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| Venice's St. Mark's Square from ms Prinsendam |
The weather forecast was for “partly sunny and 63 degrees”
for our first day in Venice, one of our most favorite places in Italy. A high
of 63, while less than what our brief news digest we receive on board each day
indicated that we would be cooler than Chicago for probably the first time on
our entire cruise so far. That was acceptable (not that we had a choice!) as
long as we had dry weather. We had decided to get up at 6 to watch
the ship sail into Venice and right past St. Mark’s Square with its St. Mark’s
Cathedral with its domes and larger than life statues of horses above the main
doors, the Doge’s Palace, and the tall Campanile. As we opened the drapes
I was amazed to see the world famous square almost in view. We never tire
of sailing up the canal and watching this exciting and historic city pass in
front of our eyes from our verandah. For the sail-in we had the correct
side of the ship. It was nearly dawn but light enough to see the landmarks and
other of Venetian buildings that reflected the grandeur of when Venice ruled
the Adriatic and beyond. I made my first visit to Venice in 1969 and in fact,
I remember being there as the moon launch leading to the first moon landing
taking place. Even Venice was abuzz over the prospect of men stepping on
the moon. It was quite a contrast thinking of Venetian trade in the
Middle Ages and men exploring and landing on the moon in the 20th
century. As we enjoyed watching Venice unfold before our eyes, our only
disappointment was that skies were gray and it was misting. But the sun
looked like it was trying to break through to confirm the weather forecast we
were counting on.
Yesterday in San Marino, I had over-prepared for the day by
carrying a sweatshirt in addition to my jacket and an umbrella which I almost
never use unless we get heavy downpours. So, believing the weatherman was
going to be correct and that the gray skies would break, I decided not to carry
the superfluous hoodie sweatshirt, but just to be on the safe side, I did take
that useless umbrella! Barb had suggested last fall that since we
were to be in Venice for two days – the only two consecutive day stay of
the cruise, and since we had been to Venice multiple times that it would be fun
to go to Verona since there was a shore excursion that went to that city of
about 250,000. So we booked the excursion, Verona: City of Romeo and
Juliet to see that famous balcony of the Shakespearean play as well as the
other elegant buildings of Roman Era and Middle Ages. When Barb’s injury
precluded her doing tours that involved a lot of walking, she canceled but I
continued with plans to do that excursion. I had booked to do it the
second day in Venice so I (we, if she thought she could do it) would go to St.
Mark’s Square by vaporetto on Monday. But I received a notice that there
were insufficient bookings to run the tour on both days so my Tuesday ticket
would be honored on Monday. Our friend Alice had booked the tour as well
so she and I did it together.
As we started our hour and a half drive, the mist had turned
to rain, real rain! The bus windshield wipers swished back and forth and
we looked out our rainy windows at the wet scene outside. Someone asked
the guide if the rain would stop, or at least let up, by the time we got to
Verona. The guide had heard a different report than the ship had heard
apparently as the guide indicated that the rain should stop about 4 PM –
AFTER we were scheduled to return to the ship. Sadly, his report was more
accurate. It rained, and rained, and kept raining. No more
mist – this was a real rain and an all day event at that! We picked
up a city guide who pointed out the elegant landmarks of Verona but we went
past them so fast, and there were so many obstructions, mostly trees, that even
attempting to take pictures through the wet windows was nearly impossible. Most
of the pictures were either washed out or had a big tree blocking a good
picture. I have no idea what places we passed, other than the fact
that they were beautiful, or even the name of the river that ran through the
city. It was a name unfamiliar to me.
When we arrived at a parking area near the city wall (we’ve
seen city walls now in the last three ports), our guide told us that we would
be beginning our walking tour and we would be back at the bus in three
hours. Reluctantly we got out of the dry bus and took on
Verona’s weather on the worst day of weather of our 5½ weeks on the ship.
We strung out behind the guide as he hurried along the river. Taking
pictures was possible only by lagging behind and keeping an eye on the
guide. I resisted the umbrella as that took a valuable hand away from
carrying other things, including the camera, which I had to pull out of my dry
sack to keep cameras dry during a rain. As soon as we would catch up to
the guide, he would be finishing an explanation and charging on
ahead. Gratefully I have no issues with walking but there were
plenty of people that did. (Thank goodness Barb had decided not to do this tour
or the frustration would have been multiplied.) He took us into the city
and explained the landmarks most of which I am totally unable to identify and
on we went. Without a doubt this is a beautiful city and I would have
loved the tour had it been a beautiful day, or at least a dry day. We
went racing past a large open air market with lots of variety of goods.
We would have free time later and I hoped we would be close enough to the
market for me to get back and see what was available, but getting my bearings
to get there and then back to a meeting point seemed unlikely.
