Venice, Italy: Locked into the Relationship!

First off – a moment of silence for all that were lost and all who have fought because of what happened on this day 12 years ago. Still takes my breath away every time I remember watching the plane crashes replaying over and over again while sitting in my Pre-Calculus class in high school.

Of course, I had always had high hopes of making it to Venice, and I could only imagine the world of possibilities with things that I could do and places I could see. Little did I know, that the glimpse of Venice that I’ve had over the last two days would be as incredible as they were. Granted, three weeks ago, I found myself sitting in the harbor and I did manage to go and do a daytime gondola ride (see a few posts back) but didn’t manage to make it out to explore this magnificent city on foot. Can’t say that anymore!

We had an overnight stay again, so we (Kieran and I) got two long full days to spend in Venice. Luckily, I worked it out with my team mates to get the afternoon off (after swapping for another afternoon of work that I would give them off later in the week). It worked out wonderfully because Kieran is off at noon and so we had the afternoon to do as we pleased. We started by going to visit some old friends on one of our signature class ships (and newest ship to the fleet), the Nieuw Amsterdam, as it was in with us for both days in Venice. After an hour or so of saying hello to friends and touring the ship, we came back and changed into non-uniform clothes and headed ashore.

Because of the location of where we’re docked – we’re about a 30 minute walk from St. Mark’s square, so we decided to go via water taxi. The water taxi drops everybody off in front of Doges Palace and from there you can walk through the square full of shops stocked with Murano glass and pricy name brand clothing, bags and jewelry. After bypassing the masses of tourists, we started towards our first mission of the afternoon, Ponte dell'Accademia. There is a tradition at this bridge, for lovers to attach a decorated padlock to the bridge railings and to throw the keys into the water. Much to our dismay, we looked at the oldest locks on the bridge and most were from 2012 as the rest had been cut off. After reading some articles, they do so because of the damage done to the bridge from the extra weight of the locks.

   

A few days prior, we picked up a large padlock in Katakolon, Greece and wrote our names on it along with the year and the ship that we’re on.  With my love of polka dots, I added a piece of yellow spotted ribbon for a bit of extra flare.  The big heart is for Kieran and I and the small ones are for our (God willing) future children.  After selecting what we deemed to be the perfect location, we put the lock on and took a few photos for memory’s sake and continued onto the next mission – some delicious Italian food…what else?

While in search of the ideal spot for our Italian cuisine, we wandered in and out of shops containing walls of Venetian masks of all sorts. Kieran had surprised me with one this summer when we got home, so we weren’t in search of a new one, but they are absolutely stunning…as were some of the prices. Some that we picked up were a couple hundred euros a piece – but they were pieces of art work! We had quite a bit of fun as the pictures below illustrate!

Kieran lookin' like a mon-kay!

Playing with the masks really tired us out and we were quite famished. We turned a corner and saw the “Raging Pub” (which we later find out, came from the owners love of the Raging Bull – as illustrated by a very large arm tattoo). It really was a hole in the wall type of pub, but the food ended up being fantastic – the salad, gnocchi and pizza that we shared was worth every last bite! To top off the lovely Italian meal, we stopped for a cone of gelato (why can’t we have the real gelato in the states?!) and picked up a couple of cannolis for another day (again – in the US – we don’t make them right!) Slowly but surely, we strolled around a bit more and walked back to the ship instead of returning via water taxi. Between the incredible weather and beautiful scenery, a walk just seemed appropriate.

A stop at a local grocery store and look what we find...soda to match his hair!;)

Upon returning to the Noordam, the sun began to set behind the ship and it was absolutely incredible!!  It was one of those nights that was just right and one more reminder of life’s little blessings like the ability to travel the world with the man I love and who loves me more than I could ever imagine someone would or even could for that matter.  Pretty sweet deal that I’ve got myself here J