A magical Mediterranean vacation THIS SECTION COMPLETED 8/9 - Page 17 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
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We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Beautiful start to your trip in Venice! Our Farmer's Market has a macaroon stand, but we always get popsicles since it's so darned hot here all the time! This week they had "pb&j" ones and I was sure tempted to give them a try!
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You mean you never made it to Venice when you were on this side of the world? I really thought you had...
Quote:
Rory is wondering where the vampires are and he is very jealous of your Gelato. I am not sure why because we can get both gelato and macaroons walking distance from here.
You can get gelato over there - I mean, real Italian gelato?
Very picturesque indeed. Wow! I can't pick just one, if I had to. Every one is better than the last. Beautiful!
The palazzo sounded fascinating. What a shame you couldn't grab any photos though. Is sounded wonderful. Well, except that last room.
Your adventure on foot looked just as beautiful as the one on water!
I was gutted I couldn't photograph inside there, as really my descriptions didn't do it justice.
I like the views on foot in Venice better than on the Grand Canal. Just wandering all the tiny alleys you see some beautiful views. I agree, they all seem like they'll be dead ends when you enter, but they all connect somehow. Getting lost in Venice is really fun, and be little streets are where all the good restaurants are!
That's obviously where we went wrong... you'll discover later we had a few issues with finding good restaurants.
The palazzo sounded very interesting and beautiful, it's a shame you couldn't get some photos of it. The photos from your walk are amazing though, it really is a beautiful city. I do hope to get there someday!
If you do, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed with it.
Beautiful start to your trip in Venice! Our Farmer's Market has a macaroon stand, but we always get popsicles since it's so darned hot here all the time! This week they had "pb&j" ones and I was sure tempted to give them a try!
You should, although I'm not sure about PB&J, given that I don't actually like peanut butter...
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Having been to Venice I am quite at awe with your photos and brings me back! Just amazing how beautiful this city really is and just so unique! It can be a little dirty at times, but being on the water is probably a tough thing to maintain the cleanliness!
Too bad you were not able to take photos inside the palazzo, but your descriptions and background, certainly made up for it. Probably, good that you were able to tour some of Venezia on foot as I feel this is the way to explore it and just get lost though some of the back alleys and canals! Remember, you are on an island and the thing to do is get lost and there are signs with directions to either the Railway Station, San Marco or Rialto!
That was interesting about the Rialto Bridge as I didn't know that was the only way to cross the Grand Canal for many years. One thing I really enjoyed about Venice was especially near the Rialto area if you cross the San Marco side to the other. There are a number of bacari (bars) in that area and one one thing to do is do a bit of a bar hop from one to another and have some different cicchettis (small appetizers, like tapas) in each one you visit. You can make a meal of this in the variety you'll find in your travels! Venice is well known for this.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Having been to Venice I am quite at awe with your photos and brings me back! Just amazing how beautiful this city really is and just so unique! It can be a little dirty at times, but being on the water is probably a tough thing to maintain the cleanliness!
Too bad you were not able to take photos inside the palazzo, but your descriptions and background, certainly made up for it. Probably, good that you were able to tour some of Venezia on foot as I feel this is the way to explore it and just get lost though some of the back alleys and canals! Remember, you are on an island and the thing to do is get lost and there are signs with directions to either the Railway Station, San Marco or Rialto!
That was interesting about the Rialto Bridge as I didn't know that was the only way to cross the Grand Canal for many years. One thing I really enjoyed about Venice was especially near the Rialto area if you cross the San Marco side to the other. There are a number of bacari (bars) in that area and one one thing to do is do a bit of a bar hop from one to another and have some different cicchettis (small appetizers, like tapas) in each one you visit. You can make a meal of this in the variety you'll find in your travels! Venice is well known for this.
Hmmmm.... that was actually a problem for us later, as we wanted dinner, and a decent sized one too, not just snacks at each, so that really didn't work out for us....
Friday 4 July – part seven: heading down to St. Mark’s Square
Finally, we came out by the Accademia Bridge (remember me mentioning that earlier on?) and fortunately luck was with us here, as the next vaparetto was just three minutes away, so we hopped on board for another scenic journey further down the Grand Canal…
This magnificent church is the Santa Maria della Salute, which was built in thanks for the deliverance of Venice from the plague in 1630. There’s still a celebration held every November to remember the occasion.
Now we were approaching the end of the Grand Canal, where it spills into the Bacino de San Marco, and sure enough, San Marco was the next stop. Over on the other island, we could see the San Giorgio Maggiore, which we had visited on our previous visit here.
We got off, and were amazed by the people who just stopped in front of everyone else, with no consideration. We heard a conversation from one American family – how do we know where to get off? Well, I guess that depends where you’re heading for, surely?
Finally we made it to St. Mark’s Square…
I have to say we were both very disappointed with the state of it. When we were here in 2001, our reaction was “it’s just like Epcot”, but today our reaction was “oh, it’s all really faded”. The Doge’s Palace just didn’t have the brilliant colours it once had, and as we made our way around the square, we just got the feeling, it needed some serious love put into it… it was such a shame to see it like this.
It didn’t help that the Basilica is undergoing renovation work, as you’ll see in a moment…
Let me give you some history here. St. Mark’s Square is home to the Doge’s Palace, the Campanile, and the Basilica San Marco. The Campanile is the bell tower that you’ll all be familiar with from Epcot, but unlike that one, this dates from 1902, as the previous one actually collapsed. On our last visit here in November 2001, we walked to the top, and the views are spectacular from up there, but there was no way we were walking up there on such a hot day, and there was also a long line to get in. We had no wait when we did it!
The Doge’s Palace was once the Republic’s seat of power and dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries, and as I mentioned, it is beginning to show its age, and needs a bit of TLC… This was home to the Doges, rulers of Venice in the Middle Ages. The Doges were elected from the 2,000 members of the Grand Council, and given how Venice was at the centre of most of the trading in this part of the world, that was a pretty impressive and powerful title to hold.
The Basilica San Marco was built on the plan of a Greek cross and is the third church to stand on this site. The first was destroyed by fire, while the second was actually pulled down in the 11th century to make way for this… and the modifications and additions to it continued until the early 19th century.
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I really thought you had... 
Just amazing how beautiful this city really is and just so unique! 
It can be a little dirty at times, but being on the water is probably a tough thing to maintain the cleanliness! 
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