Venice and Our Ship

On Wednesday morning our bus returned to take us to Venice to board our ship. Our cruise adventure was about to begin! Grace and Pat arrived at the airport that morning, and Richard and Vicki, who had been in Venice for a couple of days made their way to the ship, and we all met onboard the Azamara Quest, for our small ship cruise to ports in Italy and the Adriatic. There are 19 of us cruising together, and all are charming and cooperative, and we are all enjoying the company of the others.

Our cruise began with two days in Venice -- the day we arrived and the following day until about 5:00 pm. We enjoyed a walking tour around the area of St. Mark's Square. Our guided showed us the interior of golden St. Mark's basilica as she told us a bit of the history of Venice. She ecorted us away from the hordes of Americans (two other cruise ships with a combined passenger capacity of 7000 were in port too) and into a charming neighborhood behind St. Mark's.

Then we boarded gondolas for a ride around that area. It was really fun to listen to the chatter of the gondoliers while getting a different view of the beautiful old homes we passed.

We experienced our first dinners in the dining room of our ship, and became accustomed to the rooms we would call home for the next ten nights. The ship is not large -- the capacity is fewer than 700 -- but it is rather grand. It is the new "luxury" line of Celebrity Cruises.

On our second day in Venice each of us had a chance to explore on our own. The ship sailed at 6:00 pm. The ride our of the harbor past the grand sights of Venice was one to remember.