How Not To Spend A Night In Venice!!

I have just returned from a fantastic few nights on board MSC Preziosa. I had a brilliant time and the Ship was great.

Things didn’t start out too well though.

When we were arranging our flights to meet the Ship, we decided we would fly to Venice the day before, so we could relax etc etc. Now, I have never cruised from Venice before – so I had no idea where to stay – one of my fellow travel professionals – and I use that term loosely now, only joking!  suggested we book a hotel in Mestre, the price was good, only a few minutes from the airport. Great. Only when we arrived at the hotel,  and after enjoying one or two G & T’s we thought – let’s go into Venice, it can’t be that far and meet up with some of our colleagues that had arrived earlier  – we should of realised when we asked at the reception for a taxi to St Marks Square and the Gentleman gave us a very strange look that this journey wasn’t going to be that straight forward.

So after a taxi journey that we were told was 20 Euros, which then  turned into 40 Euros when we arrived at the Piazza Roma – don’t ask, we boarded a Vaparetto. The penny did drop as to why we couldn’t get a normal taxi !

By this time the rain that had been falling for the past day or so seemed to be getting heavier. We got off the water taxi at the Rialto Bridge and started to make our way to the famous Square. We started to notice lots of people wearing these very strange plastic  leg warmers – must be the latest fashion accessory we decided, it was only when we arrived in the Square we saw that it was under water. By this time so were our feet!

Surprisingly easily in the maze that is Venice we managed to meet our colleagues and have a great evening. Now I had already checked with the conductor on the Vaparetto and was told that they ran for 24 hours a day. No problem in getting home we thought. How wrong was I ? It took us over 3 hours to get back to our hotel. Venice is a maze of side streets, bridges and alleyways that lead nowhere. Our feet were aching, we were wet, the City was deserted. We were even thinking about just booking into a hotel for the few hours that were left when we came across a boat. Hooray – we would soon be home – but we had obviously got the boat that took the scenic route. We eventually arrived back at the Piazza Roma and jumped in a taxi back to the hotel.

I have never been so pleased to see my bed and just a couple of hours later I awoke to start the journey to Venice again to board the ship – but thankfully this time it was straight forward.

So my advice is – if you want to see Venice – even if it is just the inside of a bar and a  flooded St Marks Square – stay in Venice. With what we spent on water taxis etc we could of had a room at the 5 Star Danieli Hotel.