{"id":190,"date":"2012-04-07T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T22:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karenandjon.co.uk\/blog\/?p=190"},"modified":"2024-09-29T21:14:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T20:14:01","slug":"venice-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/?p=190","title":{"rendered":"Azura Day 9: Venice, Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>5 Minute, 59 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

Saturday 7th April 2012<\/h2>\n
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Weather:<\/strong> Cloudy start but sunshine breaking through!<\/h3>\n
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No need to set all the alarms as Jon and I were awake bright and early about 6pm.\u00a0 The pilot was alighting just before 6.30am (actually a pilot and trainee pilot) and we would be entering the lagoon just before 7am.<\/p>\n

The sun was rising and a pink misty glow shrouded the city.\u00a0 No sign of the heavy rain that was forecast on the BBC website the previous day.<\/p>\n

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Coffee and Hot Chocolate didn\u2019t arrive at the cabin at the planned time.\u00a0 Our 7-7.30am wake-up call arrived at 8am so we\u2019re glad it was only a backup!\u00a0 I guess a fair few of our fellow passengers had the same idea.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2624]<\/p>\n

Just before we sailed past St Mark’s Square, we woke Callum up. It was quite fresh out on the balcony so Callum insisted on wearing his dressing gown and sitting in his chair wrapped up in his duvet!<\/p>\n

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It was quite quiet at this time \u2013 just a few joggers pounding the embankment.\u00a0 Being a Saturday, and Easter Saturday at that, it was going to be really busy.<\/p>\n

Once we had docked in the Bacinodella Stazione Marittima, we popped down for Breakfast.\u00a0 Callum stocked himself up \u2026 orange juice, fruit n fibre and bacon, fried egg and mushrooms!.\u00a0 Within an hour, he would no doubt be hungry again.<\/p>\n

After breakfast, we headed up to Deck 19 as the view would be so much better.\u00a0 MSC Magnifica had come into port.\u00a0 She was on the other side of the dock just diagonally back from Azura and we would have a pretty good view of her from our balcony.<\/p>\n

We then tried to work out where the people mover was (the new mono rail that took you from the dock to Piazzale Roma).\u00a0 It was just outside the dock entrance so we decided to give that a whirl (Euro 1 each way) rather than use the water taxis (\u00a335 for the three of us).<\/p>\n

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The People Mover was very easy to use and Callum loved it, even though we couldn\u2019t sit up front.\u00a0 We arrived in Piazzale Roma and decided to wander around the Santa Croce and San Polo districts (North of the Rialto Bridge).\u00a0 It was really busy as we walked past Ferrovia (outside the train station) so lots of people with luggage as well as being busy with tourists.\u00a0 The Vaparettos (water buses) were totally rammed with people so we would have to wait before talking Callum on a ride.\u00a0 As soon as we crossed the Ponte degli Scalzi and headed into the narrow alleys it got much quieter.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2625]<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2626]<\/p>\n

We made our way to the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church and just wandered around the alleys in the vague direction of the Rialto Bridge.\u00a0 Lots of canals and bridges (very glad we didn\u2019t have to worry about the buggy this visit!) and Callum lost count of the number of boats we\u2019d seen within 5 minutes.<\/p>\n

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We wandered through Rialto Market \u2013 first walking past the fruit and vegetable stalls and then ending up in the fish hall with their amazing stalls packed full of fish, shell fish, squid, octopi (if that is the correct word for many octopus!) and eels.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2621]<\/p>\n

We found a little caffe for a drink just outside the market \u2026 Callum had another lemony lemonade whilst Jon and I sampled the local beer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

We set off again and we\u2019d decided to go for Pizza for lunch and we\u2019d go back to Le Caffe in Campo Stefano \u2013 the caffe that became our favourite for lunch when we were here for Nic and Aly\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2627]<\/p>\n

There were far fewer market stalls on the approach to the Rialto Bridge than we remembered but once we crossed over, we walked around the embankment to The Palace Ca\u2019 Farsetti \u2013 where Nic and Aly got married.\u00a0 From here we cut across to Campo Stefano but there were no seats left outside as the sun was now shining brightly.\u00a0 We were just about to try somewhere else, when Callum announced he wanted the toilet \u2026 so found a seat inside in the end.\u00a0 We ordered ham and shrimp pizzas to share which were extremely tasty then doubled back on ourselves to St Marks Square.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As only to be expected, it was packed solid.\u00a0 The caffes were all vying for custom and The Florian and Caffe Quadri both had little stages outside featuring classical musicians to try and attract custom!\u00a0 This time round, only a small part of the basilica was covered in scaffolding but the bell tower was cordoned off for renovations.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2628]<\/p>\n

We walked down alongside the Doges Palaces and showed Callum the Bridge of Sighs.\u00a0 Then we walked back along the embankment as far as we could before cutting across back to Campo Stefano.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We crossed over the Ponte dell\u2019Accademia and started to wind our way slowly back through the alleys towards Pizzale Roma.\u00a0 We only got lost once (as Jon refused to get the map out to check! J).\u00a0 These alleys were so much quieter than in San Marco district \u2013 hardly anyone in sight.<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2629]<\/p>\n

Back at Piazzle Roma, we caught the People Mover back to the ship \u2013 Callum was delighted we were in the front carriage \u2013 for the single minute we were onboard!\u00a0 Quite a few Italians with suitcases were using the people mover \u2013 it was change-over day for the MSC.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back onboard, Callum wanted to go to Kids Club for the hour before Kids Tea so Jon and I sat up in the Planet Bar reading and taking in the views across the city.\u00a0 The MSC was departing before Azura and we were surprised how few people were up on deck.\u00a0 Jon got his binoculars out and all was explained.\u00a0 The passengers were all on the prom deck, wearing life-jackets for the muster drill.<\/p>\n

After Kids Tea, we headed up on deck to watch the sail away from Venice.\u00a0 No sailaway party but classical music was being played around the midship pool (and Chelsea-Wigan was being shown on the sea screen!).\u00a0 We sailed away from Venice on schedule.\u00a0 Six people had been reported \u201cmissing\u201d \u2026 whether they made it back onboard, we don\u2019t know!<\/p>\n

[easy-image-collage id=2630]<\/p>\n

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We stayed up on deck until we had gone past the main island on Venice then headed back to our cabin to get ready for dinner.\u00a0 Callum headed back to the Kids Club after the Magic Show for the evening whilst Jon and I decided to have a steak in the Glass House this evening and sample a glass of red wine.\u00a0 I had the Argentinean Malbec whilst Jon tried a Spanish red.\u00a0 The steaks (Ribeye and Sirlion) were really tasty and the chips were served wrapped up in a Horizon newspaper.<\/p>\n

Another earlyish night beckoned and we were all asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.<\/p>\n

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Saturday 7th April 2012 Weather: Cloudy start but sunshine breaking through! No need to set all the alarms as Jon and I were awake bright and early about 6pm.\u00a0 The pilot was alighting just before 6.30am (actually a pilot and trainee pilot) and we would be entering the lagoon just before 7am. The sun was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[91,46,107,108,109,10,110,111,93,112,113,114,115,70,116,117],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cruise","tag-a207","tag-azura","tag-bridge-of-sighs","tag-campo-san-steffano","tag-doges-palace","tag-glass-house","tag-grand-canal","tag-italy","tag-po","tag-palazzo-ca-farsetti","tag-people-mover","tag-ponte-dellaccademia","tag-rialto-bridge","tag-sailaway","tag-st-marks-square","tag-venice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11934,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/11934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}