Italy Intensive Cruise on the Azamara Pursuit
6/16/24 to 7/2/24

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Page 1 – Pre-cruise in Venice, Italy
Page 2 – Embarkation, Ship, Cabin
Page 3 - Entertainment, Activitiess; Ports of Call: Ravenna, Italy; Sibenik, Croatia
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Kotor, Montenegro; Taranto, Italy; Taormina, Sicily
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Palermo, Sicily; Amalfi, Italy; Sorento, Italy
Page 6 - Disembarkation; Post-cruise in Florence, Italy

Ancona, Italy port call replaced by Sibenik, Croatia

Preface

When our good friends, Paul and Gail, told us that they were booking a Med cruise on the Azamara Pursuit, they asked if Cathy and I were interested in going too. Having been on 64 previous cruises, many in the Med, I wanted to check out the itinerary to see if there were any new ports that might pique my interest. Of the ten ports, there were three new ones for me and eight for Cathy. That sounded good, plus, I have enjoyed my two previous Azamara cruises on their smaller ships. Spending a couple weeks with our dear friends made it an easy decision.

The only issue that I have with the Azamara ships is that the cabins are very small unless in a suite, so we booked one. When an opportunity to upgrade to an even larger suite came up, I grabbed it, so we had a very nice cabin for the cruise. With the cruise only being ten days, we added three nights in Venice and three in Florence. As the cruise name implied, it would be a very Italy Intensive vacation.

Pre-Cruise in Venice, Italy – Day 1

We booked an early evening flight on Swiss Air with a connection in Zurich. The flight left a little late but arrived on time. Most international flights use terminal E in Zurich. With a very convenient and quick tram, it wasn’t an issue getting to the main terminal where we would catch our flight to Venice. When we got off the tram, we saw a large crowd of people waiting to go through what looked like an immigration line. We were glad we weren’t in that line. As we walked through the main terminal, there was a long line of people that stretched so far in the terminal, that I couldn’t see the end of it. I was very concerned that we would have to wait in that line to go to the terminal we needed to go to. I asked the agent at the information desk what the line was for. She said that it was the line waiting to go to terminal E. She said that a lot of planes arrived at the same time, and they couldn’t handle the people fast enough. I sure hoped we wouldn’t have that issue when we headed home in 16 days.

A major treat of flying out of Zurich was that we went over the Swiss Alps. So beautiful!

As we approached Venice, we got a nice view of the island city.

Landing in Venice, going through immigration and getting our luggage was a breeze. We arranged for a water taxi to take us to our hotel in Venice from the airport. Our hotel had a water gate that would allow for a water taxi to take us directly to the hotel, where we wouldn’t have to drag our luggage through the streets of Venice. I was looking forward to Cathy experiencing her first water taxi ride. We were met just outside baggage claim by our driver. As we left the airport, he took us to his van. I asked, “where is the water taxi?” He said that we would get the water taxi in Piazzale Roma in Venice that would take us to the hotel. When I looked at my confirmation, we were getting what I ordered. My mistake. I was most disappointed that we wouldn’t have the longer water taxi ride across the lagoon from the airport; but I will say that it got us to Venice pretty fast. The water taxi was so enjoyable.

Cruising down a canal gives a very different perspective of the city. We just loved it.

What we didn’t love was that the driver stopped along the Grand Canal rather than at our hotel water gate. That wasn’t what I agreed to. He told us that he wasn’t allowed into the inner canals due to the water level. Since I knew the hotel was close and it wouldn’t do much good arguing about it, we unloaded the luggage on the dock.

My main reason for wanting to use the water gate was to avoid a long walk and having to drag our luggage up and down the steps of canal bridges. The walk to Hotel Saturnia & International (https://www.hotelsaturnia.it) was so easy. It was a flat walk of only 2-3 minutes. A pleasant surprise indeed!

The hotel was located on a street with all the fancy high-end shops, whose names are recognized everywhere. The hotel itself was a nicely appointed small boutique type.

Our room was quite comfortable with old world style furnishings and a Venetian style chandelier in the middle of it.

Our window looked out onto a courtyard.

The bathroom had a large bathtub, but more importantly for us a nice sized shower.

I got a kick out of the tile in the bathroom showing that it was safe to drink water out of the sink faucets.

We were very pleased that the air conditioning worked great.

Since it was almost 5:00 PM, we decided to see a little bit of Venice, have dinner and crash early after our long travel day. We headed down the street in front of our hotel toward St. Mark’s Square, which was only five minutes away. Just before the square was a beautiful church.

Once at the large square, we could see some of the most recognized buildings in the city.

