Venice has a love/hate relationship with tourists. They love the money we bring in, but hate the crowding, noise and litter. I believe they would be happy if we just mailed them the money we were going to spend and then stay away.
In the hate column, even with our small ship (680 guests, 30K tons) we can't dock on Venice island as we used to. We dock over on the mainland. Oceania had arranged a shuttle boat to take us to St. Mark's Square, a ride of about 30 minutes. It could be worse -- some ships dock hours away.
We shuttle to a chaotic public docks slightly east of St. Mark's square. This is a side canal along the way to the square. I guess we could have taken a gondola from here ($$$).
Bridge of Sighs
St. Mark's Square, side view of Basilica
The tower -- looks just like the one in EPCOT.
Over a basilica doorway
St. Mark's clock tower
We walked through the narrow streets clogged with tourists (just like us) towards the Rialto Bridge. Scenery along the way.
From the Rialto looking north
From the Rialto looking south. No streets in Venice, so boats do all the work.
The Rialto Bridge
Chiesa di San Salvador, I think
Back to St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace
Column of St. Mark, complete with Komodo dragon, I guess.
Couldn't take anymore fun in Venice so shuttled back where Italian Border Police decided to go through our passports page by page, examining all of the stamps therein. And we have the fat passports because we have traveled to a number of countries since passport issue in 2018. And they did this for everyone, so the line moved VERY SLOWLY. Should've just mailed them the money.
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