Cruise on La Bella Vita In the Fall of 2023 we took a barge cruise from Venice to Mantua. The barge cruise was arranged through European Waterways. Starting out from Mestre, Venice it travels out of the Venice Lagoon and into the Bianco Canal to Mantua. Mestre is an important industrial part of Venice on the mainland but not attractive in any way. There was a new Cunard cruise ship being built there. Our party of twelve came together at the Best Western Hotel Bologna Mestre and we were met by two members from the barge. There were four travellers from New Zealand, Dennis and Robyn, Cecilia and Cherry, a couple from San Diego, Mark and Denise, two friends from Minneapolis, Barbara and Kathleen, two sisters, Janet and Gill from Bournemouth and us. We were later joined by an English photographer, Kit, living in Faro, Portugal who was going to make a promotional video of the t...