We were on our way to the site that seems to be tourists’
favorite spot, the balcony which Romeo supposedly scaled to express his love
for Juliet. Along a busy pedestrian street we went with more and more
umbrellas in the air. It was increasingly difficult to spot our guide’s
umbrella but he waited and gathered his 30+ entourage and told us we could go
through that opening and see the balcony and he would wait outside. As we
went through the opening, we met a crush of people as great as fans at a
sporting event shuffling along at the end of the game. And of course
umbrellas in the air. By now Alice and I could only keep tabs on each
other. One thing we noted was the extensive graffiti on the walls.
On a plaque describing the Romeo and Juliet scene, it was so covered with
graffiti that the plaque itself couldn’t be read. The same was true on
the walls as we entered the courtyard of the famous balcony. The crush of
the crowd and the pouring rain diminished the accomplishment of seeing this
balcony. By the way, all of this effort was to see the real balcony for a
fictional event! Go figure!
The guide led us along (by now I had given in and had raised
my umbrella). When we arrived at the ruins of the Roman arena estimated
to have been built about 30 BC the guide explained that it was regarded as the
third largest arena of Roman times and it rivaled the Roman Coliseum. We
snapped a few pictures and then hid our cameras to keep them from being soaked.
It was there that we were given our free time of about 45 minutes. We
were near a food market with a huge variety of things to eat as well as a busy
street with lots of restaurants. Alice knew I wanted to find the market
and she thought it was “over there”. So we walked along, dodging
umbrellas and trying to avoid slipping on the wet surface as well as getting
feet wet in the water clogged uneven walkways. We saw food but it had no
appeal as we were pretty well soaked by then. And it was cold –
definitely not 63 degrees! The market I wanted was nowhere to be found,
so we gave up and walked along an awning covered sidewalk and stood under that
for the last 25 minutes while watching the meeting point so we could dash over
when it came time to leave. It was so wet, wandering around and snapping
more pictures or finding some food was not appealing at all. When the time
came to meet, we went to the guide and then waited another 10 minutes while the
remaining people got back. We hiked along behind the guide, waiting seemingly a
long time, to wait for the pedestrian light to signal we could cross the busy
street. By now it didn’t matter as we were soaked but we wanted to get to
the bus and be on our way in order to get warm and hopefully have a chance to
dry off.
Back on the bus, we went straight back to the ship,
disappointed that we will remember the beautiful city of Verona more for its
heavy rain than for the beautiful and historical places that it had to
offer. Hopefully our second day in Venice will be better but it is still
raining at 9 PM, dashing our hopes of the 4 PM ending time our guide had
suggested he had heard.
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Well! Our second day in Venice had plenty of twists
and turns most of which were not good. Who could have guessed when we
were so pleased to open the drapes and see the sun and blue sky after such a
rainy, miserable Monday?
After a leisurely breakfast for a change, we met our friend,
Alice, and as we had planned, we met to take the vaporetto (the water bus
public transportation for Venice). Barb and I had been here on a 2008
Mediterranean cruise in 2008 and remembered getting off that ship, walking back
a short distance, buying tickets for the ride and going straight to St. Mark’s
Square (the center of Venice for those who have never had the opportunity to
visit there). Then Barb would rest on a bench before walking across the
large square and taking pictures of the square and St. Mark’s Cathedral as well
as all the interesting people that we always find there. She planned to
do some shopping in some of the nearby shops located just behind St. Mark’s
Square, rest again before returning by vaporetto to the station right near the
ship. It seemed like a good plan. She had even checked with the concierge
and had received a map which seemed to confirm that that’s what we could
do. Barb knew walking long distances was out of the question but felt she
could handle the walk she remembered from six years ago. A wheelchair in
Venice was out of the question and a walker would be cumbersome but she took
her cane just in case ... We left the ship and had to walk through the
terminal to get to the walkway near parking lots and a warehouse
building. The place where we had walked to board the boat six years ago
didn’t look too familiar and that big building at the end of the pier wasn’t
there anymore. Possible since there could have been some
construction. And it seemed like the vaporetto landing was a greater
distance down the pier. The three of us walked a long distance and up to
port security There we asked where the vaporetto station was as it didn’t look
familiar. He said we had three alternatives – basically walk up this
bridge, turn right and get to the edges of Venice that way. A ten minute
walk said he. Or we could go over to the left and board transportation
there – another 10 minute walk. Or we could walk a different direction
and get additional transportation to St. Mark’s Square. Already Barb was
getting tired as we had walked a greater distance to this point than we had
walked to the vaporetto in 2008. At that point, reluctantly she told
Alice and me that she knew she couldn’t do another 10 minute walk particularly
since a 10 minute walk for a younger person would be longer for her! So
she turned around and headed back to the ship. (More on her experiences
after she left us later.)
Alice and I continued walking and selected one of the three alternatives.
