Venice

Venice was wonderful, beautiful, and everything we thought it was going to be. It also was a few things we didn't expect it to be. Venice was one of the more traumatizing stops on our trip for a few unforseen reasons: 1. Our flight (easyjet - don't use them if you can avoid it) was delayed so much that we were supposed to miss the last form of public transportation to the island. We ended up sprinting through the airport/very large parking lot to get on the wrong boat that took us to the other side of the island but not very close to our hotel, mind you it was after 2am by the time we made it to our hotel, navigating the dark, narrow streets with barely any service. 2. The workers there were "on strike" so the tour and museums we had booked and wanted to visit were closed. Just happened to be the only day we had to visit them, go figure. 3. While we were in Venice, my lovely papa joined Nana in heaven. Maybe he just wanted to visit us in Venice? 4. Lastly, I felt like the locals were pretty rude and unwelcoming. Strange considering how much tourism drives their economy. Oh well, I guess if tourist were always crowding my town I may get annoyed too.

Besides the few mishaps, Venice is a very quaint, romantic city. As much as we enjoyed being there for 2 days, I am not sure if you really need any more time than that. There is not a whole lot to do, but getting lost and eating happened to be two spectacular points for Venice. The canals are overwhelming and amazing. You always have to watch where you are walking because you can turn a corner and find yourself in water pretty quickly! No railing, nothing to stop you just water! The canals are pretty clean but have a salty smell - I mean it is an island on the ocean. Hopefully some of the tips and suggestions I will talk about later will help you. We had a few people suggest things to us and I am super glad they did!

The traumatizing night ride on the water taxi - I think we lost 15 lbs. through sweat and some tears on my part! But we eventually made it to Venice! woot woot!

Days in Venice: 2

Transportation: lots of walking! We rode a Alilguna water taxi from the airport - but it was a bit of a fiasco. We bought vouchers ahead of time online that they wouldn't exchange so we had to pay cash  (32E) and ask for a refund, and they charged us a fee so we ended up losing about 10E.

Accommodations: We stayed at the Al Portico guest house - loved the location, the staff were extremely accommodating and helpful, and a wonderful experience. For the price you really cannot beat it!

Things to Know: Many places only accept cash, many locals and shop owners do not speak much english, so it is good do learn some basic italian

Our lovely accommodations

Day 1

St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco)/Basilica 

St. Mark's square is one of the top 3 touristy attractions in Venice. It is supposedly loaded with pickpockets, we did not notice any. There are a million pigeons, so try not to hang under too many of them for too long! We strolled around the square pretty early, before the massive crowds came. Just FYI many cruise ships drop off tourists for the day, so from about 9-5 Venice can be extremely crowded, but once the masses leave it is a bit more peaceful. The lines were already quite long at St. Mark's when we arrived, so we followed a suggestion from Jenice, that was taken straight out of  Rick Steves' guide. This is something you NEED to do if you visit!! Bring a larger bag - backpack, bigger purse, etc. While facing St. Marks, to the right on Calle San Basso there is a small church called Ateneo San Basso where you can drop off your bag for free for 1 hour. They give you this card that you can take to cut THE ENTIRE LINE to get in. I just went up to the guard who was letting the long line in and he waved us right through. I kid you not, we saved at least an hour. I felt kind of guilty for passing people, but on the other hand I did a lot of research beforehand. The church was beyond beautiful, but I was slightly offended at the amount of people that were chatting. Namely tour groups. It says all over the place silence, but they don't frequently enforce these things. They were pretty picky about dress code - so I would be sure you have knees/shoulders covered. While in the church, we said a prayer for papa and lit some candles for him, it was a special memory for me as he was teetering back and forth back at home.

St. Mark's

St. Mark's

Beautiful architecture 

Gorgeous church

Piazza San Marco

St. Mark's Square

Doge's Palace

We had booked Doge's Secret Itineraries Tour at 11:35 am in English and I was pretty excited to learn more about this historical palace. However, when we arrived around 11 to make sure we were prepared, we were not so kindly informed the tour had been canceled. The workers were "on strike". In exchange, we attempted to get an audioguide (workers also "on strike) and were offered a pass to the other museums on the island instead. I sadly accepted and we self-toured the palace. I was disappointed because I had done research on other places we were visiting without a tour, but I didn't know much about Doge's because we had banked on the tour. Just FYI apparently they do this often, and on Fridays. By Monday they are back to work, but were gone by then. After our tour, we attempted to visit the other museums included in our ticket. Slight snafu - all of the employees were on that same "strike". I was a bit upset that the worker who I am sure knew this, still sold us the multi-museum pass. It was a neat place, and I am sure the secret itineraries tour is awesome, but I can't attest to that!

