Maybe it's something to do with all the water sloshing around in Venice but Venice is somewhat of a desert as far as Internet and Wifi connections are concerned.
There are not many Internet cafes. The ones I found:
- east of the Santa Lucia railway station (on the way to the ghetto)
- in the Mondadori bookshop just west of the Paizza San Marco
- between the Piazzale Roma and San Toma
The nice orthodox Jews of Chabad in the Jewish quarter will also let you use their Internet connection for a little while.
The Internet cafe near the railway station would nort let me connect my laptop "beacuse of the Italian anti-paedophile laws". These incidentally require every user in an Internet cafe to show a passport or other photo ID.
I stalked the streets or should I say canals of Venice looking for a free Wifi connection. Lonely Planet recommends the Ghetto Nuovo ot the Fondamenta della Misericordia. I could find none there. I had almost given up when I finally found a good connection in the Campo St. Maurizio, not far from the Campo San Stephano and the Accademia.
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Costa Serena cruise -the first 4 days (B)
We are at the half-way point of a 7-day cruise on the super-cruiser Costa Serena sailing from Venice to Bari (Italy), Olympia (Greece), Izmir and Istanbul (Turkey) before returning to Venice via Dubrovnik (Croatia).
I had the privilege of arriving in Venice a day before the cruise and enjoying (not for the first time) visiting this incredible city. Our cruise on the super cruiser Costa Serena left punctually at 18:00 on Sunday not before some anxiety related to suitcases that had got lost on the way. But our suitcases all made it on board before we sailed - quite a few others were not so lucky. The first night's excitement included Lily knocking on our door at 2 a.m. to say that she wanted to see a doctor because she felt very bad. Although the doctor was able to give her some symptomatic relief, her cramps and nausea persisted and in the end she returned to Israel prematurely.
On Monday at 11:00 we docked in the port of Bari in eastern Italy for a very short stop. Bari has some memories - my Dad was there in the war and Lily immigrated to Israel in 1949 from Bari. Not much to see but we stocked up on chocolate, drank capuccino and wandered around. The next morning we arrived in the very small port of Katakolon in Greece whose main claim to fame is that it is only 40 km from the historic site of Olympia, a major tourist attraction in the classic sense. Katakolon (aka Katakolo) seems to live primarily from the cruise ships that dock there and send visitors to see Olympia. The main street of Katakolon is just shops selling tourist souvenirs except for a pharmacy which I can reccommend - the pharmacist was most helpful in finding some medication that Lily had forgotten. We wandered along the main street and ended up in a cafe by the water only to be joined by the tour groups from our ship who had got up early to visit Olympia and came now to eat feta cheese and see some Greek 'folk' dancing.
Yesterday brought us to Izmir in Turkey (also known by its historic name of Smyrna ) which is quite a big city. Unfortunately I couldn't see any of it because I was busy taking Lily to the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. After I had delivered her into the safe hands of Ofer I took the Istanbul metro (known as the "Hafif Metro" ) and a tram to get to the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) area where I had booked a hotel for the night. I enjoyed as always travelling by public transport in a foreign country and this was the cheapest ever transfer from an airport to town center - a total of 2.40 YTL - less than 1.20 Euro. I got off the tram at the Sultanahmet stop on Divan Yolu and immediately had a sight of the amazing Blue Mosque with its 8 minarets. Just opposite the tram stop are the 2 branches of the English Bookshop - the place in Istanbul to buy books in English, especially about Turkey. A few minutes walk and I found the Hotel Saba strategically placed a few hundred yards from the Sultanahmet mosque. I'd found this hotel on the Internet offering a clean nice-sized room with breakfast (and free Wireless Internet) for the special offer price of 36 Euro. An unexpected treat in the hotel was the rooftop restaurant with a stunning view of the area and the Sea of Marmara.
