Venice!!

This time, our ship used Venice, Italy as our turnaround port, to end one voyage and begin another. We were in port for three days, the middle day being the official turnaround, when one set of guests got off the ship and the next embarked. In that way each set had one overnight. We were busy the first day with a training in the late morning and an early afternoon rehearsal for the evening shows, so didn't get off at all that day. We did stand out on deck that evening as the sun went down and looked forward to the next day - our full day off in Venice. We were quite lucky that there was no show in the theatre that following night, and Nick was able to find someone else to cover his daily duty of assigning the techies their jobs on the schedule for the following day. So we had the whole day away with no need to rush back! It was an exhilirating feeling, and we decided to pull out all the stops, as this day was also to be a celebration of our 1 year anniversary, from our very first date last October.

At Nick's suggestion we were up at 6am, off the ship and walking into Venice in the dark by 6:30. It was dark and freezing when we started out on the 45 minute trek to St. Mark's square from the ship, but it slowly warmed as the birds started to sing and the sky lightened. It was strange to walk through the streets of Venice at that deserted, quiet hour. Everything looks different - all the shops are closed, and the only smell is the marvelous one of bread baking as the cafe's and bakeries prepare for the day ahead. Except of course for the moments we passed by the fish markets in full swing - something we'd never seen operating as they sell their freshly caught fish to local restaurants for the day before anything has opened and the tourists start to arrive, and close down before the bustle begins. We stopped for a quick pre-dawn photo on the Rialto bridge, but managed to make it to St. Mark's just before the sun rose. We were two of a select group of early-rising amateur and professional photographers there, waiting for the sunrise over the lagoon and the quiet line of gondolas, still covered for the night, gently floating on the quayside. We stayed and watched the sun rise and change the colour of the doge's palace and the other buildings along the water. What a stunning start to the day. It was also strange to see St. Mark's square deserted and quiet...nary even a pigeon to be seen yet, let alone a tourist.

After the sunrise was finished, we wandered the inner canals a bit and found a tiny cafe with a very friendly lady owner, and had a bit of morning coffee and chocolate croissants for breakfast. We relaxed there until St. Mark's opened for visitors, and we were able to go inside. It was amazing....music school lessons about the place came flooding back...incredible to see it in person. It was quite a shock though, to see the state of the floors inside and realize just how much the foundations are shifting and sinking. The damage time is causing is really a shame. But the building is still stunning, especially the gold mosaics on all the ceilings. After St. Mark's we paid to go up to the top of the nearby belltower, for my first proper panoramic view of Venice itself. It took my breath away. And all this before 10am!! We walked and walked after that, exploring some other parts of the city I had never seen, and had a great Italian lunch in a local restaurant. (So local, in fact, that there were two gondoliers on their break sitting at a nearby table!!) We enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the city, and did a bit of research trying to find the perfect place for a great, romantic dinner. We finally found it, in the restaurant La Zucca, which serves gourmet vegetarian and alternative food. Only problem? It is such a popular place, you need a reservation to get a table for dinner, even on a Wednesday night such as this one. We stopped by in the afternoon and were able by purest luck to find an employee entering the still-closed restaurant and she was nice enough to give us that reservation with one hour to spare - at their last available table!! So with an hour to spend before dinner, as the sun started to set, we decided it was time for our long-awaited gondola ride. To find an available gondola, we had to wander a ways away from our restaurant, which is on a quiet canal in the old Santa Croce area. We were a bit worried about being able to get back there in time, so we haggled a bit with a gondolier to get the perfect arrangement. We snuggled into our lovely gondola just as twilight was falling and the moon was shining. At our request, we were taken along the Grand Canal only for a moment, before retreating to the quiet, romantic small canals in the inner city. It was like a fairytale, with the moon overhead, Venice all around us, and the sky still a darkening blue. It didn't feel real. I can't imagine anything more romantic. And the time flew by...before we knew it our amazing gondolier had done us one better than dropping us off in the area of our restaurant - he had actually found it! A tiny canal drifts right by it, and we had door to door service! Straight from a romantic gondola ride to a romantic dinner at a table for two right next to a quiet canal. It couldn't have been more perfect. To top it all off the dinner was absolutely fabulous. They had the most incredible food there. Wow....it was two very full and happy people who wandered from there to a concert hall nearby, where we had tickets to watch the very appropriate Vivaldi's Four Seasons in a concert by musicians in period costume. What a way to finish the day! We did wander a bit after that back to St. Mark's square to experience the atmosphere at night, (where are small bands serenading those at restaurants around the square, and where we could look out across the lagoon at night) before calling it a night. We were absolutely exhausted, and convinced we had the most perfect day in Venice possible. For once, everything went right for us, all our dreams for the day came true, and it really was perfect. Happy anniversary to my wonderful man! Now we have one big problem: how are we ever going to top this???
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