World Travel with Bob: Venice

Venice - We knew in advance that cruise ships, even those with only 900 guests like the Viking Sky, are banned from docking at the Venice Cruise Terminal. Cruise ships greater than 25 GRT are no longer permitted to pass by the Grand Canal and now required to dock at mainland Fusina. The exception is when Fusina is at large cruise ship capacity and the overflow must dock at Chioggia. Chiogga is a 90-minute one-way water bus trip to the Cornoldi Pier in Venice. This was the situation when we reached Venice on September 10. We were docked at Chioggia for three days and two nights and, thus, every trip into Venice had a somewhat tiring transit time.

Venice Day 1 was spent on a "Hidden Venice" walking tour. This was a great way to see some of the less tourist-visited areas of Venice and get our directional bearings. Just about any site is within walking distance in Venice, but our last Venice visit was in 2000 - quite a long time ago. With a 12:30 start from Chioggia for a two hour walk, it was close to 7pm by the time we stepped back on the Viking Sky for dinner.

On Venice Day 2, we carried our overnight bags at 8am from the Viking Sky to the Chioggia water bus. While the Viking Sky remain docked in Chioggia for this evening, we were spending one night in Venice at the Hotel Palazzo Barbarigo. The Barbarigo name is associated with an aristocratic Venetian family, including bishops and cardinals. Two Barbarigo family members served as Doges of Venice (1485-1501).

Traghetto (Ferry)

From the Cornoldi Pier, we took a water taxi ($60) to the hotel's pier on the Grand Canal. This was a great way to view the boats and buildings on the Grand Canal. We could have walked from Cornoldi and taken a Traghetto ($2/pp), across the Grand Canal, to San Toma, and continue our walk to the hotel. However, we later learned that the land entrance to the Palazzo Barbarigo is through a warren of three foot wide alleys which are not well-marked. It would have been a confusing start for our hotel stay. Note the colored mooring poles in the below photo of the hotel pier. These colorful striped poles indicate the home of a Venetian aristocrat and the colors are unique to the historic family owners (The last Barbarigo died in the mid-1800s).

We were too early to check into our room, so we dropped off our overnight bags and immediately left for San Marco Square for a tour of the Palazzo Ducal (Doge's Palace). Using an audio guide, we toured the ornate and art-filled 27 rooms (ok, some of the 27 rooms were in the dungeon, which had the appearance of a bleak jail). Note that timed-entry tickets for the Palace tour can be purchased online or in-advance for the following day from the ticket office ($15pp for seniors over 65).

After returning to the hotel and completing our check-in, we arranged the remainder of the day. Our plans included viewing of the Tintoretto artwork in the Scoula Grande di San Roco, a personal gondola ride through the Venice Canals from the hotel pier at 6:30pm, a welcome drink at the hotel after 7pm and a walk to our 7:30pm dinner at il Referratorio. As you can tell, we were making good use of our time in Venice.

Our dinner at il Referratoria was wonderful. The recommendations from the server were right-on. We started with an amuse bouche, followed by a scallop appetizer, and main courses of a grilled octopus and a langoustine ravioli. For dessert, we tried the unique tiramisu and a meringue with fruit. Accompanied by a bottle of wine, the dinner was one of the best of our trip.

On Venice Day 3, I wandered from our hotel before breakfast and walked through the now tourist-deserted paths near the hotel. There were hardly any people to be seen, stores were closed and this was a completely different experience from the later daylight hours.

After breakfast, we took a morning walk to Cannaregio district of Venice to view the Old Jewish Ghetto. This was only a 20 minute from our hotel and we found an online guide to help us identify notable sites. It was interesting to us that the synagogues were unidentifiable from the walkways - a factor that helped to reduce discovery of residents in WWII. Our walking stops included:

Entrance to the Old Jewish Ghetto
Canton Synagogue
Spanish Synagogue
German Synagogue
Italian Synagogue
Levantine Synagogue
Banco Rosso (Red Bank)
Wood Bridge Entrance to Old Jewish Ghetto

With our hotel check-out at noon, we packed up and started our walk to Cornoldi. Along the way, we stopped for cicchitti and two Aperol Spritz drinks (a Venetian wine cocktail). Cicchitti is a plate of small finger foods, including open-faced breads topped with local specialties. Afterwards, we continued our walk over the Rialto Bridge, through San Marco Square to Cornoldi pier. There, we took our 90-minute water bus transfer back to the Viking Sky, in Chioggia, for our departure from Venice.