Less than 100 yards away is the Turkmenistan resturant with an excellent Economy meal for 10 Euro only accompanied by live (and loud) ethnic Turkish music. Speaking of loud (and I write these lines at 5:10 a.m.), one of the disadvantages of staying close to the Blue Mosque (or probably any other large active mosque) is that the muhazzin wakes one with the call to morning prayers at 05:00 wonderfully amplified thanks to the wonders of Western electronics. Oh well, I was planning to get up early anyway.....
Photos of the trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlisbona/sets/72157604635858783/detail/ - click on thumbnails for larger sizes and complete descriptions.
Costa Serena cruise -the first 4 days
We are at the half-way point of a 7-day cruise on the super-cruiser Costa Serena sailing from Venice to Bari (Italy), Olympia (Greece), Izmir and Istanbul (Turkey) before returning to Venice via Dubrovnik (Croatia).
I had the privilege of arriving in Venice a day before the cruise and enjoying (not for the first time) visiting this incredible city. Our cruise on the super cruiser Costa Serena left punctually at 18:00 on Sunday not before some anxiety related to suitcases that had got lost on the way. But our suitcases all made it on board before we sailed - quite a few others were not so lucky. The first night's excitement included Lily knocking on our door at 2 a.m. to say that she wanted to see a doctor because she felt very bad. Although the doctor was able to give her some symptomatic relief, her cramps and nausea persisted and in the end she returned to Israel prematurely.
On Monday at 11:00 we docked in the port of Bari in eastern Italy for a very short stop. Bari has some memories - my Dad was there in the war and Lily immigrated to Israel in 1949 from Bari. Not much to see but we stocked up on chocolate, drank capuccino and wandered around. The next morning we arrived in the very small port of Katakolon in Greece whose main claim to fame is that it is only 40 km from the historic site of Olympia, a major tourist attraction in the classic sense. Katakolon (aka Katakolo) seems to live primarily from the cruise ships that dock there and send visitors to see Olympia. The main street of Katakolon is just shops selling tourist souvenirs except for a pharmacy which I can reccommend - the pharmacist was most helpful in finding some medication that Lily had forgotten. We wandered along the main street and ended up in a cafe by the water only to be joined by the tour groups from our ship who had got up early to visit Olympia and came now to eat feta cheese and see some Greek 'folk' dancing.
Yesterday brought us to Izmir in Turkey (also known by its historic name of Smyrna ) which is quite a big city. Unfortunately I couldn't see any of it because I was busy taking Lily to the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. After I had delivered her into the safe hands of Ofer I took the Istanbul metro (known as the "Hafif Metro" ) and a tram to get to the Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque) area where I had booked a hotel for the night. I enjoyed as always travelling by public transport in a foreign country and this was the cheapest ever transfer from an airport to town center - a total of 2.40 YTL - less than 1.20 Euro. I got off the tram at the Sultanahmet stop on Divan Yolu and immediately had a sight of the amazing Blue Mosque with its 8 minarets. Just opposite the tram stop are the 2 branches of the English Bookshop - the place in Istanbul to buy books in English, especially about Turkey. A few minutes walk and I found the Hotel Saba strategically placed a few hundred yards from the Sultanahmet mosque. I'd found this hotel on the Internet offering a clean nice-sized room with breakfast (and free Wireless Internet) for the special offer price of 36 Euro. An unexpected treat in the hotel was the rooftop restaurant with a stunning view of the area and the Sea of Marmara.
Less than 100 yards away is the Turkmenistan resturant with an excellent Economy meal for 10 Euro only accompanied by live (and loud) ethnic Turkish music. Speaking of loud (and I write these lines at 5:10 a.m.), one of the disadvantages of staying close to the Blue Mosque (or probably any other large active mosque) is that the muhazzin wakes one with the call to morning prayers at 05:00 wonderfully amplified thanks to the wonders of Western electronics. Oh well, I was planning to get up early anyway.....
Photos of the trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlisbona/sets/72157604635858783/detail/ - click on thumbnails for larger sizes and complete descriptions.
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