When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, you’re looking out your plane window during a much-delayed flight from Nice to Venice that should have landed well before sunset.
I’ve been to Venice before, in 2014, and have seen all the major sights, but it’s such a charming place that I’m sorry I couldn’t spend more time here this time around. Specifically, more than the 12 hours between checking into the hotel at 11 p.m. and leaving for the port at 11 a.m.
Any thoughts of wandering around after breakfast were squelched by a brief but heavy rain and a justifiable fear of not being able to find my way back to the hotel through the warrens of alleys and dead-end streets that make up much of the city.
I stayed at the Palazzo Giovanelli, an 17th century palace that has been converted into a hotel alongside the Grand Canal. I can’t write a detailed review given my brief stay, but I will say the staff was friendly and helpful, the room was small but comfortable, and the breakfast was fine.
Getting from the hotel to the port took around thirty minutes by a combination of water taxi and terrestrial taxi. Venice shut its close-in cruise port in 2021 for environmental reasons, so the ship – the Azamara Quest – is docked at Fusino, a ferry and cargo port.
This is my second time cruising with Azamara – two years ago, my brother and I sailed with them from Lisbon to Cape Town. (You can find my posts about that trip on the blog as well.) We had a wonderful time, and I’m sure I’ll have the same terrific experience this time.
With that said, I’ll leave you with several photos of the ship’s facilities.
Seasoned traveler and blogger that I am, I neglected to take a picture of the exterior of the ship before boarding; I’ll remedy that tomorrow.
PuffinlessTravel 
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