Frequent cruisers are always looking for new waters to explore, so when Peter Deilmann Cruises announced last year that its new 94-passenger Casanova would sail on Italy's Po River out of Venice, we signed up for a week last August.
Despite a heat wave that blanketed Italy, we had a wonderful time, especially in the colorful, canal-lined town of Chioggia, a sort of poor man's Venice on the Adriatic Sea. The Casanova docked there for an afternoon and an overnight stay, and while most passengers took an afternoon bus excursion to Padua, we played hooky. Chioggia, bustling with locals on market day, was a surprise. The only other tourists we saw were fellow passengers from the Casanova, exploring the town on their return from the tour.
Some of the other small-town ports where we docked for visits to cities such as Bologna were less colorful, intended primarily as an embarkation point for the tour buses. When we chose to skip the shore tours, we enjoyed walks into town or around the countryside.
This summer the Casanova will sail every Saturday round trip from Venice with optional shore excursions to the historic cities of Padua, Bologna, Parma, Cremona, Verona, Mantua and Ferrara, plus a full day and overnight stay on board in Venice, which allows time to explore the city, take a gondola ride and visit nearby Murano, Burano and Torcello.
This new Peter Deilmann Cruises vessel was the most luxurious European river cruise we've experienced.
The passengers aboard our sailing included about two dozen Americans and Brits; the rest were Europeans, and most of them spoke German. There were separate English and German tours if there were enough passengers to fill two buses; otherwise the guide alternated explanations in both languages to one busload. The ship's hotel director and most of the cooking and service staff are Austrian.
Public areas aboard the Casanova are forward on both decks, richly decorated with paintings from the collection of the company's owner. There are upholstered chairs and sofas in the lounge with its granite-topped bar, gold-tasseled silk draperies at the windows and well-polished brass trim everywhere. The dining room, which is nonsmoking, is a bright, sunny room with assigned single-seating tables for four or six.
Breakfast and lunch service combine buffet and hot dishes ordered from a menu; dinner is served at the table. It usually began with an appetizer, such as smoked duck with cranberry mousse, followed by a hot or cold soup and a small fish course before a choice of main courses (which always included one vegetarian selection) and dessert.
