Our First Cruise - Sunday 16/05/2010 Venice

We needed to bounce back after the disappointment of missing Dubrovnik but we had high hopes of Venice being able to do just that. One of the reasons that the captain had not pushed on harder to arrive sooner in Venice was that he was timed to arrive at 8.00am and he announced that this would be an experience to remember. We had spoken to many people on the cruise and we had asked anyone who had done our second week before us for their tips, we remembered to get on deck early for Venice and on the starboard side.
By 7.00am the light was great and we were entering the Grand Canal, there was no heat in the sun so we wore jackets but the views lit us up. The carefully selected Italian opera music coming through ther PA system was a magical addition to the scenery. We passed close by St Mark’s Square and later were able to identify many of the definitive Venice landmarks. We saw rank after rank of gondolas not yet in use and by 8.00pm we were berthed and decided to have breakfast. It was one of those times when you felt genuinely sorry for other passengers just getting up and wandering into breakfast with no idea what they had missed.
I had a problem the solution of which was a great success, I had run out of Lithium AA batteries and the normal “High Power” were struggling to do a day’s photography so with our tour leaving the quayside at 11.50am we resolved to walk to the nearest shops and buy some batteries. By 10.00am we were off the ship and following the crowd on foot leaving the port gates. Our frustration was that everyone else seemed to be dragging their luggage with them and so peacefully co-existing with them on a narrow pavement was tricky. Just when we wondered if we would ever get to shops we left the heavily industrial area of the port and were entranced by the canals and old buildings. There were shops a plenty and we found a camera shop where I bought two Lithium batteries for eight euros I felt this was excessive but I paid without hesitation; not being confident of the camera in this photographic goldmine would have been agony.
In a small shop down an alley just off the main canal, there are canals and alleys in Venice, no substantial roads; we spotted licquorice sold by the metre we bought 1metre for 2 euros but it did not survive the journey home to England.
We paced our return to the ship so that we could be on the quayside at 11.45 and therefore ready for our motor launch into St Mark’s Square. We were amused to see motor boats racing past us from other liners to the canal system loaded with luggage – you had to think does it all get to its destination and is it dry when it does?
We were gathered on the dock and then issued with trip numbers, two trips were embarked on the same motor launch and the two guides outlined the basics of the trip making sure that we knew where the boats would return from and when, I have to say however, these were the least enthusiastic guides we encountered on the cruise I hope this was reflected in their level of pay!
We docked about 300 metres past St Mark’s square and we were handed over to a guide for the Doge’s Palace and the Basilica, his knowledge and enthusiasm were right back to the standards that we had come to expect. He walked us along the canal side towards St Mark’s Square, on the way we passed Vivaldi’s house but he did not come out to see us.
We passed the Bridge of Sighs which links the Doge’s Palace to the jail and as one of the sights I had looked forward to seeing it was an anti-climax but the Doge’s Palace more than made up for that, we were allowed to photograph in the courtyard and in some parts of the building so I was grateful that I had solved the battery situation.
Our guide attempted to tell us how the Doge was elected but did admit that it was complicated, at present Britain is under the control of a coalition government which is looking at election reform so I, having a general interest in these things, referred to Wikipedia, this seems like an ideal way to proceed:
New regulations for the elections of the doge introduced in 1268 remained in force until the end of the republic in 1797. Their object was to minimize as far as possible the influence of individual great families, and this was effected by a complex elective machinery. Thirty members of the Great Council, chosen by lot, were reduced by lot to nine; the nine chose forty and the forty were reduced by lot to twelve, who chose twenty-five. The twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine and the nine elected forty-five. Then the forty-five were once more reduced by lot to eleven, and the eleven finally chose the forty-one who actually elected the doge.
I imagine that has clarified the situation for all of us!
As I understand this the Doge was the senior magistrate and ruler of Venice but he had his power limited by the other members of the governing body.So he was somewhere between a president and a modern king acting as the Head of State.
The Palace was an impressive tour during which we crossed the Bridge of Sighs and sampled briefly the delights of the mediaeval prison.
When we emerged from the Palace it was intended for the same guide to take us round the Basilica but he was unable to do so. As sometimes happens the wind or tide had caused the Square to be flooded and the Basilica was closed to avoid water damage. We had more time on our hands than we had expected but it passed quickly as we wandered in the city. We were too mean to indulge in a Gondola ride at 60 euros but we did see plenty of them on our walk.
When we returned to The Grand Canal there was a wedding party having their official photographs taken using the canal as a back drop. It was interesting to see that the mother of the bride seemed more in charge of the proceedings than either the bride or the photographer, don’t even consider that the groom could have been in charge.
We returned to the ship and, in due course, with or without the captain’s, “enough turns on the rubber band…..” this was a Sail Away not to be missed. We were enchanted by Venice and we could find no support for people who insist that the canals are dirty and smelly, we were close enough to check that and we never got that impression.
In the evening we continued our film-going with “Men who stare at Goats” I knew it was an offbeat offering so we sat for six minutes with no picture on the screen, just the dialogue, asuming this to be the directors intention it was not, eventually the error was spotted and the film restarted with both sight and hearing catered for. It wasn’t a great improvement but the film was saved from bottom place in our list by Sherlock Holmes.