Bridge of Sighs towards the island

Bridge of Sighs towards the ocean

Bridge of Sighs towards the ocean

Leaving Dustin in jail

Dal Moro's 

There were raving reviews about the fresh pasta to go from this shop right behind the square. I got bolognese and Dustin got alfredo with "chicken sausage" aka hot dogs. We laughed about that for awhile. The pasta was delish but we didn't love the sauce. I saw reviews for a pesto sauce, and when I go back I think I will try that one!

Bolognese pasta 

Alfredo with "chicken sausage" lol

Exploring the Island

Venice is a super great place to explore and "get lost". I used google maps some of the time but other times we attempted to follow signs and crowds to check out new places without an agenda. We made sure to see the Rialto bridge (the oldest and largest bridge crossing the grand canal) that was under some construction when we visited. We shopped, ate gelato, and attempted to not fall into the canals :)

Rialto Bridge

Crossing the bridge

Dinner & Drinks

After our afternoon siesta, we headed out to a local bar to enjoy happy hour BOGO drinks (well the drinks were about 15E each but hey it was a good deal in Venice). We went to Bacardo Jazz, which had bras hanging from the ceiling, fantastic music playing, and a lovely Irish couple sitting at the bar that we made fast friends with (Trevor & Megan in case we ever run into you again - you were just lovely and congrats on your engagement!) We enjoyed peach bellinis and cuba libres and chatted over life. It was something you cannot plan but I am so glad we did. After drinks we were hungry but too pooped to sit down for a romantic long dinner that we had initially planned. Instead we ended up getting pizza from Arte Della Pizza and Dustin still swears it was one of the best meals from our trip.  We had to wait 20 minutes for the pizza, but that is because they make everything fresh. It was quite affordable for Venice and again super yummy. We took our pizza back to the hotel and ate in bed with some wine and beer. It was pretty spectacular.

Day 2

Island Tour

We pre-booked a 3 island tour through Sam's Club. Not entirely sure of the name of the company, and Sam's club doesn't tell you that. I will say it was a fantastic tour of Murano (glass), Burano (Lace) and Torcello (history) for 20$ each. The tour was 4 and a half hours and we really enjoyed the time on the boat. The guide was a little boring, but we are glad we were able to see the other islands. The group was pretty big and not very individualized, but for the price it was really worth it for 4 hours.

Morano glass factory demonstration

Morano glass demonstration

Burano

Burano

Beautifully colored houses on Burano - colors signified families

Burano - love the colors!

Torcello

Torcello

Love the ocean <3

Gondola Ride

When we returned to the mainland, we grabbed some lunch and lingered around one of the many gondola stations. So as much as people had recommended a Gondola - I am going to challenge that. If you find a good gondolier, it is worth it. Ours was poop. I think I had high expectations after our awesome canal tour in Amsterdam. One thing they don't tell you is it is a flat 80 euros for a gondola. Regardless if you have 8 people in it or 1. So knowing this, I wanted to attempt to find someone to split the ride with, 20 minutes for 80E is just a bit steep. We ended up finding this lovely Scottish couple who also wanted to ride and didn't realize you could split the cost (I am sure none of the gondoliers would ever fess that info up).  They were lovely and we were able to chat a bit and also enjoy our ride. There were probably 45 other gondolas around us. So we spent a decent amount of time in a jam. Our gondolier did not speak a word. There was no romantic singing like you see in the movies. He was very adept at steering the boat and making sure we didn't hit a thing. For the cost I guess I just expected a bit more. It was a bucketlist thing and I am glad we did it. However, if we go back I think I would do something different (one thing I saw was a class for the same price where they taught you how to steer and row a gondola!) After our ride we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and departed for Rome via train!

Bridge of Sighs

Bridge of Sighs

Ciao Venice!