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Published: October 7th 2010
It was an early morning after our wonderful tour last night to catch our Venice Sightseeing Tour. We had a quick breakfast in the Lido then headed out on our tour. They used the same water taxis and dock as last night. We then walked over the first 4 bridges from last night then entered the Doges’ Palace. Venice was an Oligarchy that lasted over 1000 years. It was comprised of 300 families of power and wealth. The Doge was selected from these families and had to be over 80 years old so they weren’t around long enough to be threat. The palace was very beautiful especially the painted and gold leafed ceilings even in the Golden Staircase. We saw the rooms where the senate, the accused, the lawyers etc waited to see the Doge. The Doge only had 3 rooms in the palace. The Jail was in the building across a small canal joined by the Bridge of Sighs. This is where Casanova escaped from the prison.
After the Palace we headed to St. Mark’s Square. It was nearing high tide so the square had areas filled with water with raised temporary 24” high sidewalks to get around. It
was quite a challenge for our Tour Leader to get our group over these walkways because of the crowds and people not forming two single lines (one each direction) but she finally managed to get us to the glass factory where we had to climb many more stairs so they could try and sell us something. We were then on our own to get back to the columns in little St. Mark’s square to meet up with the tour group again. This was again a challenge because of the flooding but we made our way back and then back over the 4 bridges to the boats. This again was listed as a 2 person difficulty tour but really should have been 3 with all the stairs in the Palace and glass factory plus the bridges. In other words we’re both very sore this afternoon.
It took the water taxi awhile to get us back as the Vision of the Seas was leaving and the Ruby Princess was coming in. So we were about 30 mins late leaving. The Cruise Critic Meet and Greet was by the pool as we sailed away. We left to go watch from the Crows
Nest. The life boat drill was scheduled for 2:30 but apparently moved to 3:00 because of the delayed departure. It was very strange to not bring life jackets to the drill or have them take roll as has always been done in the past.
So now it’s time to get dressed up for dinner and our first formal evening of this cruise. Tomorrow we are in Croatia.
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Erin
non-member comment
Sounds incredible
Sounds like you are having an incredible time in Venice and I am looking forward to your blog entries for the remainder of the trip. So happy for you Sis and my Brother-in-Law!!!! What a great wedding Mass and what fun we had at the reception. Have fun and I don't have to tell you to behave - just have a great honeymoon. Love to you both.