The main attraction being the St. Marks Basilica. I was disappointed that there was an obstruction in front of it that looked like a movie marquee. They would be moving more stuff in during our visit for some type of show there.

With the sun shining directly on the basilica, it made the gold artwork glimmer. The four horses, copies of those in the basilica museum, are a unique decoration for a church.

Right next to the basilica is the Doge’s Palace that we would visit in a couple days along with the basilica. With it being Sunday, those buildings would be closed on Monday.

Across from Doge’s Palace is the lovely St. Mark’s library building.

We walked to the banks of the Grand Canal and looked across it to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and its church. It is always a popular photo opp for tourists.

Nearby were lots of gondolas parked along the wall.

We also walked over to where we could see the Bridge of Sighs, where prisoners would look out for the last time while crossing over the bridge from the court to the prison.

As we walked back into the square, we were very surprised to see that water was rising out of the drains and were flooding parts of the square.

A half hour earlier, it was totally dry. We wondered if it would cause a problem leaving the square later. But first we wanted to sit down at a restaurant on the square and have a drink and take in the beauty of Venice. We chose a restaurant that had some music playing, Lavena. We were seated at the side of the band.

I found a drink on the menu called a Godfather. It was made with scotch and amaretto. It sounded good, so we both got them. They were very good, plus they were served with two types of chips, pretzels and olives. Almost a meal in itself.

As we were enjoying our happy hour, the waiter asked us to move to a different table. He pointed down at the approaching water. It wasn’t there when we sat down. The new table was in a better position to watch the band and it wouldn’t flood. We also had a better view for watching the activity on St. Mark's Square.

When we left the square, we should have walked to the other side, since there was a lot of water on our side. We were able to weave through it but used the other side for the remainder of our visit. It did make for a nice photo with the reflections.

We chose the La Caravella Restaurant (https://www.restaurantlacaravella.com) for dinner. It is part of the hotel with a separate entrance on the street. I chose it because it was highly rated and couldn’t be more convenient for weary travelers. We both got salads and a pasta dish. Just delicious.

For dessert we shared a tiramisu. It was kind of unique looking and very tasty.

We walked through the hallway into the hotel and thoroughly enjoyed going to bed early.

Pre-Cruise in Venice, Italy – Day 2

We woke up very refreshed and ready for a busy touring day. Before breakfast I wanted to check out the hotel’s rooftop terrace. One of the nice features of the hotel is that they have three elevators, two near the lobby. One is for the staff, which frees up the other for the guests. As I walked out onto the terrace I was thrilled with the view. Not only was there a nice panorama of the city in front of me, but also a view of the Basilica Santa Maria Della Salute I visited on a previous cruise from Venice in 2012.

When I returned to the room, there were lots of bird noises coming from outside. Apparently, the balcony just outside our room is a popular pigeon roost.

We went down to the La Caravella Restaurant, but the inside rooms, in our hotel for breakfast. They had a nice selection of items, and they were very good.

We scheduled a boat tour to the islands of Murano and Burano with Davide (LINK). He would be picking us up in a water taxi from the same dock where we arrived the previous day. I was able to take a nice photo of the canal and gondolas.

The small dock was very busy with vendors dropping off merchandise to deliver in town. The water taxi stopped at the end of the dock, and we were able to meet Davide, whom I had been communicating with for some time about our visit. He is a very personable fellow and very knowledgeable about the area, since he has lived there his whole life.

As we cruised along the Grand Canal, I was able to take a nice shot of the Basilica Santa Maria Della Salute, this time from water level.

Davide took some photos of us with St. Mark’s Square behind us.

I took some photos of the tall pillars with statutes along the canal and an equestrian statue.

We were finally getting a water taxi ride across the lagoon and loving it.

Davide was giving us all kinds of interesting information during the ride. He pointed out the first Murano Island that was mainly a cemetery.

A few minutes later near the end of our journey, we saw an old church along the water.

We pulled up to a glass factory pier where we got off to see a demonstration. We walked into the plant and sat in front of the furnace where the craftsmen were making some glass creations. It is always fascinating to watch this process, where molten glass is turned into artwork.

Sitting in front of the ovens was not the best place to be in the summer. It got rather hot in the room even with the outside temp only being in the upper 70’s. It must be a difficult place to work in when it is really hot outside. We were quite happy to move into the showroom to see their creations. They had lots of beautiful pieces, but nothing that we couldn’t live without. We would now get into Davide’s boat to continue our tour. Davide has three boats that he uses, depending on the weather and group size. Since there were only two of us on the tour, we got the small boat. It worked out beautifully.

