Anthony left early in the morning to travel via Bologna to tour through the Ducati factory and museum. He really enjoyed seeing the manufacturing from start to finish before trying to move onto the Ferrari test track and museum. As he had trouble finding the test track he missed his slot but still managed to visit the museum.

I, on the other hand, lazed around in the morning before checking out at 10:30 and wandering through Chioggia. Our hotel was overlooking the beach (row upon row of umbrella covered seating for hire), but the weather was windy and cool. Travelling a few hundred metres up the road I turned left towards "little Venice".

I strolled along the waterways and took in the sights of the old buildings on the narrow canals before arriving at the port for my trip by vaporetto to Venice.

After travelling for about half an hour we reached our first stop. It wasn't Venice so I relaxed a moment before realising that everyone had gotten off. That's when I discovered I had to continue the trip by bus. I climbed on board as we travelled for about 15 minutes dropping off some and collecting others.

The bus then arrived at a ferry stop and drove on board. This trip was getting more interesting by the second. We travelled for a reasonably short trip then the bus left the ferry and we continued on the journey. Eventually the bus arrived at its final destination and everyone exited.

Now where? We were at another vaporetto port and then I noticed the tower from St Marco square in Venice directly opposite! Ah ha! I found the right transport and finally arrived in Venice. Busy, busy, busy: summertime!

As it was almost 2 o'clock I decided to find a cafe. Piano music wafted across the square and I followed its sounds. The cafe seemed as good as any so I found a perch in the shade overlooking the palazzo and ordered pizza and prosecco. The pianist was joined by a saxophonist and the Godfather music set the scene. I stayed for about an hour and then set off towards Piazzale Roma to meet Anthony.

After walking through the narrow streets of Venice through hoards of tourists I hopped on my last vaporetto for the afternoon. When I disembarked I used good old google maps GPS to find the car hire spot. Luckily it wasn't far.

Anthony didn't arrive for about another 45 minutes as he'd had another altercation with the GPS plus there was a bit of traffic. We unloaded the car and set off for the cruise ship.

Anthony was a bit stressed after his long journey and the time he spent dealing with the Italian driving public. He was ready for a beer.

After a short trip on the "people mover" to the cruise ship port we trudged another kilometre before finally arriving at the embarkation point. This process was somewhat antiquated and cumbersome (you have to have a paper boarding pass which we didn't have of course) but we finally got on board. We went to our cabin first as you had to pick up your cruise card from here and then we went up on deck at the rear of the boat.

Straight away it was clear that this was no Princess cruise! The deck chairs were old and stained (like the carpets outside the cabins), the deck railings were festooned with advertising, paint was peeling and the windows all needed a clean. Hhmm. I think we will just have to "suck it up princess"!

There was a minute's silence in respect of the 84 deaths in Nice yesterday on Bastille day. Very sad.

After our mandatory drill Anthony was displeased to discover that we had been allocated late sitting for dinner starting at 9:15, 15 minutes after his bedtime! We coped, but our entree wasn't until 9:45 so he determined he would see if we could change seatings. The food was delicious and I particularly enjoyed the swordfish.