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| Celebrity Royal Princess |
TRAVELWISE, 2013 was kind of a watershed year for us. We had dipped our toes into the water of cruising, having now put the Alaska cruise and 2 Caribbean Cruises behind us. Our travels had been so far restricted mainly stateside with a couple forays into Canada and of course, the Caribbean. As a very young (teenager) my wife had been to Europe to visit her father who served in the Navy over there (primarily Greece, if I recall). But in our adult lives, neither of us had been across either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. No Europe. No Asia. No Aftrica. No Scandinavia.
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Skywalk from several decks below - Royal Princess
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
THAT WAS all about to change. Having been firmly caught up in the magic of cruising by now, we scheduled our first (I probably didn't know that it was only the first at the time) European cruise. A foreshadowing of things to come: the cruise was denominated a "Mediterranean" cruise. For reasons that will come clear in a later blog post though, it probably could have been more accurately called an "Adriatic" cruise. Our ship would be Princess' brand new Royal Princess. The Royal Princess was the first of their newest "Royal Class" ships. She entered service in 2013 as Princess's flagship vessel, followed by The Regal Princess in 2014 (over the next 5 years, 4 more Royal Class ships were delivered to Princess: Sky Princess, Enchanted Princess, Majestic Princess and Discovery Princess). We have sailed on both the Royal Princess and The Regal Princess. At the the time, the Royal Class ships were the biggest and "best" of the fleet, with some unique features like the "seawalk," (a narrow balcony that curves out over the ocean from one of the bars on the sundeck) of the Royal Class ships, as well as a few other new features. It was very modern for the time. Keeping up with the Smiths and Jones (or really, Royal Caribbean), in 2024 and 2025, Princess launched their newest "Sphere Class" ships: first The Sun Princess and very recently, The Star Princess. Perhaps we will sail on one of them one day, but at a passenger capacity of 4,300 passengers (nearly a thousand more than the Royal Princess), we won't be actively seeking the ship out. Just too big.
You really don't want to miss your ship's departure
THE ORIGINALLY scheduled cruise was - for me - the anticipated trip of a lifetime. Starting in Venice, Italy (a venue I had always wanted photograph) and cruising down through the The Adriatic Sea, with stops in The Port of Kusadasi, Turkey (for Ancient Ephesus); Istanbul (Constantinople) Turkey; into the Ionian Sea for Athens, Greece: Mykonos, Greece; then up into the Mediterranean Sea for Naples, Italy (gateway to The Amalfi Coast, Pompei and Herculaneum, and the Isle of Capri); Rome, Italy and finally, finishing in Barcelona, Spain. Wow. It promised to be amazing.
BY THIS time, we had become familiar with the Cruise Critic website and my wife had not only joined us with a couple of other groups, but also set up a couple private excursions of our own (in which others joined us). So we had well-organized, small group excursions scheduled for Ephesus, Istanbul, Athens (including a separate guided tour of The Acropolis) and many other sights in the city, and a day long trip up the Amalfi Coast. We were scheduled to fly home out of Barcelona relatively early, so that would have to wait for another trip someday. That was the plan anyway.
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Venice is a photographer's dream. This image has hung on my wall since 2013 and illustrates the mix of colors, textures, architecture, bridges and reflection opportunities that await around every corner!
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved
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BUT FIRST, Venice! We flew into Marco Polo Airport in Venice about 4 days before our scheduled boarding on the Royal Princess. That was our first time to do this, but it became our M.O. to fly in early to our departure city. There are a couple good reasons for this. The perhaps most important reason is that you want to give yourself "wiggle room in case of cancelled flights, bad weather, etc. You really don't want to miss your ship's departure. Second and for us, equally important, is that we have paid a lot of money for airfare "across the pond," and expended at least 2 travel days each way. Once that has been done, we think we might as well spend some time over there. A third reason is that - as I have said many times here, one negative of cruising is that you rarely get to spend early morning, late afternoon or nights in the ports you stop in (unless it is that rare overnight port stay). We have found that cruises often originate or terminate in major cities of interest to us.
