Days 2 and 3: Venice
After we checked in and freshened up a bit we met downstairs to go explore. We walked over to Piazza San Marco to drink in the glory of Venice. The weather was perfect: seventy degrees and clear blue skies. There were thousands of pigeons in the square as is usual, but not nearly as many tourists as the last time Steve and I were here in early November of 2004 with Hal and Mike.
I had two missions while we were in Venice. The first was to find the fine paper store where I bought lovely “peacock” and “marbled” paper the last time we were here and the second was to find again the incredible textile shop where Hal and Mike bought a beautiful table runner. I had seen and taken a picture of an exquisite small pillow that had been displayed in the window of this shop and was hoping to go back and purchase said pillow if it was still available (or something similar).
On our afternoon stroll from San Marco to the Rialto Bridge we happened upon both of these shops and several others that Steve and I both remembered from out last visit. Tim and Rick (Tim especially) were both quite bowled over by all of the stunning Merano glass and the intricate masks that are such a hallmark of Venetian craftsmanship. Tim admitted to us later on that they were both more than a little overwhelmed by it all and we told them that Venice is sort of like Italian Disneyland: it’s a shopper’s paradise but there is truly a sea of “crap” that you must wade through to find much that isn’t overpriced and more than a little tacky. But when you do stumble on that one little shop off the beaten path… it’s Magic! Tim found his in a glass shop we ran across on our way back to the square before dinner. There were some very nice pieces and he ended up buying a beautifully glazed burnt orange plate that was wrapped securely and boxed for him by the proprietor of the shop.
It was such fun to see the Rialto again with its well worn marble steps and railings – so buttery smooth you almost wanted to lick them.
We did find both of the shops I mentioned before. The paper shop La Ricerca is just before one of the hundreds of little bridges that dot the landscape of Venice and not far from my favorite view of the city looking down a canal with the juxtaposition of three or four different colored buildings with brightly colored flowers spilling out of pots on the little window ledges – amazing. We window shopped at La Ricerca and I promised to return later. Shortly after this we stumbled onto the Campo S. Maria which is a small square with a very old church at one end and the textile store I’d been looking for just perpendicular to it on another side of the square. The textile shop is Bevilacqua. They were closed at this time (typical of Italian shops between 1 and 4PM) but I knew where it was and would certainly return.
Both La Ricerca and Bevilacqua have websites. Check them out here:
http://www.venicemarbledpaper.com/ and http://www.bevilacquatessuti.com/
It’s 11:00 PM Friday 10/20/06 and I need to stop this now and go to sleep. It seems silly that everyone was most tired on our first day at sea, but I am exhausted. I’ll try to get more caught up tomorrow after we get back to the ship from Athens –AFK.
We returned to the Hotel Campiello (two bridges east of Piazza San Marco) and took our pre-dinner nap. We had arranged to meet up with several of our fellow cruisers this night for dinner. The male couple from San Francisco, Chris and Thom, were staying in the glorious Hotel Danielli right on the Grand Canal and we had arranged to meet up there at 9:15 PM. We got there and were completely wowed by the lobby of this magnificent hotel. There is a staircase that winds around the entire space for several floors and is just spectacular. At this time we also met Sandra and Denise, a most charming couple from Nova Scotia (who we would end up spending a lot of time with throughout the cruise – mostly during our lengthy onboard five course dinners).
We headed off to a restaurant that was recommended by the hotel concierge at the Danielli. I don’t remember the name of the place now and honestly it’s not important. The food there was not very good, but we did have a very nice time getting to know our new fellow travelers a bit. After dinner we all wandered around a bit before returning to our hotel and passing out.
Day 3: Venice
Today we went to the Doge’s Palace in the morning (but once again managed to skip the Basilica of San Marco. We would have gone but they would only hold your bags for an hour and the lines to get in can be pretty brutal. I’m sure Steve and I will make it there the next time we go – as we surely will return to Venice for a lengthier stay one day.
The palace is a magical place filled with history and art and amazing architecture. The grand hall was the largest covered single space in Europe for several hundred years. It was especially gratifying to introduce Tim and Rick to these wonderful places. We are all shutterbugs and in Venice alone I know we took about 1500 pictures between the four of us. It didn’t hurt that the weather was once again clear blue sky and in the low 70’s.
