Tour of Venice and the Christmas Parade!

It looks like we are going to have a Private Tour of Venice as well as Jerusalem.  

The backstory. 

Venice was originally on the itinerary, and we could not have been more excited. I had been there about twenty years ago, and it is on Paula’s ‘Bucket List”, so the anticipation began. 

Until. 

Until we received an email from Princess announcing that Venice was being replaced with Ravenna, a very nice old coastal town about a hundred miles south of Venice. 

Boo! 

We waited an inordinately long time for “Excursions” to be posted for this port. No one could shed any light on what was going on or why it was taking so long. We figured that they were trying their best to figure out a way to get us from Ravenna to Venice. We are scheduled to be in this Port two days so we figured that it would be easy, at least for the first day, as we could arrive back at the ship later in the evening without risking delaying any departure. 

Well, we were wrong. 

The Excursions finally got posted and not one of them came anywhere near Venice. While Ravenna has some very nice sites of its own, it would be a mistake to classify it in the same category as Venice. Emphasis on Category. 

It is here that we discovered what the rub was. 

Venice is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having had this honor bestowed on it back in 1987. It was this very distinction and title that was at risk if the City did not demonstrate that it was serious about keeping the City safe from being overrun with too many people and creating more damage to its fragile lagoon (to which the Cruise Ships added). 

So, the obvious, and immediate, solution was to ban Cruise Ships from docking at Venice. If you’ve ever been to Venice, you know how small it really is and can imagine it being overrun with boatloads of folks on any given day. The Town Fathers took all this Economic Consternation into account and decided that the long-term effect was what they were looking for and safeguarding their Hometown Treasure was paramount. And besides…. there was enough terrestrial traffic to more than support their local economy and the sidebar of their decision was that everyone from townspeople to tourists actually had a better experience. 

But, what’s a Tourist to do that REALLY wanted to visit? 

Yup! Another call to Tour’s by Locals was placed and we are now safely in the capable hands of Isabella and her driver who will pick us up in Ravenna and safely deposit us back there later that same evening. The plan is to find a nice Venetian Restaurant and have dinner.  

While originally being slightly miffed that the Cruise Line did not schedule any excursions to Venice, I understood a tad better after speaking to one of the Excursion Experts. It seems that the Cruise Industry is not going to go out of its way to give any additional business to a City that has effectively banned them. 

Ok, I can see that point. 

But, wouldn’t it have been better to fully explain the factors that led to all of this? I did not understand it all until I had an email exchange with Isabella, who eloquently explained the whole situation. Then I understood completely and wished that I had known more to begin with. 

I now side with Venice and their attempt to preserve their World Heritage Site designation for all those in the future. 

So, we now know what we will be doing for Venice and cannot wait to finally meet Isabella and have her introduce us to her hometown! 

Meanwhile back at the Ranch…. (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase!)  Paula and I are trying to walk 10 miles every day so that we will be able to trek around without collapsing. 

  Oops! Did I say 10? I meant 1! Those pesky zeros get in the way all the time! Seriously, we do not have any long hikes scheduled but as the aforementioned Venice excursion is an example of, there will be plenty of walking around cities! 

Our time now is spent honing down the Preparedness Lists and double-checking things.  

And waiting. 

Around here, things go on. Last night we went to the local (Brenham) town parade. Madison was on one of the floats along with the rest of her little dance troupe, waving to the crowds of folks lining the downtown area.  

This is a big damn deal! 

My guess is there were close to 10,000 folks there supporting friends and family that were in the Parade of over seventy floats or just sitting with their families and watching the festivities! Any local organization is welcome to participate so all the usual suspects were there, especially the local churches. 

In this unabashedly Christian locale, there were no shortage of floats depicting the Nativity and other aspects of the Christmas Season 🙂