My Day and a Half in Venice
April 27–28, 2016
From the age of 12 or 13 (around the time “The Italian Job” came out), I found myself dreaming of a romantic stay in Venice, Italy.
It felt like one of those out of reach dreams…like something I would love to do someday, but had no idea how to bring into actual reality. Especially in my teens and 20s, with limited funds.
But then. My father-in-law invited my husband and I to travel with him to Spain, also offering to sponsor our plane tickets! And I saw my one. chance. This had to be it. I had to find a way to make the jump from Spain to Italy. And so I began planning the Trip of a Lifetime.
I can’t describe how thrilled I was to research and coordinate and schedule out all the possibilities. We could take a cruise or a train or a plane to get to Venice. Note: NOT the Venetian in Vegas. THE Venice, in ACTUAL Italy! It could happen if we stretched out the trip, and why not?!? When would we ever again find ourselves so close? My belly was filled with a rush of adrenaline and excitement!
We decided to go big — 19 days — to see Gabe’s family in Spain, plus all the other European destinations at the top of my bucketlist: Paris, Venice, Florence, and Rome. I concocted a plan and WE BOUGHT THE TICKETS! *Cue lots of jumping up and down!!!*
(In my previous posts I have detailed our experiences in each of the pre-Venice destinations of this trip, including: Madrid; Tenerife, Canary Islands; Barcelona; and Paris. Now, I continue with our one and a half days in Venice, before heading on to Florence and Rome.)
DAY ONE: So, Venice…
We took a plane from Paris to the Venice airport, a bus to the train station, then a water taxi (Vaporetto) into the floating city. And it all suddenly became real.
The sky was blue with puffy white clouds, there was a touch of chill in the air, and the waters of the Grand Canal (a.k.a. Main Street) were splashing up the sides of our boat. All sorts of boats were motoring ahead and around us as we headed under the arch of the Rialto bridge and ultimately toward St. Mark’s Square.
What an unbelievable feeling — all of it, a dream come true! I had tears in my eyes as we listened to Rick Steves’ audio tour (“Grand Canal Cruise”) — the best introduction to the city! This little boat ride remains one of my very favorite travel memories!
We arrived at tourist-central, a.k.a. Piazza San Marco, and wheeled our luggage off the water taxi and through the crowded square. Gabe was navigating us toward the very old and charming Hotel Becher, which would be our home-base. It ended up being right around the corner from St. Mark’s Square, hidden down a narrow side street with a super cute entrance. A nice lady checked us in, gave us our 5lb keychain, and showed us to our room.
Our room was just like the pictures! The pattern on the antique looking furniture also matched the wallpaper, bedspread, door, and decorative accents — all impressively coordinated! A bit much, but fun for one night (like staying in an old Victorian castle or something).
After settling in, we went on a search for lunch. We landed at Antico Pignolo, one of the spots on my list (how it got on my list, I have no idea). Unfortunately, it was not the best of choices — way more expensive than anticipated! We had bread, bottled water, beef carpaccio, and “seafood risotto for 2” (but deceivingly priced per person!), with the added pleasure of paying an 8 euro cover charge and 10% service fee. Like we were tourists or something (smh). We ended up spending over 70 euros on this one lunch, feeling swindled and a little depressed. Plus, the bathrooms were creepy…
(Oh well, you live and learn)
Now, with full bellies and arms free of suitcases, we returned to St. Mark’s square. It was time to wade into the crowd and take some pictures of notable sights (i.e. the Campanile, Basilica San Marco, Doges Palace, and the Bridge of Sighs. Also time to get our first gelato in Italy (Suso Gelato) on our way to the Rialto Bridge.
The Bridge of Sighs is a sky-bridge connecting Doge’s Palace to the prison; so named because crossing prisoners would supposedly sigh at their final view of Venice before being taken to their cells.
