Ciao from Venice, Italy~August 21-22, 2007

Ciao amici! Well, after a very long flight, Liz and I finally arrived in beautiful Venice, Italy in preparation for our 12-day Mediterranean cruise. We arrived early with enough time to settle into a stateroom, freshen up and explore the water city. This is our ship: The Emerald Princess, where a little over 3,000 passengers with 1,200 crew members. She's a beauty!

Venice is an amazing place filled with rich history and modern development. The Piazza San Marco was filled with people and merchants selling their goods. The Grand Canal was just as busy. I can only imagine what it was like years ago.

Towards the late afternoon, the weather turned cool and rainy. With great disappoint our scheduled gondola ride was cancelled due to the poor weather, however we did get a chance to see many of them throughout the city. Just take a look at this gondola traffic jam. Gondolas used to be the main transportation for the Venetians, however today with ferries, water taxis and yachts, they are strictly touristic vessels where unless you have an organized tour, you must haggle for the price. Well, all I can say is the next time, I will make sure I have my gondola ride (hopefully with someone special:) Venice is made up of 120 islands with 444 bridges that link them all together. Each bridge you cross, takes you to another island. There are no cars on the island, hence no streets, just waterways, therefore boats. Each of these islands has at least one church and campanile and a square. While in the Piazza San Marco, I did what every tourist does when in Venice...feed the pigeons. Thanks to Photographer Liz for her action shots.

The Islands of Murano & Burano: On Wednesday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn in preparation for a fabulous tour on the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is of course known for its Venetian glass blowing. A master glass blower demonstrated his trade: a unique trade that takes a minimum of 15 years of training in order to receive the title of 'Master'. Here are some photos of the craftsmanship that it takes.

In these pictures he is making a glass horse. We then toured their showroom where there was magnificent glass works of art for purchase, however, the best buys were in the streets of the city. The factory claims that you can only purchase such unique items from them, however every store throughout Venice has such a variety of items and a much lower cost.

Burano: The simple island of fisherman and lace makers which inhabits 5,000 people. The houses are all painted vibrant colors so that when people would come home from a late night with maybe a bit too much vino, they would be able to decipher which home was theirs. A quaint little island with friendly people leading a very simple life. Charming!

We had a beautiful sail away straight down the Grand Canal with spectacular views of Venice, narrated by the ships' tour director and accompanied by Andrea Bocelli's 'Time to Say Goodbye', appropriate I think. We met a great lady from Toronto, Canada named Judy and later her husband Sai. Funny, once we went back to our deck chair, who is already sitting there but Judy and Sai.

Tonight is our first formal evening. We had a lovely dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room. We were thrilled to find that some of the staff were from Poland and Slovakia. I think they were surprised that we spoke Polish. Ironically, we met our favorite couple Judy and Sai...it is meant that we become friends. The evening's menu was endless....so much to choose from; and the best part, we could have as much or as little as we want. Liz will always cherish her Nutella Gelato!

Being so dressed up, we were ready to hit the nightlife for some after dinner drinks and dancing. We headed up to the Skywalkers Nightclub where there are phenomenal views from three sides. Well, here we are.....the ship's nightlife! Let's hope it get just a little bit livelier than the two of us, as we're two wild ladies!

Tomorrow, Dubrovnik, Croatia. Ciao for now!