BARI - Day 74 - located in the southeastern heel of Italy. We sailed into Bari in thick fog (they say they've not had fog for at least 3 years). It was a Sunday so most places were closed - only a few cafes were open A marathon was on so there were some street closures and congestion. There was a nice walk around the seawall but otherwise Bari was not a great port.
I think we must have missed something as other people thought it was a great port.
VENICE - Days 75 & 76 Because we're a small ship we were able to approach Venice via the Lagoon. Our on board destination expert narrated the last hour or more of the sail-in. It was an amazing experience and made our front of the ship cabin and balcony worthwhile - similar to the Suez Canal as we saw everything on both sides of the ship as she described them. The only downside of the day is that it's cool and cloudy.
We took a water bus to St. Marks square and wandered for a few hours. The crowds were big and the pigeons plentiful. There were lots of restaurants, little sidewalk cafes high-end shops and souvenir booths. We ended our day at St. Marks with a pizza, had a gondola ride, picked up some wine and headed back to the ship (we knew that pistachio ice cream was on the dinner menu). As a lot of you know, Venice has 420 bridges and 170 canals. The Venice Chamber Orchestra along with a tenor and soprano came on board for a couple performances - what a great concert.
On our second day in Venice we did their version of the hop on hop off bus - only on a boat. Stopped in St. Marks again to pick up some wine and then carried on to the islands of Lido and Murata before heading back to the ship. There was local entertainment - 3 Gondolieri singing and playing guitar and accordion - not as good as the night before but interesting.
Pictures - 1 gondola ride, 2 - St. Marks, 3 - start of the Grand Canal, 4 - along the Lagoon as we sailed into Venice
No comments:
Post a Comment