FOR THIS trip, we actually stayed off the island of Venice, directly across from the Venezia Mestre (train) Station, a fairly large, bustling train terminal two stops from the end of the line at the Ferrovia Mestre Station on Venice. Our thinking was to save some money that we could better spend on things other than sleeping. 😑 The accommodations were fine and it all worked out well, but it was, in my view, a bit of a hassle. We had to buy train tickets and ride the two stops just to get to the beginning (the west side of the island) of Venice. It was about a 10-15 minute ride, but you had to work with the schedule (both ways of course). One morning I got up very early to make the walk to St. Mark's Piazza at sunup to photograph the gondolas. We then had to make arrangements to meet up later for an excursion we had scheduled. It all worked out, but I vowed that I would not go to Venice again without staying right there on the island. We have been back twice and have managed to keep that vow. We have had great experiences going the VRBO route.
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Doge's Palace - Venice, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
ON OUR first day in Venice, we took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel and got all checked in and cleaned up a bit. We had flown all night the night before. Something that we planned from our very first trip and have learned really does work, is that - even though we are generally pretty dog-tired when we land and get situation, the last thing we want to do is nap or rest. Our goal is to get our bodies acclimated to our new time zone ASAP. So we generally do something when we arrive. This day, we familiarized ourselves with the train system (of all the trains in Europe, Italy's "system" is the most confusing - not the trains or schedules, but the ticketing and boarding process). We didn't have a plan, except that we knew we were scheduled to be at the Doge's Palace in St. Mark's Piazza relatively early the next morning for a tour. The Doge was the top official in Venice, elected for life, and dating as far back as 698. Because of the close relationship between the Catholic Church and the secular government, the palace is connected to St. Mark's Cathedral, on St. Mark's Square. The palace today holds, among other things, a wonderful art collection and serves as a museum to the history of Venetian royalty and government.
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Streets of Venice
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
PERHAPS YOU have read that it is easy to get lost in Venice. It is truly a maze. We consulted a map and thought we had our track from the Mestre Station to St. Mark's figured out. Did I say it is easy to get lost in Venice? Well, get lost we did! Several times. There are numerous small streets and alleys and not a few of them actually end up closed off in a dead end. There really is no way to go in a straight line in Venice (when in Maine, a few years back, we often heard the saying "you can't get there from here" Does that ever apply in Venice!). We eventually found our way there. But the next morning, even though we had done it, we struggled again, and worried we might be late or miss it altogether. We didn't, but is was a bit nerve wracking. They say that part of the charm of Venice is the getting lost. I would agree with that - as long as you aren't on a schedule.
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Who doesn't immediately think of those shiny, photogenic, black gondolas when the subject of Venice comes up? This was a planned shot (long before we even arrived in Venice) that I had seen something similar to during my research on Venice. I needed an early morning before the light came up to bright in order to shoot with a slow enough shutter speed to catch the rocking motion of the gondolas while everything else remained sharp. At the same time, I wanted relatively calm conditions with flat water to cause the shadows. It worked out this particular morning.
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
BY THE third day, the morning I went to St. Mark's by myself, I had looked again at the map. We had also internalized a couple landmarks by then. Because everything curves around the main canal (which serpentines through Venice), it is easy to get comepletely disoriented. From the train station, the Venice equivalent of "Main Street" is called Strada Nova. If you walk out of the station and down the stairs and turn left you will walk down Strada Nova. I could see from the map that if I stayed on it, it would curve all the way around the Island 180 degrees, and eventually I would walk out right near St. Marks. It seemed like the long way around, but I timed it and it actually took no longer than any of the other "shortcuts" we eventually learned. Looking on the map, as the crow flies, St. Mark's is 1 mile southeast of the station. But in that line, you cross the Grand Canal two times (which for the longest time was what messed me up every time. Crossing once wasn't bad, but twice was very disorienting). My approach to Venice, for a time, invloved everything just working off of Strada Nova. But that made the walk 1.5 miles each way - assuming you didn't take a wrong turn and get lost. By the time we boarded the ship at the end of the week, our legs were like jelly.
Sure, there is that "getting lost" thing. But in Venice, with a camera in hand, it is a good lost!
MY NEWFOUND aproach to finding my way around Venice on foot didn't last, though, because my wife - always the logical one - started to figure out the Ferrovia system ("waterbusses"). They saved a ton of walking. You can purchase a multiple day ticket and then jump on and off when you want. There is usually a stop very close to your intended destination. You just have to figure out their numbering scheme. By our third trip to Venice, she had become an expert. I still struggle a bit with the schedules, but agree that it saves your legs. But I also like to walk in Venice. We have now made several visits there and my favorite thing to do - especially in the early morning - is get out and walk around. Sure, there is that "getting lost" thing. But in Venice, with a camera in hand, it is a good lost!
