The final stop of our 3 week adventure in Italy was Venice. Upon arriving to Venice after the 2 hour train ride from Florence, we were completely taken aback by the city’s charm and beauty. Venice is famously known for its’ gondolas and canals, but seeing it in person was incredible. We took a public transportation boat from the train station to the main square and were able to witness some of the city’s beauty.
We planned to spend our 3 night stay in Venice at a hotel that was set on a private island in the Venetian lagoon, so we had to take a 20 minute boat ride from the city’s main square to the hotel. Upon arriving to the hotel, we learned that it actually just opened last year, so everything still felt very new and untouched. After checking in, we were taken to our hotel room by golf cart and were able to witness some of the property’s beauty.
JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa
After checking out the property a bit, we came back to our hotel room, where the hotel had delivered a complimentary bottle of champagne to celebrate our honeymoon.
We took the complimentary shuttle boat back to the city that night and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant, DaAmo. We were a bit exhausted from the day’s travel, so ended up going back to the hotel after dinner and enjoyed a drink at the hotel bar before calling it a night.
Night Shot of Piazza San Marco – Venice’s main square
The next day we had booked another free walking tour, which happened to last about 3 hours and gave us great insight into the history of the city. We learned that Venice is comprised of 118 islands, which are all connected by the famous canals. The islands stand upon these wooden “stilts” that are submerged underwater, and all of these buildings on the islands are fairly old since nothing new can be built, due to city ordinances. It’s sad to hear that the city is sinking, as the sea level is rising. However, tourism continues to keep the economy going, along with glass production, which we saw examples of in many of the tourist shops across the island.
Left: Neighborhood in Venice // Right: House where Casanova lived
While on the tour, we stopped at a bookshop that was rated one of the top ten most beautiful bookshops in the entire world. Since part of the city of Venice tends to get a bit flooded during high tide, all of the books are either in tubs placed around the shop, or located in higher places within the store.
Books placed within a gondola in the middle of the store
View of the canals after climbing the “book staircase” in the pic above:
Largest church in Venice (There are a total of 130 churches on the 118 Venetian islands)
Venice’s Public Hospital – we went inside and it was just as beautiful inside as the outside, however no pictures were allowed inside.
Rialto Bridge
View from the top of Rialto Bridge
Basilica di San Marco
Fortunately our tour guide had recommended a few good places for lunch that were considered “authentic Venetian” food. We ended up at a place called Bacarando in Corte dell’Orso, which had a number of “cicchetti”, which are Venetian tapas and a popular meal item among locals. We shared a few tapas and I enjoyed a Spritz, a popular cocktail among Venetians. Not a huge fan of the Spritz.
Cicchetti at Bacarando in Corte dell’Orso
We had also learned from our tour guide about one of the best look out points in Venice, which happened to be on the top of a luxury mall that had just opened a few weeks prior.
View of the city from the top of the mall:
We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the city on our own…
View from Ponte dell’Accademia (one of the more famous canal bridges)
So many gondolas!
In the shuttle boat on the way back to our hotel:
Our hotel had a great heated pool on the rooftop, so we spent the early part of the evening hanging out in the pool and enjoyed the sunset with our complimentary bottle of champagne.
We enjoyed a good meal at the hotel restaurant, before grabbing a few drinks at the hotel bar and enjoying some games of Uno to end the night. We ended up becoming friends with the bartender, who had recognized us from the night before, so we enjoyed talking to him a bit.
We didn’t have any set plans the next day, so we decided to go inside Basilica di San Marco. While waiting in line, we noticed the flooding that had started due to the high tide, and it wasn’t even raining at this point. We had learned the day before that it doesn’t have to be raining for the main square to flood. Andrew was excited to witness the “high tide”, although it was fairly anti-climatic compared to the pictures he had seen of people wading through 3-4 feet of water when the high tide was at its peak.
Platforms used to walk inside the church to avoid the flooding that was occurring
Walking on the raised platform into the Basilica!
Top of the Basilica, which overlooks Piazza San Marco
The inside of the top of the Basilica!
A bit of flooding outside of the Basilica during High Tide:
We checked out another place our tour guide from the day before recommended for lunch and it was called Al Merca. It was a cute little sandwich shop where the owners will recommend what’s good that day. We shared a couple of “mini” sandwiches, which were delicious. As with most sandwiches we’ve seen throughout Europe, there was no condiments used, just bread, meat & cheese.
We knew we wanted to experience a gondola ride, so we went on a mission after lunch to find the right “gondolier” to take our ride with, out of the 500+ gondoliers that exist in Venice. We had heard from a few people that there are certain questions you want to ask them, such as “What will you show us?” and “How long is the ride?”. Asking these questions gives you a good sense of their personality, and we were told that it’s important to ride on one with a gondolier that will give you the best value for your money. We also learned that you shouldn’t negotiate since all gondola rides are 80 euros, no matter where you try to go.
After striking out with a couple of gondoliers, we found a guy who was friendly and seemed like the right gondolier to experience an official gondola ride with. He ended up being a great guy and told us about his 20+ years of working on the gondola. Apparently his family was 5 generations of gondoliers and his family crest and name resided on the gondola, which he owned. While the ride was a bit short (about 25 minutes), we enjoyed our time and were glad to experience this Venetian tradition.
Riding under the canals!
Andrew and I with our gondolier:
After enjoying our last Italian meal of pizza and pasta at an authentic Italian restaurant, we headed back to the hotel to pack our bags and get ready to leave Italy the next morning. Spending 3 weeks in various cities throughout southern, central, and northern Italy was a great experience. We were able to immerse ourselves in numerous Italian traditions and had an unforgettable experience. Next stop is London, where we get to meet up with Andrew’s parents, Lauren (his sister), and her boyfriend. Ciao for now!
Andrew + Allison Around the World 