Looking down the canal, there were lots of other glass factories. We weren’t interested in seeing any others, so we were off to Burano, our main destination. We took a final look at Murano as we moved on.

It was a short ride to Burano. Once again, we were greeted by an old church. We also saw a leaning tower during our ride that I wasn’t able to get a photo of due to our rapid movement and waves. I was finally able to get one but not the best angle.

As we were coming further into town, we could see why Burano is such a popular tourist attraction. The colorful buildings make the town quite special. I also got to see the leaning tower at a better angle showing how much it is leaning.

Davide pulled up to a parking spot and we got on land. While at that spot, I took a photo of Davide with Cathy.

Our first stop was at a small ceramic shop. Cathy found a couple items she had to have.

We walked down a narrow colorful path to the main part of town. Burano is known for its lace products. We went into a shop where a woman was working diligently on a new creation. It is very meticulous work.

We also went into a mask shop, where the proprietor showed us how they made the fancy masks. There is much more work to them than I thought there was. It was lunch time and a good time for a break. Davide took us to a place that had wonderful sandwiches. They were what one would expect in Italy. So delicious!

After lunch, we walked back to the boat for ride back to Venice. He dropped us off at pier and told us about a popular attraction we might want to see on our way back to the hotel. Before we got there, I saw the Church of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti. We went inside to check it out.

Along the walk, we saw some of the many gorgeous buildings in Venice.

The canals also provide so many beautiful views. It is a city that has beauty around every corner.

Davide told us to see the Libreria Acqua Alta, which the store proclaims itself as “the world’s most beautiful bookstore”. It is quite unique, but by no means the most beautiful. It is also extremely crowded. It was difficult to enter and/or even move around the store. There were books everywhere. They even had some stacked in a gondola. I guess this will protect the books from rising water, but not all the books. We couldn’t wait to get out of the store.

Since we were on the other side of town, we decided to go to the Rialto Bridge. There are fascinating shops and other sights along the way, but the bridge itself is the highlight.

Once on the bridge, I took photos of the Grand Canal from both sides.

On our walk back we crossed over lots of canals. Of course, crossing over canals means there are lots of photo opps. I skipped most of them.

Once back at the hotel, we took a much-needed power nap. For our happy hour, we wanted to go to the Café Florian on St. Mark’s Square. It is the oldest coffee house in Italy, being established in 1720 and one of the oldest in the world. Once in the square, we walked down the long promenade to the café.

Rather than sitting outside on the square, we wanted to be inside to see the elegant rooms. Elegant they were.

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge. It was most enjoyable and a great way to end another beautiful weather and touring day. The weather forecast was looking good for our last two days in the Venice area.

Pre-Cruise in Venice, Italy – Day 3

After getting ready for the day, I returned to the hotel’s rooftop terrace. I took a panorama shot of the view.

I then went down to see hotel’s water gate or private pier, since we would be using it the next morning to go to the ship. I contacted our transfer service I was using for both trips. He apologized for not being able to use the water gate the first day, but they must follow the rules when the canals are closed. He said that they would be able to use the water gate the next day. There was a nice waiting area at the door. I looked out the door and could see that it was a narrow canal. There was also a boat parked at one side. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be there the next morning.

We booked a tour that included skip-the-line tickets to St. Mark’s Basilica and Doges Palace through The Tour Guy (https://thetourguy.com/tours/venice/doge-palace-secret-itineraries-tour-skip-the-line). The company had good and reasonably priced tours in Venice and Florence that we booked. This tour was broken into two parts with lunch time between them. The tour started at 9:30 AM. We met our excellent tour guide, Ariana. We were very pleased with her.

Even though the temperature for the day would only get to 77, standing in the sun got very warm. We were glad that Ariana tried to keep us in the shade as much as possible as she told us about the various buildings in the square. The Campanile rebuilt in 1902 is the tallest structure in Venice at 323 feet.

The clock tower was built in 1490 and is a beautiful structure. At the top of the tower are two moors that strike the hours on the bell. They were added in 1497. It is quite an impressive clock tower.

I put a few more photos of St. Mark’s Basilica. It is so beautiful. The multicolored marble is so lovely.

I took photos of the artwork under the basilica's arches.

With our skip-the-line tickets, Ariana was able to get us into the basilica with no wait at all. It was so much better than waiting in the long line. Even if we had purchased the tickets online, we would have still waited in a line; but being with a guide makes all the difference. As we walked into the building, the gilted ceilings and walls blew us away. I have seen this building twice before, but it is still so beautiful. The main altar area is enclosed making it difficult to get full photos of it.