We walked and walked more than another 10 minutes and finally found where to
buy tickets for the vaporetto. We had heard that the cost was modest as
opposed to a water taxi which might cost 80 or 90 Euros. Alice went to
the ticket counter and was told the cost was seven Euros! I asked if that
was a round trip ticket and the agent said it was for one way – another seven
Euros if we didn’t want to stay in St. Mark’s Square forever. At today’s
exchange, it was a cost of just under $20 so based on Barb’s experience, our
long walk, and the ridiculously high cost for a short ride led me to
spontaneously state that I wasn’t going! So that left just Alice on her
way to St. Mark’s Square. I headed back and was going to return to the ship
but I remembered six years ago, that I had found a way to the edge of Venice so
I decided to try to find the way over to Venice on foot. Sure enough I
found some bus stops right at the edge of Venice and crossed the first high
bridge with the many boats plying in the canal. It’s always so
fascinating to see this and we never tire of it. I continued to walk
looking at the old 15th century buildings with mostly storefronts at street
level. All kinds of shops were there from souvenir shops to stores
selling Venetian glass, Italian leather, and Venetian masks. I stayed on
the main path watching for signs on the buildings directing people per (to) San
Marco or per Rialto (the most famous bridge in Venice). After walking in
and out of the various shops, I asked one merchant how far San Marco was.
He said it was another half hour walk. That convinced me it was best for
me to turn around and retrace my steps before getting lost in the maze of
Venetian streets and canals that follow no grid at all. I returned to the
ship after over three hours of virtually constant walking, but none the worse
for wear.
Barb was surprised to see me back so quickly so I explained
what had happened. Then she told me her tale after she left to return to
the ship. After walking as much as she did before returning, she was
already tired. She got to the terminal and saw people coming out the near end
of the long building but a security person motioned for her to keep going along
the side of the building. He didn’t know English so gestured her to
not come in the nearest door. No she was to re-enter somewhere else and
assumed it was one of the doors along the long side of the building. They were
all locked so she returned to the man thinking there was a problem that the
doors were locked. He gestured again for her not to come toward him but
to keep going to some other door. By now she was at her limit for
walking, in fact beyond it but had no choice but to go on. She walked the
entire length of the building and had to enter the building from the far end,
then walk nearly back to the door she tried to get in before she reached the
ship security check point. Then it was a matter of exiting the building
and walking outside to get back to the ship. By the time she got to the
room she was tired, hurting, and quite upset that what she knew she should be
able to do had become impossible. She had nothing to show for her
efforts.
It was her most unhappy day of the cruise by far. I
suggested she let the ship know that there seemed to be no effort to
accommodate a person with limited mobility. She told the concierge who
wrote up a report of complaint. We had assumed that Holland America had
paid for a berth that was less accessible since it would be cheaper but Kristine,
the concierge, explained that the ship takes whatever berth it’s assigned by
the port. Apparently there was another closer location for a different vaporetto
station but there were no signs and no indication of a nearer one. And
the security agents we spoke with gave no indication of it. We wondered
why, given the distance and given the fact there are others with limited
mobility, there was no shuttle to a location for taking the vaporetto to St.
Mark’s Square. She told us that ship had requested a shuttle from the
port but the request was refused. We can’t say enough about the dramatic
beauty and uniqueness of Venice. Words can’t describe Venice and pictures
really can’t capture it either. Truly, Venice must be experienced in
person by an individual. While Barb was disappointed in her
experience in Venice, she reminded herself that she had been there three other
times and many people have never had a chance to be there even a single
time. But she had planned this as her only major activity in Italy other
than the excursion on the Island of Lipari a few days before. And since
she knows and likes Venice so much, this would be here chance to do something
she enjoyed. But it was not to be, unfortunately.
During the afternoon, we talked with several shipmates who
had had similar experiences of trying to walk in and out of port. Our ship neighbors told of doing a shore
excursion gondola ride the night before, arriving back at the port in the
pouring rain, and then being dropped off quite a distance from the ship. The tour guide charged on ahead and the less
mobile passengers were left way behind, trying to find their way amidst
umbrellas and very little lighting.
Other passengers lagged behind just to be sure that those with mobility
issues were able to get back to the port safely in the pouring rain. And of course they also had to walk the
entire length of the terminal to get to the entrance, where they could finally
find shelter from the rain. We heard
that a lot of people were quite unhappy with the logistics of getting around
Venice. We had heard that Venice is
considering closing its “gates” to tourism.
They certainly did their best to make things inconvenient for this cruise
ship!
At dinner, we had invited Debbie from Shore Excursions to
have dinner with us. Debbie is the shore excursions person who has been
assisting Barb in determining what excursions she could and couldn’t reasonably
do. We cut dinner a little short as we had decided we wanted to watch the
sail away from this picturesque city since we knew we would be passing St.
Mark’s and other landmarks as we sailed out. The ship departure was
delayed nearly an hour which gave us a chance to see the beautiful city one
more time though neither of us did get to St. Mark’s on this visit. We
keep reminding ourselves that three months ago, this cruise seemed to be a
remote possibility and at least we are enjoying the opportunity to sail on this
most unique voyage.
CT
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