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Streets of Venice
Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
I KNEW there would be lots of "eye-candy" for the photographer here. As it turns out, there is something to shoot around every corner. One of my best buddies calls his photography website: "Around The Bend." It came to him as he realized when he is out shooting, he always wants to go down the next street, road or lane to see what's around the bend. Well in Venice you didn't have far to go to the next bend. And the next one. And the next one. There is, of course, no vehicular traffic in Venice. Not even ambulances or fire trucks. Not even bicycles. All means of transportation is by foot or on a boat of some description on the canals. I have come to think of Venice as presenting about 4 really good photogenic opportunities: Bridges, canals (and reflections), architecture, and of course, the iconic Venetian Gondolas.
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As I walked around Venice, I had this image in my mind and was on the lookout for an opportunity to catch one in the right light and context. Here, I was standing on the edge of the canal, having just walked off a small footbridge. I could hear the gonola coming from the other side of the bridge and knew he had to turn in front of me. So I waited. And was rewarded. This is probably one of my 4-5 all time favorite images.
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
WE ALSO learned that there was so much history that happened there. I was a U.S. History major in college. I took the obligatory "Western Civilization" course, as well as a one-semester course on Medieval History. I don't remember spending a lot of time on Venice, or the Venetian Empire. We got a great education this trip, touring the Doge's Palace (include a back passage and prison portion called the "Secret Itineraries" tour - where we got to see where the famous Giacomo Cassanova was held and later escaped, among other things. We also got to see the incredible St. Mark's Cathedral along with some detailed history. We learned how the city was originally built, on wooden pilings that were hand driven down into the silt in the middle of the ocean lagoon, as a means of protecting themselves from invasion.
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St. Mark's Cathedral from the middle of the piazza - Some part of it seems to be almost constantly under repair, every time we visit.
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
THERE ARE hundreds of bridges in Venice crossing the labyrinthe of canals (again, hundreds of them) formed by the small island built up on the pilings. Some of them are very beautiful - some more rustic - but always fodder for a nice photograph. I must have photographed over 100 of them in the several trips we have made there - most of them on the first trip. The light in the "canyons" created by the buildings can be magical, and the colors in the pigments used to paint the buildings are exquisite to the lens. And those dark canals create wonderful reflections.
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One of the hundreds of footbridges across Venice's Canals (most of them very photogenic)
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
BUT THERE are only 4 bridges that cross the main (Grand) Canal, which runs for roughly 2.5 miles through the middle of the island: The Constitutional Bridge (a very modern bridge with see-through glass panels to see down into the canal in parts - and the only one that is a full ramp style bridge - which becomes important when you start dragging luggage around the island); Ponte' Degli Scalzi (just beyond the stairs down from the Mestre Station at the beginning of Strada Nova); the famed Rialto Bridge (Scalzi and Rialto are nearly 1 mile on the canal and more by foot all the way around the bend apart with not other mode of crossing except by gondola in between); and last but not least, The Accademia Bridge (the only wooden span on the Grand Canal, again another nearly 3/4 mile on the canal, around another bend).
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The Famous Ponte Rialto - Venice, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
IN MY opinion, though they all contain good photographic potential, the best of the two are the famous Rialto Bridge (Ponte Rialto) and the Accademia Bridge.
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Accademia Bridge - Venice, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 |
ON THE day we had the tour of The Doge's Palace and St. Mark's (San Marco) Cathedral, we had hired a private guide to take us around, and her tour culminated with a 1 - hour ride in another one of Venice's celebrated vehicles, the water taxi. These beautiful, polished, wooden runabouts are a ubiquitous sight in Venice. I have always like the "context" given by this image of our boat approaching the Rialto Bridge. I would guess that a great majority of viewers of this photo would immediately identify it as Venice. The accademia Bridge was a tough one to photograph and get anything other than "just a bridge" across the main canal. I like the character of the wooden structure, and the wooden water taxi moored agains the wooden pier below it seemed to pull a king of a theme together.
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Weathered building along a canal in Venice
Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
I ALSO always find opportunities for some creative shooting in Venice. Completely surrounded by the sea, the water and weather takes its toll on the buildings of Venice. That negative turns into a positive for a photographer. Photography is often about color, shape and texture. Nature's assault on man-made things provides ample opportunity to exploit those characteristics.
