Navigating Venice with Luggage

The trouble with staying on Lido is that we had to go into the city of Venice to board the cruise ship. Lido would have been a great place to stay if we were just visiting the city. However, all three of us and all seven suitcases had to get dragged back down the five blocks from the hotel to the vaporetto (boat bus) station, had to have biglietti (tickets) bought for, and had to be loaded onto the boat back to the main city. Our boat bus also served as school bus for thirty Italian children aged 8-12 and at least that many working folks for several stops. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until later that we took the less-than-optimal route for us carrying all those suitcases. So for those who want to know: take a vaporetto from Lido to St. Mark's Square and from there you will find the only vaporetto that goes to the cruise ship dock. The Italian word for cruise ship is crocciere, pronounced krocheeaireh. We ended up at the Piazzalo Roma where we asked a nice police officer for directions to the ship. Only a few minutes walk he said, but my mom knew better than to believe him, found a taxi and happily paid the 13 euro to drive us the half mile to the ship. Once there, we could finally be rid of the bags! Check-in was slow, but well run, with groups called to go into line. Inevitably there would be a pre-line formed before the actual line, but there is that tendency in people to get ahead. We found ourselves inexplicably among the first in our group to actually go through security, but the silliest part was how my mom kept inching forward so these hanger-on people wouldn't cut ahead of her. Its not like there weren't almost seventeen hundred people trying to get on the ship, but by golly we were going ahead of stupid-beard-man!
We had the afternoon free to do things including cruisy stuff like register Brianna for Club HAL or tour the spa and enter our names for the free massage, or unpack, or we could have gone back into the city to explore more. I had a walking tour planned for the next morning, but usually I am one to go off on my own (particularly because mom was offering to watch B) in addition to tours and just take in the sights. However, I had had my fill of Venice for that day at least. Maybe it was the snotty Italian hag who looked at our assembled luggage on the vaporetto with an undisguised sneer, or the jet lag waiting in line and unpacking chores, but I just didn't see what there was to get so excited about in this city.
Venice is made up of over 120 little islands, with lots of picturesque little bridges over the waterways that run between. The buildings are very old (just like the rest of Europe), with lots of marble used in decorating. The roofs are terra-cotta and the spires of dozens of churches rise up from the horizon. People say how romantic it is and beautiful, like a fading diva, but it just didn't interest me. And the price for a gondola ride? One hundred and twenty euros! That is not very romantic unless you are rich and stupid. Do I care that gondoliering is fading? Not at those prices. I read a book recently about a couple arguing over whether to have the romantic gondola ride. The husband didn't want to, saying it was too touristy, too overdone, that the couple on the boat is too much on display. The wife of course wanted to go, because its what you do in Venice. I guess that is what I didn't like about the city: the 'going through the motions because you were supposed to' feel of the whole place. It was my mother who was excited for me to see Venice. It wasn't until later that she confessed she felt the same way I did about the city. We both liked Lido so much more.