2024 Italian Sojourn-VENICE May 19-20

View from our ship docked at Choggia, Italy

Sunday May 19- We were up at 6:15 to leave for the Florence train station for our 8:40 train to Venice. At the main station (Mestre) on the mainland, we got on a city bus to Choggia where the Viking cruise ship docks. Luckily a nice local told us when to get off or we'd have missed it. We must have looked like tourists! We walked to the Viking Jupiter and had to watch the life jacket presentation before going to our cabin.  We got to the pool grill for lunch at 1:30, I had a tuna steak and salad and then we took a walk around the ship.  We met people at the pool bar, then sat on Deck 8 for a bit. The ship holds 930 passengers, so it's very easy to find your way around.  We went to the main dining room at 6:00- I had Caesar salad, steak tartare (very good), shrimp and rice saute', and blueberry cake.  Kirk had sea bass.  We went to the bar after dinner, then to Torshavn lounge to listen to music until 11:00. So far so good, Viking does a great job with food, drinks and service. 

Monday May 20- We met at the buffet at 6:30 a.m. so we could be off the ship at 7:15. We took a local boat to Venice via the Lagoon (with narration). We arrived around 9:00 and had free time to walk around before our guided tour at 11:15, which only covered the St. Mark's square area. 

St. Mark's Square, Venice

Cool clock tower

Front of St. Mark's Basilica

Bridge of Sighs built 1600

We took a gondola ride before the tour, which was an amazing look at back streets/canals. The gondolas are very tippy and there is a lot of boat traffic everywhere. 

Rialto Bridge

Wish we had more free time in Venice to walk around and look in shops, etc.  I did buy some glass jewelry made by the artisans on Murano Island. Again, if we had more time that would have been cool to go there to see them blow glass. We got back to the ship at 2:00, very hungry! Had late lunch at the pool grill, then relaxed until we went to hear an astronomer talk about "is there life out there?".  We had dinner with Larry at the Restaurant- Marilyn stayed in the cabin.  I had artichoke salad, NY strip steak, rice, beans, and maple pecan bread and butter pudding.  All very good. When the ship left Chioggia for Sibenik, Croatia we watched from the Explorer's Lounge in the front of the ship (entire wall of windows).