Venice - pre cruise extension on 2022 med cruise

We are finally getting around to writing a blog for our trip 2 months ago to the Mediterranean in September-October 2022.  We had 16 people traveling together on the Holland America Oosterdam for a 12-night cruise.  Prior to the cruise we spent 3 nights in Venice.  Most people had not visited Venice previously and it was a pleasure showing them this beautiful city.
 
We arrived on September 25 and stayed at the Hotel Antiche Figure.  We had stayed at this hotel in two previous visits and find this hotel to be great place to stay while in Venice.  The location is perfect, the rooms very comfortable, and the staff easy to work with.  During our stay we booked 3 tours with Antonella who we found through Tours By Locals, one of our favorite 3rd party excursion suppliers.  She turned out to be a great guide and her pricing was very reasonable for private tours for our group.  On the day we arrived Antonella took us on an hour trip down the Grand Canal in water taxies so people could get a quick taste of Venice before jet lag kicked in.  That evening we had our first Italian dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Grand Canal.
 
On our first full day we took a trip to Murano and Burano.  Private water taxies, arranged by Antonella, took us to Murano where we watched a glass making demonstration before spending a few hours vising the many glass shops on the island.  Everyone bought something and some people bought some large items that they had shipped back to the US.  From Murano we took the water taxi to Burano to see a demonstration on lace making.  The woman creating the lace was over 80 years old and we learned how the famous Venetian lace industry was a dying art because they could not recruit young women to learn how to make the various lace stitches needed to create their works of art.  Almost all the remaining lace makers were over 80, and the younger women chose to take on easier professions.  While in Burano we walked down the colorful canals lined with houses of various pastel colors which were painted in this unique style to help the fisherman find their way back to the island.

In the evening we hired a few gondolas to take the group around.  We took our drinks with us and enjoyed the ride.  The gondola operators were happy to take a few pictures with us afterwards.
 
On the second full day we visited St Mark’s Basilica and the Doge Palace.  We spent about 2 hours walking from the hotel to the Doge Palace, with Antonella explaining how Venetians lived and showing us some of the highlights of the city.  We walked over the famous Rialto Bridge on our way to St Mark’s Square.  As we approached St Mark’s we had to be very careful because this was the time of year that Venice floods and they were expecting that day to be very bad.  Fortunately, we arrived late morning after most of the flooding had already subsided, but you could still see all the tables set up that create a bridge for people to walk on in order to avoid getting wet in the flooded square.  We went in the Doge Palace first which was the palace where the Venetian nobleman (doges) would meet to create laws and determine punishment for people who broke the laws.  Almost all the buildings along Venice’s Grand Canal were once palaces for these Venetian Doges who were extremely wealthy due to the very successful trading business that Venice controlled.  Part of our visit in the Doge Palace was a trip across the Bridge of Sighs and a tour of the prison.  This bridge was named due to the “sighs” that the prisoners gasped as they looked out the last window to the outside world before being thrown into a prison cell.  After leaving the Doge Palace we walked over to St Mark’s Basilica and were given a tour of this beautiful church.  As many times as we had been to Venice we had never been inside this basilica.  It was very beautiful but there are so many beautiful basilicas and cathedrals in Europe.
 
After the tour we walked around the area a while before meeting at a restaurant where we had made reservations.  The restaurant was on the Grand Canal and was the best meal we have ever had in Venice.  After dinner we took a night walk back to the hotel which is always difficult with all the unmarked winding alley ways and canals in Venice.  Our group stayed closely together because everyone was afraid of getting lost.
 
The next day we took a taxi over to the city center where Holland America had a bus that would take us to our ship to start our cruise.  Venice is a great place to visit! 

In the next few blogs we will tell you about our cruise.
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