HERE for Part 2 Venice (you are here)
HERE for Part 3 Florence
HERE for Part 4 Rome
HERE for Part 5 All you need to know + my custom itinerary
Monday June 11, 2018
We continued our mother daughter Euro Trip from Paris, France by taking a short flight to Venice, Italy. After having breakfast in our hotel in Paris we took a taxi to the airport. I got my last few macaroons in the airport for an in flight snack before we were drowning ourselves in pasta! When we arrived at the Venice airport we took the express shuttle to Piazzale Roma to the actual island of Venice. From the piazzale no cars are allowed past that point or even able to go past that point so we unloaded and made a short walk down the canal walkways to our hotel. We were able to check right into our room again around noon which was awesome. We dumped our bags and set out. Every turn we made down a new canal was like another postcard or movie scene. So pretty and we were so excited to be in a brand new place for the both of us. We quickly made our way to the grand canal and found a water taxi station. Water taxis in Venice are like bus stops or train stations in other places. They work the exact same way and the water taxis run 24 hours a day. We bought a 3 day tourist ticket for unlimited rides around the city. This was a life saver and the most economical way to travel, in my opinion. We took a water taxi to a stop near St. Marks Square to find a lunch spot and start our exploring from there. We arrived right at lunch time and this is also the busiest area of Venice as a lot of cruise ships allow the passengers to get off here.
Venice is actually trying to put a law into effect where only a set amount of cruise passengers are allowed on the island per day as during the Summer tourist season Venice is technically already at capacity with all the tourists, workers, and people who live and stay on the island. The cruise passengers over crowd the city and the buildings that are already slowing crumbling. To preserve this historic and iconic city I think the regulation is a great idea.
We ate a pizza lunch in St Mark's Square as we got our bearings and a plan together. I was so excited and felt like I was living my wildest Indian Jones dreams, The Last Crusade of course! After lunch we browsed a few shop around the square and then got in line to visit the inside of the Basilica of San Marco.
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| Saint Marks Basilica |
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| St mark's Campanile (clock tower) |
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| Doge's Palace |
When we exited the palace we were able to take an elevator to the top of St Mark's Campanile to really see Venice from above. It was worth the 16 euros for both of us to go.
On our way back to the hotel before we planned for dinner we took a route that took us to the most beautiful bookstore in the world...so everyone else says. I wouldn't call it beautiful but I would call it unique and dig worthy, Acqua Liberia!
After the bookshop we set out to find out hotel the old fashioned way since my phone had died. Dying phones are a thing in Venice...because you have to keep maps up and running at all times to find anything. There are so many winding canals, dead end turns, and little nooks it is near impossible to know your way much less find your way!
We crossed the famous Rialto bridge on the way to our hotel. The bridge and the surrounding area is full of shops of all sort and a mall type plaza. We only passed through. We made it to the hotel to recharge ourselves and our phones. I ordered us a private water taxi to take us to our restaurant that night just to have that experience.
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| is this not a postcard or what |
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| loved seeing this man painting |
Our private water taxi ride was the perfect time of dusky sunset although the sunset part didn't matter much because when driving or walking through all the canals surrounded by buildings you can't see it. The lighting is still pretty and so are the buildings in this time of day. I made us reservations at a restaurant I found during my research before our trip...Il Paradiso Perduto for 9 o'clock.
Venice doesn't have the sort of Italian food we think of when we think Italian...it has Italian seafood. I'm so glad we came to this restaurant. It was packed and from the looks of the outside you would have kept going...those are always the best ones plus the food was so good! The dishes we originally planned on ordering they ran out of but we were still pleased with all our food. The house wine was wonderful too. This type of restaurant is the place that keeps you wanting to come back. The casserole dishes were carried from the kitchen up to the front to plate, the waitresses were dressed in plain clothes running around like crazy, and the atmosphere was so homey. A great restaurant I recommend to EVERYONE when visiting Venice! I had squid ink pasta and Mom ate lasagna. We both had arugula salads with bread and the house white wine. After our dinner we enjoyed a leisurely walk back to our hotel during the night hours. We stayed up pretty late our first night in Venice. By the time we walked back, showered, and were in bed it was close to midnight. We had a fantastic first day in Venice and couldn't wait to explore more!
Tuesday June 12, 2018
After our busy first day in Venice and traveling there we were exhausted but had minimal sights to see this day. We slept in until 11 and headed out around noon. We caught the water taxi to Accadamia stop where we went to the Accadamia Gallery. There was a pretty area across the canal from the museum and we walked around over that way trying to find a good lunch spot. There was a lot of construction and not much else but we kept walking and we emptied into a plaza where we had a really good pizza for Mom and gnocchi for myself.
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| an accounting ledger |
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| old painting of Venice looks so similar today |
After our lunch we took a water taxi over to the small island across from Venice to see San Giorgio Maggiore an abbey with a clock tower that has killer views. The island holds only a few buildings and everyone is so busy at Saint Mark's Square we had the whole abbey to ourselves. This is a little spot I learned from my research is a must go to and I agree. It's one of those hidden gems but the views you get are amazing and it was only 1 euro a piece I believe which is only a donation essentially to the church.
