More for the Minnie collection

More for the Minnie collection! Formal night and an afternoon at sea.

The Queen of Hearts is my inner villain so of course I had to get my picture with her.

There was a deck party for American Independence Day so Minnie had on her patriotic outfit, and the Pirate party is still to come, plus she will be wearing her princess outfit on our next sea day (at 12:30, so I will plan for a late lunch that day). I have become friends with the character manager during my quest to collect photos of her outfits, so he gives me a heads up about what she will be wearing when.

Bridge of Sighs and Doge's Palace

For our morning in Venice, I had made reservations for the Secret Itinerary tour of the Doge's Palace. This tour lets you tour the palace as well as have a guided tour in areas not generally open to the public, including the torture room and Casanova's prison cells. They tell the tale of Casanova's escape with the caveat that the only record of it was written by Casanova himself.

The tour also includes information about the records and record keeping methods of the Doges over the years as well as descriptions of how the Doge, while the face of Venice, was also a bit of a prisoner because once appointed, it was a responsibility for life. We saw tiny rooms where secretaries and scribes did their day's work, and larger chambers where records were copied and stored. The governmental nerd that I am found it fascinating to imagine the work that went on there and made me thankful that while my own office space is small, I have a door, a window, and a computer!

The tour itself took about 1:15 but then we walked through the rest of the palace which took a other 40+ minutes be ause while we didn't run through, we didn't linger... It's just that big! They offer an audio guide so if you have time to spend there, it would be worth it to use the guide.

The part of the palace I was most interested to see was the Bridge of Sighs. Our tour guide the day before explained that it got its name because it is a passageway that leads from the judgement chambers to prison cells and that those persons passing through knew that the glimpse through the window would likely be their last of Venice, and they would sigh at never seeing their beautiful city again. The top left photo was taken from within the Bridge of Sighs looking toward the canal. The bottom picture is from the canal looking toward the Bridge of Sighs. The top left was taken from the window on the right.

The top right photo is from within the courtyard of the Doge's Palace.

Happy Independence Day

There was a deck party to celebrate today.

Venice, part one

Ah, Venice! Our primary reason for booking this itinerary was because there was a stop in Venice, and not just any stop, but an overnight stop!

We arrived n Venice around noon and headed off on a DCL excursion to Murano where they make glass and to Burano where they still make lace by hand. After dinner, we ventured out to see the Grand Canal and figure out how to get to San Marco Square from the cruise ship terminal. We decided the best route for us was to take the People Mover (1€) from the Stazione Maritima to the Plz Roma station. The People Mover was just over a five minute walk from the ship, and then another few minutes to arrive at the Plz Roma station where we could get to the ACTV (public transportation) and buy a pass to use while in the city. A 24-hour pass was 20€ per person, and a 12-hour pass was 18€. We got two 24-hour ones so DH and I could go into the city the first evening, and two 12-hour passes for the boys for our second day.

We took Vaporetto line 2 down the Grand Canal to San Marco. This is a faster route than Line 1 but doesn't stop at all the stops along the canal, just the main ones such as the train station, the Rialto, and the Accademia before arriving at San Marco Square. From ship to the square took about an hour including time to purchase tickets and retrace our steps once or twice.

We were able to get some photos in the twilight even as it was sprinkling rain. The Grand Canal was full of gondolas. We opted to not try to take a gondola ride as they are quite expensive, and after seeing them, we didn't change our minds, it mig be nice and romantic for a couple, but for a mom, dad, and two teenaged boys, our money would be better spent elsewhere. In fact, our ACTV tickets for the four of us were less than a gondola ride from what we had been able to figure. But that said, the gondolas were beautiful to watch. They are each hand made / tricked out after the hull is formed. We saw several gondolas out on the water during the day, not just on the grand canal but also on the side canals, some being completely functional while others were purely for entertainment. We even saw and heard one with the gondolier singling to his passengers for a truly Venetian experience.

Venice is a city that could grow on me, and is one where I would like to come back for a longer visit and stay near the square. We saw several close hotels and lots of shops and restaurants that look to be places to explore. Our port experience in Venice is a good example of what I say about cruising... There is not enough time in the port to do much more than sample what is there, but it is enough time to know whether you would want to go back for a visit. I wasn't crazy about Florence, but for Venice, it is definitely on my list of places I would return.

