Rio di Sant'Elena

Saturday morning, we docked at the final destination on our twenty-five day cruise, Venice, Italy.

To get to the cruise terminal from the ship, all two thousand passengers were ferried, by tender, a few kilometers over water. So, even though we arrived at the dock at 8:00, disembarkation was a slow and painful process that saw us arrive at our accommodations after 4:00 PM.

We stayed in Mestre, about a 20-minute bus ride from downtown Venice, and by the time we got there, we just wanted to grab a bite to eat, buy a few groceries and chill out for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, we made our way to the island, took a walking tour of the lesser known southern part of the Venice, and spent the rest of the day exploring this fascinating city.

We learned that the island is, in fact, 120 individual islands, some natural and some man-made, that are now interconnected by 450 bridges. We also learned that when the canals were built, wooden foundations were driven deep into the clay to support the stone walls above. Over the course of time, the wood has petrified and now provides a fairly stable base to the beautiful buildings above. However, before the foundations firmly settled, many of the structures developed significant tilts that are most evident in the numerous bell towers in the city.

No visit to Venice would be complete without a visit to the magnificent and enormous Piazza San Marco and the historic Rialto Bridge. When we turned the corner to enter the square, my jaw literally dropped and a completely unintended WOW! popped out of my mouth.

On our way back to Mestre, we stopped at a little hosteria for a half liter of red, a mushroom pizza, and a slice of lasagna.

Had Venice not been the last stop on our transatlantic cruise, I probably wouldn't have ever taken the time to see it. I'm sure glad I did.Read more