Every pizza we had usually had a very light coating of marinara sauce, some melted cheese and a single meat topping. . . But it was always tasty and savory
NO TRIP to Venice would be complete without sampling the food. Food in Italy in general is wonderful. It is most often fresh and even freshly and locally grown or produced. As a subset of that, Venice is special. They have daily fresh caught seafood. The local pasta is melt-in-your mouth delicious. Even their pizza is very tasty. I have enjoyed the pasta and seafood the most, however. On our last night in Venice before boarding the Royal Princess, we met up with some folks we would later be touring with - also boarding the Royal Princess the next day. We sat down at the outdoor area (almost every establishment in Venice offers outdoor dining). The carbonara was like none I had ever had before. I mentioned that "even" the pizza was good. Growing up, I always considered Pizza an Italian thing. Indeed, Naples is widely credited with being the birthplace of pizza. Maybe true, but some variety of bread with toppings have been around for centuries. During its earliest years of existence as "pizza," it was primarily a simple flatbread with just a few toppings. The Venetian pizza makers appear to have continued that trend. Every pizza we had usually had a very light coating of marinara sauce, some melted cheese and a single meat topping. We would often share one for lunch as it was quick and inexpensive (and normal meals in Italy are anything but quick). But it was always tasty and savory.
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Carbonara - Venice, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved |
I KNOW this is supposed to be a blog about cruising and the foregoing long narrative has been more about Venice than cruising. And I have bad news for most of you will be cruising a mainline cruise ship. As you will read below, you won't be cruising (to or from) Venice again. But there is a logical connection to cruising here. More often than not, we expend a great deal of money and travel time just to arrive at our cruise departure point (especially when it is across one of the the big oceans). Given that, it has always been our plan to spend a few days in either our departure port (or nearby) and/or our final port. For us the airfare is usually our single largest expense. So once we arrive, we figure the additional expense of a motel (assuming we have the time) is small in comparison. On our second visit to Venice, even though we knew our cruise was not going near there (our departure point was Civitavecchia/Rome), we flew to Venice first, and spent several days, before taking the train to Rome and then on to Civitavechhia). Venice as "that" worth the trip in my view. If it is at all feasible for you, I think you should consider that too!
ON THE day we were due to board our cruise ship, we packed up, checked out of our hotel, and dragged our bags across to the train station for the short ride over. The western end of Venice has a car parking lot, and bus stops. It is a short walk over from the train station. Being our first European Cruise, we were yet to learn "the ropes." When posting an itinerary, the cruise lines almost always call the departure port and the termination port "stops." I have always thought that was a little misleading, because they are generally not really part of the cruise. Our boarding was in the afternoon, but the ship didn't depart until the next day, about mid-morning. Yet they were calling Venice a port of call. When I first realized that our "Venice day" was really the night before and a short couple hours in the morning, I felt a bit "cheated." But by the time the day came, we were ready to not only get aboard and check into our stateroom but to just get off our feet! It turned out that we started out with a couple of at sea days, and though my initial reaction was disappointment, I really appreciated the rest for a couple days. By the time we reached Kusadasi, Turkey (for a long day again on our feet - this time in the Ancient Ruins of Ephesus).
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| The view from high above on the top deck of our Royal Princess as we sailed by St. Mark's Piazza, out of the canal, and into the Adriatic Sea. |
WE HAD no idea at the time, but our sail away from the port in Venice would not only be our last ever opportunity to do so, but soon would be a thing of the past for all travelers. Over the years the crush of tourism and the significant increase in motor-propelled boat traffic on the main canals was creating problems for the island. Silt was constantly being stirred up by the massive cruise ships, and - even at very slow speeds - massive wakes, caused concern for the long-protected piers upon which the entire island was bolstered. In addition, the massive cruise ships carrying 3,000 - 4,000 (or more) passengers, simply overburdened the small island. The ban is not without controversy, nor has it been consistently enforced, partly due to a lack of another cruise port in Venice. However, as it has become clear that no such new port is in the works, the mainline cruise ship operators (like Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, MSC and Celebrity) are now docking at either Ravenna, some 50 miles south, or across the top of the Adriatic Sea - Trieste (nearly twice as far away as Ravenna). That obviously changed the part Vienna plays in Mediterranean cruising. All of our subsequent visits to Venice have been as part of an extension of our cruises, either before or afterward, where we have traveled to and from Venice by train or airplane. If you are going to be in Italy, I wouldn't recommend passing Venice up!
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