Pompeii

Our tour of Pompeii was excellent. We had visited there six years ago and there was a noticeable difference in how much more of the city we were able to explore.

Our guide set the stage for our visit by reminding us that Pompeii is not a city of ruins, but a city that was truly buried alive in 79 A.D. by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. The bodies that are found are not petrified, but victims of the volcanic gases and fire. The earthenware that is being discovered and uncovered is not in shards, but nearly whole. The 'ruins' that you might see at Pompeii are the result of man's carelessness for the preservation of this important archaeological site in the earlier days of its discovery. In more recent years, great care has been used in the excavation to protect and preserve the walls and artifacts found here.

We chose this excursion because our boys have studied Latin in school and their first year course was set in Pompeii. As we walked through the streets, they could picture the everyday life stuff going on about the city as our guide described a typical day for the citizens of the time. We saw merchant shops, bakeries, homes with several rooms, baths, the latrine, and even the ruts made in the streets by the carts and chariots. We saw the forum and the theater. There are frescoes and mosaics preserved as well.

We only had two hours to see some highlights of Pompeii which was enough for an overview, but for anyone with an interest, you should plan a whole day. They offer an audio guide which is supposed to be pretty good. There are not many informational signs, so if you don't have an audio guide, either the one you can get at the site or perhaps one available through Rick Steve's or other travel professionals, you won't know much about what you are looking at. One of our dining servers said she went with friends for the afternoon but didn't have an audio guide and wished they had.

If you go on your own, the entrance fee is 11€ and the site opens at 8:30 AM. We would recommend going in the morning to avoid the crowds and the heat of the sun. There was enough of a breeze and some shade to help manage the day, but it was still quite warm, and we were glad to have had sunscreen on to prevent sunburned necks.

Minnie and Daisy

I am still on my quest to get a picture of Minnie Mouse in each of her outfits. While there wasn't a new outfit on our day in Naples, there was a new backdrop... Mount Vesuvius! Daisy came out to the gangway while Minnie was on her way in and it was fun to watch these two friends greet each other. This interaction is one of my favorite things about sailing with Disney Cruise Line. Another may or may not have to do with the stash of H2O shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion I have collected (see previous blog post about how much I love these products).

Sea Day tomorrow so I will be posting about our visit to Pompeii after I sort through the pictures.

Pizza in Napoli

When preparing for our trip, one of the things I wanted to do was have pizza in Naples, the birthplace of pizza. My search on TripAdvisor turned up Pizzeria da Gaetano as highly rated, so I selected this place based on the reviews there. I posted about it with a link previously, and when we return, we will be adding to the positive reviews on TripAdvisor.

We returned from our morning excursion before 1 PM so we, along with two other families from DISBoards, hailed a taxi and went to the pizzeria. We had emailed with them back in March and they still had us on the calendar for a reservation. This is a very small restaurant with seating for about twenty people upstairs and maybe eight downstairs if you don't mind sitting at the kitchen table.

The pizza is fire baked and truly representative of pizza in Napoletana (or Napoli, depending on who you talk to). We each got a margherita pizza (fresh tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil) which was huge, but only 4,50€. Because the crust is very thin, you don't fill up with the dough so you can enjoy more of the fresh flavors. The crust is also pliable so you can roll it up to eat.

So having pizza in Naples can now be crossed off my list! We have definitely been experiencing more of the local foods and transportation on this trip than any other we have made. We used our Amazing Race skills before getting in the taxi to make sure the drivers knew where we wanted to go (we needed two taxis for the nine of us) and negotiated the fare ahead of time. As we sat in some of the lunchtime traffic, I had an eye on my watch as the pizzeria had said it should take about 15 minutes to get there, and that was just about right. But as we were creeping along, I thought about the Amazing Racers and how sometimes a cab ride can make or break their race. In our case, we were successful in completing the Naples leg because we completed our task (having local pizza) and got to the Welcome Aboard mat by 3:00 (all aboard was 5:30).