Entering the city by water taxi
We arrived at Venice airport on a Sunday, around noon. We had reserved seats on a water taxi, bringing us to S. Zaccaria terminal, which was just in front of our hotel – handy! This took us about one hour and a half. There are a few stops along the way and it gives you the opportunity to get a first impression of this very special city.
We were starving, so after un-loading our suitcases we had lunch at the terrace of our hotel, looking down the boots. Very nice in the shades, as it was a hot day. And our first glass of prosecco topped it off.
Hidden Venice walking tour
We booked a tour to explore the hidden parts of Venice with a Dutch guide, showing us the even smaller streets of Venice with the darker stories. Nice way to see something different than the over-loaded tourist venues (which we saved for our second half day). The walking tour lasted about 2 hours and given all the steps in Venice, was a great work-out!
Spending the evening and night in Hotel Savoia & Jolanda
As we really liked our hotel and the staff serving us at lunch, we did something very a-typical and went there again for dinner. We were beat after a long day, so didn’t feel like searching for another restaurant. We tried the popular Aperol-Spritz and a delicious pasta, hmmm…
Tourist-alert!
We started the day with a delicious breakfast and were ready to explore Venice on our own, including all tourist venues. We saw it all: Rio Rialto, the Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri), San Marco’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale), San Zaccaria (just at the other side of our hotel entrance) and of course San Parco Piazza.
Venice views from the cruise ship
After about 3 hours, we went back to our hotel, took our luggage and then the water taxi to the cruise terminal. We went through the usual routine of checking in, getting everything into our state room and had lunch. When sailing off we passed along the Venice shoreline again and had our last amazing views on this ancient city.