

Elderly people were particularly annoyed with the long walk.

Other people in our party who didn't have transfers walked to our hotel faster than our "transfers," despite the fact they were lugging suitcases.

After checking into the lovely Hotel Carlton & Grand Canal, we saw our bags floating along
the canal in a boat on the way to the hotel.

That's the way to arrive at a hotel in Venice: by boat.

I would have preferred the option to have my  bags transferred and be cut free in Venice sans luggage as soon as the ship docked, giving me three extra hours to enjoy my day in Venice.

Regardless, we split into two groups, with Julie, Rollie and Cheryl taking a water bus to Lido Isle to swim in the Mediterranean and lounge on the beach. Laszlo, Gina, Jay, Amy, Jered and I walked to nearby Campo Santa Margherita for the morning.

Jacque, Kendra and Kelsey had spent two nights in Venice pre-cruise and had to catch a plane from Zurich the next morning, so they weren't with us.

The word from those who had stayed in Venice before the cruise was that Venice was hot and packed with tourists, so we decided to meet on the small, rustic island of Burano at 2:00 PM. to escape the crowds and city heat in the afternoon.

Walking along the canals and through little alley ways toward Campo Santa Margherita, I found Venice to be enchanting and very uncrowded, completely the opposite of what others had said, leading me to the inescapable conclusion that almost all of the tourists jam into St. Mark's Square and the surrounding areas without ever finding this wonderful part of Venice.

The temperature was warm, but I would guess maybe in the low eighties, which for me is quite comfortable.

Our group wandered along through what felt like a quaint village.

Gina bought a new pair of sandals to replace some uncomfortable shoes, and we stopped frequently to check out the shops and farmers' vegetable stands.

When we reached Campo Santa Margherita, we settled into a couple of sidewalk cafe tables for drinks.

I had an espresso, with all the power and flavor of a full cup of coffee condensed into a demitasse cup.

Somehow, I made it last quite a while.

After watching the world go by for a half hour or so, Amy and I went out to scout out lunch restaurants.

Several looked very inviting.

We also looked through some shops, including a custom mask shop, and shared a gelato.

There was an exhibit of the creative genius of Leonardo da Vinci in a beautiful old church that we looked in on, and Amy came back here the next day with Julie, I'm told.

We finally found the perfect spot for lunch, at a restaurant that looked like where "Lady and the Tramp" shared their spaghetti and meatballs.

We went back and gathered the troops, and they all agreed with our choice.

We knew we had made a good choice when they brought out fresh baked bread served with vinegar and olive oil to go with our drinks.

Jay had some kind of spaghetti dish, and we also ordered three pizzas to share.

Jered and Laszlo ordered horse meat pizza, so I told them they would have to live with their choice, because Amy, Gina and I wouldn't be sharing either our eggplant or onion and sausage pizzas.


In the end, we had more than we could eat, and of course Jered and Laszlo had some of the good pizzas, although they did finish their Italian stallion on their own.

In Italy as much of Europe, you order bottled water with meals, or you don't get water, so we drank a few bottles in addition to the lemonades and ice teas.

Gina and I had wine.

Gina snagged the real bargain, which was a small carafe of white wine for about the same price as my glass of house Chianti, but to me, my robust red wine tasted like Venice.