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| a view of all of Venice looking back at it |
We took the longest water taxi route back to our hotel get off point to see all of Venice from the Grand Canal. I got a pasta snack at a little cup of pasta to go joint. It is essentially Italian McDonald's but SO MUCH BETTER! Get your cup with noodles and choose your sauce. I chose pesto of course and it was so amazing! Mom didn't want any but she did want a scoop of gelato.
We arrived back to our hotel around 4 and had time to take a little nap before an early dinner and our opera! The opera started at 8:30 and we had to be seated by 8 so we ate dinner at a hotel recommended restaurant at 6:30, Osteria Ae Cravate. It was near the hotel and was pretty good. I had another great gnocchi dish and Mom had fish...the FULL fish LOL! We took a water taxi to the correct stop and found the Palazzo Barbargio Minotto with no problems. This was our Venice event much like the burlesque show was our Paris event. This particular type of opera is held in an old family home like an ancient Venetian castle so to speak and each act was presented in another room of the home. The singers were up close and personal and there were only probably 30 people in attendance. The performances are meant to be small and intimate and it was AMAZING! The songs are in Italian of course but we got a program that described each act in English and if you read the act before it was performed you easily knew what was happening. We also saw a classic opera La Traviata which was the icing on my cake because its the opera showcased in my favorite movie, Pretty Woman.
The opera was over around 10:30 or so. We caught a water taxi back to our hotel stop and on our way to the hotel we stopped at a restaurant to have a late night dessert. I had a chocolate cup dessert and Mom had a lemon meringue tart. After our dessert we headed to the hotel to rest up for our last full day in Venice.
We were sure to get up and going earlier today as it was our last day and I really wanted to see the outer Venetian islands of Murano and Burano. I had read and researched so much about them and we had also felt like we had seen the major sites on the main land of Venice. I'm so glad we made this happen as each island was really unique. The first stop was Murano the island of glass. We took a water taxi which was still part of our 3 day tourist ticket. (again so worth it). My Mom was most excited about this island out of the two we were seeing today. We exited the taxi and headed straight to one of many glass blowing factories. I'm glad we stumbled upon this one as I felt it was really authentic. There wasn't any production or special tourist demonstration. There was actual workers working on glass chandelier components and we paid a couple Euros to sit on some wooden steps and observe. There was a guy who explained the process in English and it was really interesting.
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| huge ALL GLASS takes about 16 weeks to build |
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| the apprentice did do a little glass blowing demonstration but only after he had time |
After we watched and learned about the technique we just walked around to all the millions of boutiques and shops selling glass things. At the first one we went in Mom found some earrings she liked but I talked her out of buying them thinking there would be a million more and for cheaper....WRONG. We had to walk the island twice just to go back for those earrings after searching tons of shops none had the same kind. LOL They are definitely one of a kind.
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| large blue comet glass installation the the town square |
After spending about 2 hours on Murano we took the water taxi to the final stop of Burano before heading back to Venice. Burano is the island of lace although not much lace is actually produced there any more. Now the island is mainly known for all of it's Instagram worthy buildings that if you have been anywhere on the Internet you probably recognize. The house colors are set by the city and you have to get approval to change them, a lot like historic homes here. Once on the island the first task was to find lunch. There were way more tourists on this island than the last and we snagged a table just as someone was getting up. We both had spaghetti dishes and I got an espresso to top off my energy reserves. After lunch we just walked around taking pictures of all the pretty houses and shops. We stopped to gett a gelato then took a water taxi back to Venice.
We were back at the hotel from visiting Murano and Burano around 5 that afternoon and just hung out chilling for an hour or so. We headed out at 6 to walk the city. We stopped at a little bar and enjoyed a drink outside and watched people go home from work and walk their dogs. We took a dusky gondola ride that was windy as we were trying to beat a storm that was blowing in. The gondola was worth the experience and the 100 Euros it cost! The ride through the narrow canals was so quiet and peaceful.
We had passed a hidden gem of a restaurant on our way to the hotel several times over the last couple of days and I told Mom that I wanted to see about eating our last dinner there. After our gondola ride we headed out to find it and we did! We were able to get a table but just barley as it was PACKED! The owner of the restaurant ran around all night pointing out things that needed to be taken away, refilled, and ordered to the poor waiters who were literally running from table to kitchen and back. It started to rain pretty heavily once we had ordered and we were able to move under the tented tables to eat and wait out the storm. I had THE BEST garlic pasta and salmon steak. Just thinking of that garlic pasta makes my mouth water. I'm so glad we noticed this hidden garden oasis and tried it out. It was the perfect way to end our time in Venice!
After dinner we strolled back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for our train to Florence the following day. We had a perfect 3 days in Venice. Just enough sights, just enough relaxation and wondering, and just enough amazing food. I feel like 3 days is the perfect amount of time for this city especially in the summer, the heat was bad but what made it worse was the humidity and the crowds. We accomplished every item on our itinerary and left feeling so fulfilled and ready to conquer Florence.
What I love about Venice is how there is no change. If you see paintings they look the same today the only difference is the people are dressed differently. There isn't any room for growth or add-ons and its character shows through always and its history lives on. As the rest of the world reads and learns over the last many years slowly Venice is sinking and I'm glad to say that I will always have these memories floating in my mind.
Next up Florence, Italy!
This is so good...more pictures than you put on FB
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