Cunard in their kindness organised a shuttle round the waterfront to St Mark’s Square at some cost! So I dragged poor Sue 1 km on foot out of the port to Piazza la Roma, a transport interchange where road meets canal. For 6.5 Euros each way you can catch the public waterbus to St Mark’s, or for 14 Euros you can do it on a 24 hour tourist pass. A no-brainer!
So here we are on the Grand Canal with dozens of tourists and locals, floating past markets and galleries, hotels and bridges, starting with the Bridge of Sighs. At the Rialto Bridge we hopped off, took some pictures and walked through to St Mark’s Square. Of course you don’t actually buy anything there because the price of everything doubles as you approach within 100 metres of the place.
We passed several tourists dragging cases up and over the little bridges. Later we discovered that these poor people had booked into Venice’s hotels, and of course were unable to get within access of their destination – so they just had to struggle. Note to self – never book into a hotel in old Venice!!
Walked round the waterfront to pick up the return waterbus. (You just hold your ticket in front of the little scanner things – tell that to an older American guy who couldn’t understand why nobody had checked his ticket! Modern technology – pah!) Travelling the entire length of the Grand Canal was a rare privilege we were very grateful for, and which we wouldn’t have experienced had I not been so parsimonious!
I should add that one of the waterbuses we rode on had an all-woman crew – I called them Cagney and Lacey. I’d really like to tell you about how great they were but I know I’ll be accused of something or other – so I’ll just leave it there!
Back on board Queen Victoria, it was time to ‘let go aft’ and set sail. What a feeling as the massive ship manoeuvred unaided from her berth out into the lagoon. I understand the ship has a modern electric propulsion system which makes a tug more or less redundant – but more of that later.
We sailed very sedately along the waterfront heading for St Mark’s Square, with the best imaginable view of the low-rise city Venice from the deck ten storeys high. It was breath-taking. As we passed the Doges Palace the crowds lining the water watched us watching them. Slowly out towards the Gulf of Venice and the Adriatic.
Next stop Dubrovnik.
