Boating in Venice

[Jim_in_Delaware]

In March/April, my wife and I took our long planned retirement trip - an eight week trip to Europe with a trans-Atlantic cruise, and visits to Spain, Italy, Germany, and Iceland. We spent five nights in Venice, Italy, and this, to my surprise, was one of the highlights of our trip! Venice is comprised of one main island and several surrounding islands. If you want to get around the Venice islands it is either by boat or walking (swimming not recommended!). This makes it quite unique to visit, and unlike any other place I have been. As everything is by boat, here are a few of the different types of boats we saw;

If you want to throw away money, you can hire a water taxi for a single trip for about $85, or get a weekly pass on the Vaporetto (public transportation) for about the same money:


Need the Police, they will come from the station:


In case of a medical emergency:


In case of fire:


All supplies are delivered by boat, and trash removed by boat:


I have never seen such a variety of working boats.

Jim

 

[Ronnie]

Thanks for sharing and allowing some of us to live vicariously. I have a friend who has visited Venice several times, she warned me not to visit during a few months during the year because of the (seasonal) bad smell. Any issues with the smell during your visit?

 

[Dave burke]

I was there a few years ago in early August. No issues with smell but it was super hot. The locals told me April or October are the best months to visit

 

[Dave burke]

In March/April, my wife and I took our long planned retirement trip - an eight week trip to Europe with a trans-Atlantic cruise, and visits to Spain, Italy, Germany, and Iceland. We spent five nights in Venice, Italy, and this, to my surprise, was one of the highlights of our trip! Venice is comprised of one main island and several surrounding islands. If you want to get around the Venice islands it is either by boat or walking (swimming not recommended!). This makes it quite unique to visit, and unlike any other place I have been. As everything is by boat, here are a few of the different types of boats we saw;

If you want to throw away money, you can hire a water taxi for a single trip for about $85, or get a weekly pass on the Vaporetto (public transportation) for about the same money:
View attachment 203652

Need the Police, they will come from the station:
View attachment 203653

In case of a medical emergency:
View attachment 203654

In case of fire:
View attachment 203655

All supplies are delivered by boat, and trash removed by boat:
View attachment 203656

I have never seen such a variety of working boats.

Jim

sounds like a great trip Jim. Was the length about right or too long/short? What cruise line did you use?

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

Thanks for sharing and allowing some of us to live vicariously. I have a friend who has visited Venice several times, she warned me not to visit during a few months during the year because of the (seasonal) bad smell. Any issues with the smell during your visit?

We went the last week of April, great weather for traveling, low to mid 60’s. No smells and just the rights amount of water (no low tides as sometimes happen and no flooding.) Stayed 5 nights at the Hilton Molino Stucky, a very large and nicely converted flour/pasta mill. The Molino Stucky is on the island of Giudecca, just across the Grand Canal from the main island. Took the high speed train, the FrecciaRossa (the Red Arrow) from Rome . Venice had some crowds, but not overly crowded, like Rome (crowds were insane and it wasn’t even Summertime yet!)

Jim

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

sounds like a great trip Jim. Was the length about right or too long/short? What cruise line did you use?

For us, the trip ended up being just the right amount of time. We took our time everywhere and found this trip to be pretty relaxing. Washington Dulles Airport is a three hour drive from our house, so we spent the night before departure and our return at a hotel near the airport. We spent a couple of night in Fort Lauderdale, just relaxing before the cruise. For our longer stays, 10 days each in Barcelona and Rome we rented an apartment (Airbnb) instead of hotel. Nice to have the extra space, including a kitchen and a washer/dryer. Also great to not feel rushed when you are anywhere. Never rushed to see anything, and we had days off to relax.

We cruised on Viking from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona with stops in St. Maarten and Madeira. All other days were sea days and consisted of eating, drinking, interacting with other couples and just relaxing. This was a super affordable repositioning cruise as Viking was moving the Viking Star from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean for the season. Cruise length was 13 days. There were 6 one-hour time changes, so you are not hit with the jet lag of 6 hours. Viking Ocean cruise ships carry a maximum of 930 passengers with a crew of 435. The rumor was that our cruise only had about 650 passengers. When you cruise from Florida to the Mediterranean, they say that whatever weather you have will follow you across the Atlantic, and we truly were blessed with the weather. Our cruise was the last two weeks of March and we had temperature in the 60/70’s and relatively calm seas for the whole trip.

This was our first cruise since our honeymoon, 30+ years ago. We had so much fun, we are doing an Alaska cruise in the early fall.

Jim