After the Doge’s Palace we started wandering back over to the area we’d spent so much time in the day before. I ended up buying quite a bit of fine paper and a few other do-dads at La Ricerca and had them shipped back home to Seattle. We went to Alla Scalinetta for lunch and had a really lovely relaxing time. It’s such a charming and homey little place. Steve even got a picture of Mama in the kitchen as we were leaving.
We headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and meet Chris and Thom at the pier at S. Zaccharia for the water taxi to the ship terminal.
This will be continued either tomorrow from Santorini or the following day when wer're at sea. -AFK
Getting from S. Zaccharia to the ship was easy, but the driver quite ripped us off for the ride. It was our own fault as we did not negotiate a price before we got in his boat. Live and learn…
Once we got to the terminal where our ship – the Millennium was docked there was a small bit of drama as Tim had not gotten his passport out of his bags so they had to fish it off the cart so he could find it. He did, in short order, and we proceeded to the ship. Our boarding was quite quick and easy, and we found our way to our Concierge Class stateroom (# 7200) on the starboard side of the ship in the very back with little effort. We were greeted by our stateroom attendant Gatot, a very sweet Southeast Asian man in his mid-thirties (just a guess). After looking around the room and doing a bit of unpacking we headed off to check out the ship.
-I will let Steve continue this description later as he said he’d go into more detail about the specifics of the ship in his writings. –AFK
After poking about the ship we came back to our room to lie down for awhile before getting ready for our first meet and greet with our whole group in the Cosmos Nightclub at 7:45. This first night was an “informal” dinner so that meant slacks, dress shirt and tie, and a jacket for us. We had lovely cocktails and a nice chat with our fellows: Thom and Chris from San Francisco, Denise and Sandra from Halifax - Nova Scotia, Candy and Myra from San Francisco, and the lovely Aileen from the bay area as well. Our fearless leader and his cabin mate were also in attendance (Michael and Brett – of the twinkling eyes - respectively). We were in the late seating for dinner so our dinner time was 8:45.
I won’t go into a lot of detail about our dinners except to say that on the whole we thought the food was not great but the service was very good. Our waiter Dejan, a kicky young man from Croatia was very sweet and always full of cheery wit and sage advice for our upcoming port of call.
I had two missions while we were in Venice. The first was to find the fine paper store where I bought lovely “peacock” and “marbled” paper the last time we were here and the second was to find again the incredible textile shop where Hal and Mike bought a beautiful table runner. I had seen and taken a picture of an exquisite small pillow that had been displayed in the window of this shop and was hoping to go back and purchase said pillow if it was still available (or something similar).
On our afternoon stroll from San Marco to the Rialto Bridge we happened upon both of these shops and several others that Steve and I both remembered from out last visit. Tim and Rick (Tim especially) were both quite bowled over by all of the stunning Merano glass and the intricate masks that are such a hallmark of Venetian craftsmanship. Tim admitted to us later on that they were both more than a little overwhelmed by it all and we told them that Venice is sort of like Italian Disneyland: it’s a shopper’s paradise but there is truly a sea of “crap” that you must wade through to find much that isn’t overpriced and more than a little tacky. But when you do stumble on that one little shop off the beaten path… it’s Magic! Tim found his in a glass shop we ran across on our way back to the square before dinner. There were some very nice pieces and he ended up buying a beautifully glazed burnt orange plate that was wrapped securely and boxed for him by the proprietor of the shop.
It was such fun to see the Rialto again with its well worn marble steps and railings – so buttery smooth you almost wanted to lick them.
We did find both of the shops I mentioned before. The paper shop La Ricerca is just before one of the hundreds of little bridges that dot the landscape of Venice and not far from my favorite view of the city looking down a canal with the juxtaposition of three or four different colored buildings with brightly colored flowers spilling out of pots on the little window ledges – amazing. We window shopped at La Ricerca and I promised to return later. Shortly after this we stumbled onto the Campo S. Maria which is a small square with a very old church at one end and the textile store I’d been looking for just perpendicular to it on another side of the square. The textile shop is Bevilacqua. They were closed at this time (typical of Italian shops between 1 and 4PM) but I knew where it was and would certainly return.
