On Saturday, April 12, 2014 we departed for our third trip to Europe. Our plan was to stay in Venice for five nights and then board a cruise ship for a ten night cruise to Rome. We had a 1.5 hr flight to Altanta, then an 8.5 hr flight to Paris, then a 1.5 hr flight to Venice, Italy. We arrived safely and our luggage was safely in Atlanta, not good. We filed the paperwork and were assured our luggage would be delivered the next day to our hotel. We had a driver waiting for us to drive us as far as he could to Venice and then we boarded our water taxi to the hotel. This is what we had been waiting for! Words cannot describe the feeling of gliding through the canals. When we actually turned onto the Grand Canal it brought tears to my eyes, again. Pinch me!
We stayed at the Westin Europa and Regina on the Grand Canal and arriving by boat is the way to arrive! While the hotel entrance is clearly visible from the water, the main land entrance is hard to find. The hotel was beautiful, marble everywhere in typical Venetian style. Our room was small but adequate with a huge terrace overlooking the Grand Canal. After a glass of prosecco, we were off to St. Mark's Square to stave off the jet lag.
We went to the first place we had gone to five years before right at the entrance to St. Mark's Square. We had a great view of the lagoon, Doge's Palace and the Basilica.
We took our time just soaking it in. I have learned that Venice is a different experience for everyone. Some people hate it, some are indifferent and some fall in love with it. We could go back over and over and never have enough. Most people don't like how tourist have taken over and all of the junk that is sold as souvenirs. This is when I would like to ask them if they stayed overnight or just for the day. The mornings and evenings in Venice are unlike any other. So much so that in my opinion, its best to rest in the afternoon when it is packed with tourists and save your energy for the evenings. In the morning, you have it all to yourself...
Anyone that says you can "do" Venice in three days hasn't done it very well.
After a wine/coffee stop and rest, we were ready for the first order of business...a gondola ride. There are over 400 gondolas in Venice. You cannot go anywhere without seeing one.
So it is an in your face temptation that you are immediately longing to do. We went through many small canals and some where so quiet, just the sound of the oar in the water. It's amazing that a place so busy has these little gems of solitude.
It was wonderful! After our ride, we walked over to the Rialto Bridge just to take in the view. This is the "painting" view! After lingering there for awhile we decided to have dinner there on the Grand Canal. Again, this is probably one of the most tourist filled areas for good reason. The view is stunning.
As it turned out the food was very good, too! We had pasta carbonara and lasagna. The setting was perfect and we forgot all about our lost luggage! We bought a three day pass on the Vaporetto, the public boat system that goes up and down the Grand Canal and surrounding islands, and headed back to our hotel to get some rest. When we arrived back at the hotel, our luggage was securely in our room. It amazes me that the airlines can get this right. It is very strange to think while we were touring for the day, our luggage was on a journey of it's own.
Breakfast was included in our room rate and it was a very good buffet. We had scheduled a walking tour for 11am. It was a two hour tour from St. Mark's to Rialto Bridge. We learned about the history and got to skip the line for a tour of St. Mark's Basilica. The mosaics are beautiful! The only turn the lights on them for one hour per day and so we got to see just how vibrant the colors are.
The whole process of creating mosaics is amazing. After our tour, we walked around a bit on our own, find a spot for lunch by the Rialto Market with a different view of the Grand Canal and watched the boats go by. Next, a nap on the terrace...we were tired!
Rested and ready to enjoy the evening, we went to the Florian, the grand dame of St. Mark's Square. Opened in 1720, it is still the best place to pay too much for a coffee/drink and listen to the orchestra while people watching is raised to a whole different level. We found a little trattoria for dinner and went back to St. Marks for dessert.
The next day we walked the beautiful city and made our way over to the Dorsoduro area. I was disappointed that the water taxi tour did not go to this area, so we just wanted to check it out. I am so glad we did! We walked right in front of where the gondolas are built and maintained. We had lunch, pizza and wine, overlooking the Giudecca Canal.
We hopped on a vaporetto and went back to St. Mark's to catch our boat tour to the islands. First stop was Murano, this is the island with most of the glass factories. We watched a glass blowing demonstration and then were brought to showroom. the sales people are relentless!
Our next stop was Burano, known for the hand made lace that is made here. The houses were very colorful and the lace and embroidery were exquisite and priced pretty well. I didn't buy anything because it was just too early in the trip to have to carry it through Europe!
The final island was Torcello. This could have been bypassed altogether, just an old church and not much else.
By the time we made it back to Venice it was late and we were exhausted. We ordered room service and decided to rest up for the next day.
We woke up early the next morning and had coffee on our terrace. Our cruise ship came into port at 8 am and it was really neat to be able to watch "our ship come in"! But we didn't board until the next day, so we still had a a day and a half in Venice.
After waking up at 2am(jet lag) I got on the iPad and scheduled tours for the day. Our first tour met in the Cannaregio area and we had never explored that area so we left early and took the vaporetto up the Grand Canal to our stop. We met up with our group for our Cicchetti Tour. Cicchetti means appetizer. They have cicchetterias everywhere. The thing to do is mid morning and early evening go to a cicchetteria for a glass of wine and a cicchetti. You usually stand at the bar and just point to whatever looks good to you. They will fill your wine glass as long as you are eating! So our group set off to discover five different ciccetti bars. This was an odd tour and one that we were so happy that we did! We went to places we would have never found on our own and made a few friends. By the end we were full! The tour ended with a little three man orchestra serenading us in a very small dark alley. It was very, very Venetian!
After a long nap, we took a guided boat tour through the canals. Another one that I wasn't sure about, but it was lovely and I would highly recommend it. Our boat tour ended at St. Mark's Square. We took that opportunity for one last gondola ride. It was my favorite because the view coming back to St. Mark's by gondola is breathtaking!
I had been wanting to go to the top of the Companile (bell tower) and the lines were always too long. The first time we visited Venice it was closed for repairs. Well, we were passing by and noticed that there was no line. Thinking that it was probably closed, I asked anyway and was told that on that very day closing time was extended by one hour. We were whisked to the top by elevator and got to see the most beautiful sunset over Venice! It was very magical. All of Venice looked like it was bathed in the most beautiful shade of pink.
We rounded out the evening with dinner at Falciani with heavenly pasta and had dessert in St. Mark's square listening to the orchestra. It never gets old...
On our last day in Venice before boarding the ship, we went on a tour of the Doge's Palace. It is simply amazing the history that you feel walking through those elaborate rooms. We took one last stroll along the waterfront, bought a few paintings and headed back to the room to pack up.
While waiting for our water taxi to take us to the cruise terminal, we sat out on the bar terrace and silently tried our very best to etch this view into our minds.
It will never be forgotten!
The interior of the taxis are huge! It always amazed us to see people crammed in all sitting inside. We sat right in the back in the open part and took in the last trip down the Canal.
I won't say how much I love Venice or that this was a trip of a lifetime. I know I'll go back. For now, I'll just say Ciao, Venezia...until we meet again!
Now, on to our Mediterranean cruise...
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