Venice Italy

June 2011

We were in Venice to catch up with a cruise ship and couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out the place. All of this was totally new to us and the decision to make the trip was impulsively made a mere 2-1/2 weeks before. It seemed like the time between making the “lets go decision” and actually setting foot alongside a canal in Venice flew by in the blink of an eye. We had to pinch ourselves to validate that this wasn't just a dream.

Per usual, we made our own arrangements and used travelocity.com to book air tickets and a hotel for the before/after time in Venice.

USAirways runs one direct flight per day between Philadelphia and Venice. As luck would have it, there were two seats remaining for the outbound leg so we booked them and nailed down seats for the return as well. In the end, we spent about $300 more for the air tickets than the cruise.

The plan was to spend two days in Venice before and after the cruise so we needed to secure a room. Hotels directly in Venice are VERY expensive with the “cheaper” ones having shared baths, no elevators, small rooms, and require dragging your luggage around to find them. We decided to stay in Mestre located at the mainland end of the causeway. We booked two nights on each end of the cruise at the Hotel Ambasciatori for less than half the cost of the cheapest Venice hotels.

Conversion was running about $1.44US per euro or, for estimating purposes, we used $1.50US per euro. In other words, something costing 10 euros works out to about $15US. Keep this in mind as I continue....

Getting from the airport to the hotel runs about 40 euros (each way) or $60US, pretty pricey. However, the hotel website indicated that a bus was available from the airport to the Mestre rail station for 5 euros per person and it was about a 1/3 mile walk to the hotel from there. We have been walking much more than that every day so we opted for the bus. The bus company is “ATVO” if you want to look it up.

Venice is basically an island so all rail and road traffic comes across the causeway and ends where the causeway meets the island. From there getting around is by water bus and on foot. We bought two day bus passes for 28 euros each. Bring a good pair of walking shoes because the best way to see Venice is on foot. The land and water bus system is “ACTV” in case you want to look them up.

Venice is AMAZING and much of it can be seen from the water buses BUT to really appreciate it you've got to go out on foot and walk the alleys. It's an easy place to get lost in and, frankly, that was the real fun in exploring it. We enjoyed walking the narrow alleys and loved the way they opened up (usually around churches) into a piazza with little cafes and places to rest.

There was a photo op at every corner and we ended up capturing over 2000 images.  Shown here are a few images selected to convey the flavor of what we saw as we walked around.  Click on any image for a larger view, some additional information about the image, some camera information and a satellite image of where the picture was taken.  Be sure and check the satellite images, they're very interesting!

For the photographers among you:  Joe was using a Nikon D300 DSLR and a Nikon Coolpix P7000 P&S.  Kathy was using her Nikon D60 DSLR.  In addition, we also geotagged our images with a Sony GPS-CS3KA.

You are encouraged to poke around on our site and send a note to tell us that you were here. Comments about the page are also welcome. Just click on the mailbox.