World Cruise Day 83/152 - Venice (Fusina), Italy - McKayla Maroney is not impressed and neither are we

Cruise day: 83/152

Ports days: 31
Sea days: 52
Countries: 15
Continents: 4
Ports: 23

 

We were excited today.  Our first visit to Italy and it all starts with Venice.  Amazing!  Our arrival was not until noon so we squeezed in a bridge lesson and some bridge play, but were up on deck 7 for the sail-in.

It was foggy with a dense overcast and temperatures in the 50s.  Not ideal, but still, Venice!  We were going to dock in Fusina, a port servicing Venice.

We were led in by a tug

We sailed past mussel farms

Eventually, we docked in scenic Fusina.  Well, at least as scenic as that other favorite, Gary, Indiana. The port is all work and no beauty.

That's Venice in the distance

OK, fine.  We're in an ugly port - we've been in ugly ports before.  We ate lunch and headed out for our tour - a Glimpse of St. Mark's Square.

It was a lovely drive from the ports.  Sights we got to see included multiple factories in various states of repair, a chemical plant, rows of parked semis, and the highlight - a garbage dump.  The drive to Venice was just plain ugly.  So, ugly port and ugly drive. Why you ask?  Italy changed its mind a while back and stopped allowing larger ships to sail into Venice, forcing them to port somewhere else.  Not very inviting.  But wait, there's more!

Italy is COVID-crazy.  Sort of.  If you fly into Italy, bus into Italy, drive into Italy, walk into Italy, skateboard into Italy, moonwalk into Italy - you are free to move about freely.  But...if you come into Italy on the most heinous of all modes of transportation - a dreaded cruise ship - the only way you can explore is in a bubble with a constant escort by a guide and no (sort of) free exploration anywhere in the country.  Never mind that our cruise ship has been COVID-free since leaving Uruguay.  Never mind that every person on the ship is COVID tested daily.  Therefore, the only way we were allowed off the ship was on a sponsored excursion and then we had to immediately return to the ship.  Why is this important?  Because we're here overnight.  Because many of us had two excursions today.  For example, we had our tour from 1:30-5:45.  We had another excursion from 7:15-11.  It sure would have been nice to just stay in Venice, perhaps enjoy a meal at a local eatery and spend some of our tourist dollars and help the local economy.  Instead, we spent an hour door-to-door from Venice to our ship only to turn around an hour later and make the same trip back in.  Stupid.  Short-sighted.  Makes me not want to spend any time or money in Italy.  Hmm...am I ranting?

On to the tour.

After the scenic <this is sarcasm> ride into Venice, we boarded a boat to take us to the island.

A water bus - there are no cars in Venice

Formerly the Doge's residence and the seat of the Venetian government

Once in Venice proper, we began our walking tour.

The Venetian flag

This tower is really tilted

The six horizontal bars on the front of gondolas represent the six districts that make up Venice

Each small square had a decorative cistern that sat over a well where back in the day rainwater collected after being filtered through layers of sand - locals could come and retrieve drinking water from it

That's the famous Bridge of Sighs behind us - the only covered bridge in Venice - it connected the interrogation room in the Doge's Palace to the prison next door

Our tour wound up at St. Mark's Square where we were given about 30 minutes of free time to explore.  Wait, what?  We have to travel in a bubble, but we can explore on our own for 30 minutes?  I guess COVID is not transmissible in only 30 minutes when you're on your own if you came to Italy on a cruise ship.  Did I mention that Italy is crazy?

That's the symbol of Venice - a winged lion, with the library behind the column

St. Mark's Clock in St. Mark's Square.

St. Mark's Square

The clock tower with St. Mark's Basilica behind it.

After our walking tour, we took an hour boat ride around Venice lagoon.

Doge's Palace

What happens if you get hurt in Venice?  You get a ride in a water ambulance

The largest building in Venice - Molino Stucky

After that, we bussed back to the ship, had a speedy dinner, and then an hour after we got back, we were off for another hour back by bus and boat into Venice for an evening gondola ride.

In the water taxi - note how close the roof is to our head - it was really tight

 

We arrived at the gondola service and started our 30-minute ride, complete with accompanying musicians

Going under the Bridge of Sighs

Traveling through Venice by gondola gives you a different perspective on the city

After the gondola ride, we returned to St. Mark's Square for more free time (because it's safe in 30-minute chunks), even though most everything was closed by the time we got there.

Payphones!

On the drive to, from, to, from Venice, we passed by the Fincantieri S.p.A. Marghera ShipYard - the birthplace of our very own Viking Star.

And here she is in all her lit up glory upon our late return (11pm) to the ship.

It is now approaching 1am and we have an 8:15am excursion tomorrow morning.  Someone I know (me) will be dragging a little tomorrow, but if I didn't finish this, I'd forget things.

Day #1 in Venice left us a little underwhelmed.  It was pretty, but not that pretty.  Getting to/from Venice from the cruise port is a royal pain in the butt and really an ugly ride.  And, Italy is stupid-crazy right now, so I have no desire to support them.  Our guide said that there is hope that some of the stupid restrictions will be lifted by April 1 and that's before we return to Italy later on this cruise.  Off to be - I have to get up in a little over five hours.