Being exhausted from lack of sleep (due to our very early flight from Paris) and general travel weariness, we promptly searched for a coffee shop, and ended up at Caffe del Doge for our first Italian coffee experience. The coffee was not exactly to our liking, and somehow made us even sleepier! So, we decided to go back to our room for a power nap. (Napping did not feel like the best use of our time, but it turned out to be just that, because we woke up refreshed and ready for lots more exploring!)
Our first goal after our nap was to find a gondolier who would take us on a sunset gondola ride. We set off in the direction of the Accademia bridge, assuming we’d find one on the way.
We explored narrow streets, popped in and out of souvenir shops (especially those peddling Murano glass, Venetian masks, and leather goods), crossed lots of little foot bridges, and eventually made it to the Accademia bridge for a very pretty and peaceful sunset. There were oddly very few people in this part of the city, and no gondolas in sight.
Determined to exhaust all gondola options, we walked back toward the Grand Canal (where we had seen tons of gondolas earlier) and made it just in time to see a large cruise ship sailing away, with seemingly everyone on the island. The square had turned into a ghost town in comparison to the earlier commotion! All the gondolas were docked and covered (evidently closed for the day), and most of the shops were locking up too. One (nearly empty) restaurant had musicians set up outside, creating a lovely — so very Italian — atmosphere for aimless strolling.
Afraid all of the restaurants would soon close too, we began looking for a (less touristy) place to grab dinner. Luckily, we spotted VinoVino, a local wine bar with great ambiance, a gorgeous entrance and garden, and good food too. We got a pizza (first in Italy) and a Greek salad (really just for some veggies…we hadn’t had veggies in a while).
After we finished eating, we went back to our room for dessert (our La Durée macaroons, saved from Paris)! And I made a cup of tea with the fancy machine in our room. “A girl’s fantasy,” as Gabe called it. I think the flowery walls were getting to him…
DAY TWO:
The next morning, we went downstairs to breakfast (an included amenity of our stay). It was a really nice spread: all sorts of cereals, fruits, sliced meats and cheeses, various pastries, breads with jam, juices…and cappuccinos included! I skipped straight to the coffee and sweets (the nutella filled croissant was a solid choice), while Gabe took the healthier route (as per his usual MO). Another unique thing about the breakfast room was the proximity to the canal behind the hotel. Every few minutes we could hear a guitar, accordion, or voices out the window announcing an approaching gondola, and watch them float by! After our breakfast, we went out to the “water entrance” of our hotel (a.k.a. dock) to get a closer view of the narrow canal and camera wielding tourists in gondolas. It was chilly in the shade, but that wasn’t going to stop us from finding our own gondola! We only had a few hours left in Venice; time was of the essence! After checking into a few routes, we decided on one that offered both time in the Grand Canal and time down some of the narrower water-lanes.
And we were off! We floated in the Grand Canal for about 10 minutes, before turning down one of the little canals and weaving through the various connecting lanes (including our hotel’s canal; we were quick to identify its blue and red striped poles!). It was a very relaxing float, though we did encounter a few gondola-traffic-jams (haha)! Our ride was almost silent (no music; that costs extra), just the sound of the water lapping against the side of the gondola. 30 minutes later and 80 euros lighter, we were immensely happy with our experience ❤ YOLO!
With very little time to get to the train station, our last thing to do was decide on souvenirs for friends (we had been browsing and pricing things out the day before, which helped speed along our selection process). The previous day, we had actually purchased a really cool key chain from a Venetian lady whose dad made leather masks (we got a cute little red one for our friend Karina). Now we just needed to pick out a glass giraffe and a couple of sheep for some other friends, and we’d be golden.
Rushing rushing rushing, we made it to the ticket station to get back on the boat we had arrived on the previous day. This time we just stood in the middle of the water taxi with our luggage, and bid “arrivederci” to the beautiful floating city.
Arriving early to the station, we got a little lunch (tasty sandwich, coffees, and pastries for CHEAP!) — surprising value and deliciousness for a train station!
Our train was easy to find and actually quite empty; a great first train experience overall! And — when we weren’t in tunnels — we could see out to the rolling hills of TUSCANY.
“My 3 days in Florence” coming up next!
