A cruise on the Adriatic from Venice to Rome, November 1-11, 2016
on board Oceania Nautica

Our journey started with four days in Venice, then a cruise around the Adriatic for 10 days on the Nautica, ending in Rome.

Venice

We were pleased with our family-run hotel, the Hesperia, which is situated near the Jewish Ghetto and walking distance to just about everything.

Venice was packed due to the upcoming holiday weekend of All Saint’s / All Soul’s Days. Don’t try to go to the lagoon islands on Sunday, especially holiday weekends! Queues were terrible. Evidently the bridge from Mestre to Piazzale Roma was closed due to too many tourists.

We started from the train station area with a 24 hour vaporetto pass. This took us to Murano, the glass island which was cute with lots of purchasing opportunities! We had a quick and perfectly adequate slice of pizza at a small snack bar upstairs near the Spar supermarket.

Then the marathon queue for the ferry to Burano. We had never been to this lace-making island before and it is lovely with colourful houses. It is quite a bit further from Venice than Murano.

We had intended to continue to Torcello but we ran out of energy and daylight was going. Next time!

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November 11

We have arrived and are settling down in our Trastevere apartment. Two rooms - living room / kitchenette and bedroom and of course bathroom. Sparse but adequate and our nice landlord lives upstairs. He is a German with an Italian wife.

We took his advice for a low key lunch place, small and inexpensive. Hostaria da Corrado. It was all locals, I think, and bustling with workers. After that, it was time to buy groceries. We went to a mini supermarket because the small stores close for several hours midday. Then we had coffee at home using one of those coffee pots that you heat on the stove - the kind Joyce used. Richard was able to figure it out!

We went for another walk and bought ready cooked artichoke hearts from a deli. It's the season. And we went into a church that has a display of dresses for their statue of Mary. Very Fellini-esque!

We also discovered small crafts shops (carpentry, dressmakers) and art galleries plus heaps of bars and restaurants.

I think we are going to enjoy our stay here!

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