ABOVE: Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas departs Venice with two Alilaguna airport and tour boats in the foreground. Note the "bricole" or wooden navigation markers next to the ship channel.

The American novelist Henry James wrote that the best way to approach Venice is by sea, and we concur. We'd add that the best way to leave Venice is also by sea--and if you can travel by sea in both directions, so much the better.

To make it easier for you to find ship itineraries in 2013 that start and end in Venice, we've just updated our "Roundtrip Cruises from Venice" article at Veniceforvisitors.com. Our freshly-revised article describes 10 oceangoing cruise lines, three river-cruise companies, a hotel barge, and a Greek car-passenger ferry with voyages that begin and end in Venice, Italy.

A new player in the Venice roundtrip cruise market for 2013 is Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, which will offer seven-night cruises from Venice to the Po River with shore excursions to Bologna, Padua, Ravenna, and Verona.

For more information, including in-depth cruise reviews, see "Roundtrip Cruises from Venice" and the Venice for Cruisers section of Veniceforvisitors.com.

BELOW: Compagnie du Ponant's L'Austral at the San Basilio cruise pier in central Venice.