Both La Ricerca and Bevilacqua have websites. Check them out here:
http://www.venicemarbledpaper.com/ and http://www.bevilacquatessuti.com/
It’s 11:00 PM Friday 10/20/06 and I need to stop this now and go to sleep. It seems silly that everyone was most tired on our first day at sea, but I am exhausted. I’ll try to get more caught up tomorrow after we get back to the ship from Athens –AFK.
We returned to the Hotel Campiello (two bridges east of Piazza San Marco) and took our pre-dinner nap. We had arranged to meet up with several of our fellow cruisers this night for dinner. The male couple from San Francisco, Chris and Thom, were staying in the glorious Hotel Danielli right on the Grand Canal and we had arranged to meet up there at 9:15 PM. We got there and were completely wowed by the lobby of this magnificent hotel. There is a staircase that winds around the entire space for several floors and is just spectacular. At this time we also met Sandra and Denise, a most charming couple from Nova Scotia (who we would end up spending a lot of time with throughout the cruise – mostly during our lengthy onboard five course dinners).
We headed off to a restaurant that was recommended by the hotel concierge at the Danielli. I don’t remember the name of the place now and honestly it’s not important. The food there was not very good, but we did have a very nice time getting to know our new fellow travelers a bit. After dinner we all wandered around a bit before returning to our hotel and passing out.
Day 3: Venice
Today we went to the Doge’s Palace in the morning (but once again managed to skip the Basilica of San Marco. We would have gone but they would only hold your bags for an hour and the lines to get in can be pretty brutal. I’m sure Steve and I will make it there the next time we go – as we surely will return to Venice for a lengthier stay one day.
The palace is a magical place filled with history and art and amazing architecture. The grand hall was the largest covered single space in Europe for several hundred years. It was especially gratifying to introduce Tim and Rick to these wonderful places. We are all shutterbugs and in Venice alone I know we took about 1500 pictures between the four of us. It didn’t hurt that the weather was once again clear blue sky and in the low 70’s.
After the Doge’s Palace we started wandering back over to the area we’d spent so much time in the day before. I ended up buying quite a bit of fine paper and a few other do-dads at La Ricerca and had them shipped back home to Seattle. We went to Alla Scalinetta for lunch and had a really lovely relaxing time. It’s such a charming and homey little place. Steve even got a picture of Mama in the kitchen as we were leaving.
We headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and meet Chris and Thom at the pier at S. Zaccharia for the water taxi to the ship terminal.
This will be continued either tomorrow from Santorini or the following day when wer're at sea. -AFK
Getting from S. Zaccharia to the ship was easy, but the driver quite ripped us off for the ride. It was our own fault as we did not negotiate a price before we got in his boat. Live and learn…
Once we got to the terminal where our ship – the Millennium was docked there was a small bit of drama as Tim had not gotten his passport out of his bags so they had to fish it off the cart so he could find it. He did, in short order, and we proceeded to the ship. Our boarding was quite quick and easy, and we found our way to our Concierge Class stateroom (# 7200) on the starboard side of the ship in the very back with little effort. We were greeted by our stateroom attendant Gatot, a very sweet Southeast Asian man in his mid-thirties (just a guess). After looking around the room and doing a bit of unpacking we headed off to check out the ship.
-I will let Steve continue this description later as he said he’d go into more detail about the specifics of the ship in his writings. –AFK
After poking about the ship we came back to our room to lie down for awhile before getting ready for our first meet and greet with our whole group in the Cosmos Nightclub at 7:45. This first night was an “informal” dinner so that meant slacks, dress shirt and tie, and a jacket for us. We had lovely cocktails and a nice chat with our fellows: Thom and Chris from San Francisco, Denise and Sandra from Halifax - Nova Scotia, Candy and Myra from San Francisco, and the lovely Aileen from the bay area as well. Our fearless leader and his cabin mate were also in attendance (Michael and Brett – of the twinkling eyes - respectively). We were in the late seating for dinner so our dinner time was 8:45.
I won’t go into a lot of detail about our dinners except to say that on the whole we thought the food was not great but the service was very good. Our waiter Dejan, a kicky young man from Croatia was very sweet and always full of cheery wit and sage advice for our upcoming port of call.
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