Cruising the Mediterranean Part 2: Venice, Bari and the Boat

Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge

Because we were supposed to arrive in Venice Friday evening, we were able to check directly into our hotel after arriving on Saturday. When I was planning the trip, I read online to find hotels that allowed easy access to the port. Luckily, the hotel  ended up booking was also directly across the canal from the train station.

View from our hotel bathroom window

The Santa Chiara was awesome. Usually when we travel, we book a cheap room in a European budget hotel that looks like an American Best Western on the inside. This was the first time we've stayed somewhere that felt like you would imagine a European hotel should. Everything was very antique and we had an awesome view of the Grand Canal just outside our bathroom window. I typically don't mention the hotel, but this one was pretty awesome and I would definitely recommend it. The front desk staff even tried to make us dinner reservations for the evening and book a water taxi. Unfortunately, it was the night before the Regata Storica, a famous gondola race that happens each year in September and attracts huge crowds of tourists. We weren't able to get reservations anywhere because everything was booked solid with all of tourists in town for the gondola races.

We spent most of Saturday leisurely wondering around Venice. We walked from our hotel through a less touristy area before finding our way back over to the main tourist attractions. Before visiting Venice, all we heard was negative things about the city. In Amsterdam, our guide even talked about how Venice smells horribly compared to Holland and how the Venetians are extremely rude. The city itself was beautiful and the water was much more pristine than we expected. The only smell was of salt water, which wasn't particularly worse than going to the beach. I will agree, however, after this entire experience, I can say with confidence that Italians have to be the rudest Europeans we've ever experienced. I don't even remember the French being so bad. Venice was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed it a lot, but don't expect good customer service anywhere. (Of course, it also may not help that Greg did tell the hotel staff that we wanted to eat Italian food in reference to pasta.)

That evening, since we couldn't get reservations, we ate at a restaurant recommended by the hotel which was just across the  Grand Canal near the train station. I wish I could remember the name of this place to tell you not to go there if you ever visit Venice. The food was horrible and the service was so bad that it hurt. We almost left without paying because we couldn't even get a waiter to stop and take our money. Like I said, customer service in Italy is bad and probably even worse when you obviously don't speak Italian. It actually made me miss Germany.

My gondola pictures are not so great.

After dinner, we decided to look into taking a gondola ride. It seems kind of dumb and cheesy, but I felt like if we didn't do it while we were there, we would regret it later. While wondering around one of the gondola areas, a man approached us and told us that him and his three friends had been waiting for two more of their friends to take a gondola ride. Their friends never showed up and now they were curious if we'd like to split the fare with them for the ride. It cost 100 Euros per trip and could fit up to 6 people. We decided to join and ended up on a slightly awkward gondola ride with two couples from Turkey. In Germany, there is a large Turkish population who adamantly hates Americans and occasionally drunken fights ensue. Luckily, this was nothing of that nature and we spent about 20 minutes bobbing around the canals in a tiny gondola with a gondolier who was, again, pretty rude. But, it only cost us 35 Euros instead of 100 and now we can officially say that we've taken a gondola ride in Venice. I don't know if I would particularly recommend it to other people or not. You can get the same pictures with less motion sickness just walking along the city's paths.

Our last stop of the evening was to St. Mark's Square, the main tourist hub. As with every tourist filled European city, it was full of people trying to force you to buy useless crap. When someone approaches you carrying roses, you might as well so ahead and kick them in the knee, push them to the ground and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Okay, I'm seriously kidding, but there is no doubt that if you go to St. Mark's Square at night (or most other European tourist attractions for that matter) you will be accosted by people shoving roses in your face and demanding you pay them Euros. Sometimes, they will be 80 year old women claiming they are pregnant and need the money for the baby. Sometimes, they will be 5 year old boys. Be heartless, shove the rose back in their face and keep walking.

Bridge of Sighs connecting the
court to the prison

Overall, Venice was gorgeous and quaint but the people were pretty awful. We returned again at the end of our cruise, but didn't spend much time in the city. If we ever have a reason to return to Venice, we might, but I feel like we've seen everything we needed to see and can even tell people we rode a gondola for posterity.


The next morning, we had breakfast at our hotel before heading over to the cruise terminal. I do have to say that our hotel did have a great staff who were very helpful and able to point us in the right direction of our boat. Breakfast was pretty good, too.

There is a people mover by the bus station in Venice. It's 1,30 Euro per person one way to the terminal. For some reason, this confused the hell out of people. It made me wonder if they have ever used automated machines before in their life. The People Mover goes from the Venice station, to the cruise terminal, then to Venice Mestre on the mainland. You get your ticket at the automated machine, scan it to get onto the People Mover, then get off at the first stop. You can even click the little Union Jack on the menu options of the machine to have this explained to you in English. Yet, somehow, we still found ourselves regularly explaining to people how the People Mover works. Greg and I were seriously at a loss for how people were finding this so complicated.

Venice from our balcony on the ship

This wasn't at the cruise port, I just like this picture.

Once at the port, the cruise line has embarking down to a science. When I checked in online, it didn't print off luggage tags, so they did it for us right at the baggage check. We went through a few different stations where they checked our passports, issued us Cruise Cards and provided some brief information about the ship. It only took about 30 minutes for us to get on board which we thought was surprising. Maybe we're just use to airport security in America?

Some of our friends recommended that we get their early and take pictures of the boat before other people get on board. We did get their early, but we didn't really take many pictures. We mostly just walked around in awe. Greg kept saying over and over that it looked like the 90's threw up all over the ship. It was very... gold. And sparkly. And there was carpet everywhere. So I guess maybe it did look kind of like the 90's. By the time we got up to the pool, it was already full of Italians in bikinis and Speedos. Greg and I laughed a little about how confident everyone appeared in their swimsuits. In America, you rarely see anyone over the age of 30 rocking a string bikini. In Europe, they are letting it all hang out no matter what.

Greg will probably not be happy that I shared this picture of our room.

Thankfully, most of the staff on the boat were not Italian. The staff and the service all week was wonderful. The food was hit or miss, but I think that's to be expected when you're on a boat attempting to cook for hundreds of people every night. Drink packages started at 23 Euro per person per day, but we didn't get one because there was no way we would be able to drink enough to be worth it.



Our first port of call was Bari, Italy. We weren't particularly excited about this port so we just went

ashore hoping to waste some time before getting back on the boat. There isn't much to see in Bari. Apparently, there are some cool sights close by if you choose to take an excursion through the cruise line, but in Bari itself there isn't much. We paid 10 Euro to ride a fake train around the city and met an awesome Australian couple on our ship who also spoke Italian. Our "train" tour took us through the city streets to see pasta being made by the local women. There were a few churches to see which were in a different style than the ones we usually see in Germany. Greg bought a hat for 5 Euro from a street vendor. We finished the tour with pizza at an small restaurant where our Australian friends helped us to order. We also stopped for gelato before heading back to the ship.

Now that we've experienced Italy, I'm not sure whether or not I would be excited to return. We would still really like to visit Rome before moving back to American and also Naples primarily to visit Pompeii and the Island of Capri. Maybe next year we will be able to make time for these trips. Greece and Croatia, however, were much more fun. In my next post, I'll cover Olympia, our first stop in Greece and the island of Santorini which may possibly be the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life.

Sun rise over Venice