All the domes, curves, statues and artwork make for quite the masterpiece.

Even the floors are gorgeous.

After leaving the basilica, Ariana took us on a walk showing us different sites and telling us the history. We saw some of them the previous day, but it was still interesting. At one point, we saw the back side of the Bridge of Sighs, along with other beauty.

It was time for our gondola ride. The location was nice, but we had to wait in line for the groups in front of us to board their gondolas.

It did feel like a production line. One after another, four people in each boat would get out and four more would enter, as each gondola came to the dock. At times, several gondolas were waiting in line to unload so they could get more customers. It was finally our turn. Once we got away from the dock area, it was much more peaceful and made for a pleasant ride.

We went through some narrow canals and eventually the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge. It was a most enjoyable ride, and we were glad that we were able to do it. We even saw a water ambulance. So glad we didn’t need to use it.

Since we only had an hour for lunch, most people went searching for a quick pizza restaurant. We did too and the timing worked out fine for us to get back to the meeting point for part two of the tour. We met Ariana at the same place we met her in the morning between the two pillars at St. Mark’s Square. I took a photo of the sculpture on the top of one of them of St. George and the Dragon. I didn’t take a photo of the other column that has a statue of a lion, the symbol of Venice.

The location was most convenient, since it was right next to Doges Palace where we had skip-the-line tickets. Thank goodness, since the lines were so long to enter. The palace was built in 1340. It was modified and enlarged in the following centuries. We entered the large courtyard. At either end were two green well heads that were added there around 1550.

Under one of the porticos was an ancient gondola. The view from there to the other side of the courtyard was photo worthy.

At one end was the Giant’s Staircase. It was used for grand ceremonial entrances into the palace, as well as where new doges were crowned. The giant statues are of Mars and Neptune, representing Venice’s power by land and sea.

On the side of a portico, Ariana pointed out the Lion’s Mouth. It is in effect, a snitch box for telling of other people’s wrong doings. The translation of the text is “Secret denunciations against anyone who will conceal favors and services or will collude to hide the true revenue from them.” Accusations would be written on paper, folded and inserted in the lion’s mouth like it was a mail slot.

After Ariana told us so many fascinating facts and history, it was time to enter the palace. As we climbed up the various staircases to the main floor, we were wowed by the ornate ceilings.

The first room we entered was a preview of coming attractions. The palace’s artwork is a treasure trove of the great Venetian artists of the time. Every surface was covered with paintings and ornate gilted framing. It is quite a sight!

We entered the next room with even more massive paintings on the walls. This would be a much longer tour than the one in St. Mark’s Basilica. It took almost an hour and a half. With the palace not having air conditioning, it did get a bit warm; but nothing like what it would be in July and August.

We next went down an elegant hallway to the last main room.

The Chamber of the Great Council is one of the largest rooms in Europe at 174 feet long by 82 feet wide.

At one end of the room is one of the largest canvas paintings in the world, Il Paradiso, by Tintoretto. It is 72 feet wide by 30 feet tall. It sits behind where the doge’s throne sat.

While in this room, we were able to sit on benches while Ariana told us about what we were seeing. A benefit of this room was that there was an open window bringing in a cool breeze from outside. We could also look outside to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

As we left the chamber, Ariana pointed out a painting showing what the palace and area around it looked like hundreds of years ago. It hasn’t changed that much.

We then walked through a narrow passageway to the prison.

As we walked on the Bridge of Sighs, I was able to take a photo looking out of it. A final outside view for many.

We saw several areas of the prison.

We left prison and saw a different view of the Bridge of Sighs and the backs of Venus and Neptune on the Giant’s Staircase.

We left the palace grounds and thanked Ariana for wonderful tour she provided for us. After being out and about for over six hours, we were ready to go back to the hotel to rest a bit. Around 5:00 PM, we decided to go to the hotel’s bar for happy hour. It was a great choice. The waiters were so much fun, and we talked a long time with a couple groups of tourists at tables next to us. We asked the concierge for a light dinner recommendation. He recommended a pizza place close to St. Mark’s Square, Rossopomodoro (https://www.rossopizza.com). He said that it was very good and his favorite, so we headed that way. We found that it is a small chain that started in Naples. They also have a couple restaurants in the US in the Denver area. The Venice restaurant is unique in that they have a wood-fired oven. These are no longer allowed in Venice due to the fire risk.

Cathy and I split a pizza and order of pasta for dinner. It was a great meal.

After dinner, we had to walk around the flooding at the square to get back to the hotel. But we made a short stop to get a cannolo to share. It would give us the energy to pack for the next day’s cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed our pre-trip in Venice.