March 16th, 2026
We were up at 7am to be out of our room by 8am. The boat actually docked in Fusina, which is right outside Venice, at 3am and several people got off when we docked (for early flights). We were scheduled to get off at 8:45am and Viking was nice enough to offer transfers to the Maritime Station which is Venice’s version of a bus or train station. It is a 45 minute ride and we were trying to figure out how we were going to get there when Viking sent out something to all independent travelers offering a free transfer. There are no taxis at this port. Way to go Viking. That is twice they helped us out on this trip that was unexpected.
Once we got to the Maritime station we called a number and they sent a water taxi for the 4 of us to take us directly to our hotel dock. Everything in Venice is by boat, there are absolutely no cars. Boats for garbage, to get people to work and school, boats for ambulances and deliveries. It is a whole new way to look at transport.
Michael in our private water taxi and the dock at our hotel.
It was a little early to check in so we dropped off our bags and then headed off to explore and also to meet our food tour at noon.
The photo on the right is from our hotel entrance. Another beautiful day. Originally it looked like it was going to rain all 3 days we are in Venice but that changed and looks like we will have good weather.
Our food tour was 10 people and our guide who was born in Venice. We had several stops including pasta, fish, bruschetta, charcuterie, pastry and gelato. Several of the stops included wine.
Our guide explaining the food at a couple of food stops.
The food tour took 3.5 hours and after the tour was over we went back to the hotel to check in and rest a little after all the wine at lunch.
We went back out to walk around before dinner.
St Mark’s square. at dusk.
The wooden boat taxis and the gondolas by the grand lagoon.
We met up with Linda & Michael and found a great pizza place right around the corner from the hotel for dinner.
We have a tour tomorrow of 2 islands, Murano and Burano.