As we aren't due in Venice until 1pm, our day started with breakfast and Zumba.

Venice is located across 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges . It sits in the Venetian lagoon, which stretches along the shoreline between the Po and Piave Rivers. The city as a whole is UNESCO Heritage Listed and like Istanbul, the entry into Venice was something people had been raving about.

At noon we were out on deck watching the ship sail into the Venetian lagoon. The ship sailed through the lagoon and passed between St. Marks Square and the San Giorgio Church. As we were sailing past quite a few of the big name landmarks, many photos were taken. No doubt the ship will appear in many tourist photos as well.

Having gotten off the ship it was time for us to embrace public transport. We headed for the people mover that takes you from the cruise terminal to the bus terminal, and then it was time to purchase our 24 hour Vaporetto tickets.

First of the day was to get to St Marks Square. The water bus we hopped on took us the long way the square, however this wasn’t too bad as it also gave a nice little cruise of the lagoon . Eventually we made it to our destination and started to make our way down toward the actual square. On the walk along the waterfront, we passed over several bridges and took the obligatory photo of the Bridge of Sighs and the Doge’s Palace.

Since there was no line to get into the Doge’s Palace and I hadn’t been before, we decided to have a look inside. The 14^th century palace is perhaps the most famous symbol of Venice’s culture and was the seat of power and the palace of justice. The Doge was the ruler of Venice. In 726, the people of Venice elected their own Doge, who with his successors would lead the city for over 1000 years.

As you would expect with a palace, it was quite opulent. Many of the ceilings have amazing frescos painted on them, including works by Titian.

Towards the end of the tour we crossed the Bridge of Sighs. The bridge passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the Doge’s Palace prison to the inquisition rooms . It is said that the bridges name was inspired two things – the sighs of condemned prisoners as they cross it to jail or execution, and the sighs of eternal love made by people kissing under the bridge at sunset while in a gondola.

After the palace, it was time for some pigeon whispering and some St Mark Square photography. I had noticed that people had been able to lure pigeons up on to their arms and I wanted to see if I could do it too. After locating part of a biscuit, I opened up my hand and hoped something would land on it. Something did. Mum was also able to get her pigeon whisper on and got one to land on her arm too.

Last time I had been in Venice, I had failed to locate the Hard Rock Café, this time I found it. Since it was getting late and we hadn’t yet had lunch, we stopped for a quick entrée. After finishing our meals, we made a quick exit and begun what was to become a long ride back to ship.

To cut a long story short, it took us much longer than planned to get back to the ship . The water taxi we were on moved really slowly along the Grand Canal and because there were so many people using it, the change over of passengers at each of the water bus stations took ages. We had given ourselves around an hour to get back to the ship however it took over an hour and half.

We were supposed to spend our evening looking at St. Mark’s in a private afterhours tour but due to our transport delays, we missed our tour group by a couple of minutes. In a positive turn, we were able to get onto the Gondola ride and Serenade tour.

From the ship we caught a private boat back towards St. Mark Square. On the horizon we could see lightning and hear thunder, we should have seen this as an omen… Within 5 minutes of getting off the boat, the downpour began. As neither of us had had time to get an umbrella before leaving the ship, we were stuck with no protection from the rain. After walking for a little bit longer, the tour guide finally got us to some protection, however by this time we were wet, cold and a little miserable . Once the rain had stopped, we continued our walk to where the gondolas were.

Each of the gondolas had two couple in them plus the gondolier. As it was a serenaded ride, we were lucky enough to also have the musicians for our group of gondolas in ours (so there were seven people in total). Mum and I got the seats to the side which were neither romantic nor comfortable – our gondolier didn’t have any cushions and you weren’t able to lean back because the lip of the gondola dug into your back. That said, the musicians were good and now we have seen Venice from another angle. The tour finished with a glass of champagne overlooking the lagoon.

When we got back to the ship, we headed straight to the buffet for a late dinner before heading to bed to recover for another half day in Venice tomorrow.

Fun fact:
The profession gondoliers of Venice are members of an exclusive guild. A rigorous exam must be taken. It includes Venetian history, foreign language skills and practical oaring manoeuvres. It is mainly a male profession, with the first female gondolier only being certified in August 2010.