From the first time I heard about Venice, Italy, being on water and it’s 150+ canals, I had an image and a dream of what it would look like and how it would feel. I’m here to tell you that it’s exactly as you envision it to be! It is magical and it is romantic! The only drawback, it is stinky, lol. Yes, some of the canals do stink. I mean that water sees so much traffic and I’m sure trash, but if you can overlook that you will be in enamored and enchanted by Venice!Mr. Nine wanted to make sure we go before the whole entire city parishes underwater. They’re saying this could happen someday and we were there only 48 hours, but we were told that currently at least three times a week St. Marks Square is underwater. The morning that we were leaving the tide was coming in and they were putting up planks up off the ground to get around. Our boat barely made it out in time to catch our flight.
Heading to our hotel...so excited!
When you land, a car takes you to an area where you get the boat to head to your hotel. I swear our heads were on swivels. It was amazing. We have been worried about the weather coming in, but the tide turned, and we had a beautiful couple days there. To be honest, really all you need is 2 to 3 days in Venice, it’s not that big. With that being said we did get lost on the second day and after 32,000 steps we finally found out where we needed to be, lol! But that’s just it we really didn’t have anywhere we needed to be and what better city to get lost in the Venice.
Tip: Wear sneakers or flats NOT Heels like I saw some ladies. They struggled as you walk on all uneven, stone streets!
To get to Venice, we had to actually fly from Geneva, Switzerland with a layover in Zürich. Hindsight’s 2020 but we would have actually taken a luxury train from Zürich to Venice and not even gone to Geneva at all. I will touch more about that when I do my post on our time in Switzerland.
My first view of a Gondola in the Grand Canal.
After our arrival and check in at the All Angelo Art hotel, we just started to meander around. The one thing I will say is it was very crowded so I could not imagine how crowded it is down those little alleyways in the summer months when tourism is at its peak. I advise you to definitely go in an off-shoulder season. Fall is the perfect time and temperatures are perfect! We were there mid October.
View from our Hotel....Fabulous! And all the Bridges are amazing!
That night, we did have reservations to take a gondola ride at dusk. That was one of the things I was most excited about. Yes, it too was magical, but I will say you’re supposed to have 30 minutes on the boats. I had read in other reviews; they cheat you and we only ended up with 18 minutes. Plus, our gondolier was not very friendly and never spoke to us, but that’s OK. All Mr. Nine and I needed was each other and floating through the canals. Just look how cute our boat was. I really wanted someone to take a picture of the two of us instead of just selfies, I wish we would’ve hired one of the gondola rides with a Photographer built-in.
Our Gondola
One of our sons said "There's someone photo bombing you... I was like that's the Gondola Guy, lol!"
Also note, there are more than 400 license gondoliers in Venice. I love that the majority of them wear the striped shirts. But I hope that there’s a majority that are friendly, lol. This guy was not our gondolier, lol!
Remember how we hired a Photographer in Paris? Mr. Nine even asked me if we were going to do on this trip especially in Venice and I wish we would’ve.
After the ride, we had reservations at a restaurant recommended to us by our travel agent called Antico Martini. Oh my gosh, can I tell you it was absolutely delicious. It was charming. The food was as you would expect it to be. DELICIOUS AUTHENTIC ITALIAN!! We got to sit outside; we just loved it. It was probably one of our favorite meals of the trip.
My dress of the night! Similar HERE // Belt HERE
Look at the Charming Restaurant!
Then of course we went in search of gelato. For overseas trips we watched a lot of videos from a couple named Ian and Ana on YouTube. This was their favorite gelato in Venice, the gelato at Gelatoteca Suso
and it was amazing. Here is another tip: When you are looking for gelato in Italy, do not go into the shops where the gelato is brightly colored. It is full of artificial additives. Look for gelato that is lighter in color.
The next morning, we were happy to get up extra early just to explore before lots of other people were around. It was lovely to see the city quieter and capture some great photos like all these gondolas lined up.
Morning pastries and Coffee, oh my!
Cannolis lined up everywhere, YUM! Note, the breakfast buffet a this hotel was the only one on our entire trip staying in 5 hotels that was not very good!
We were happy to hear from our hotel receptionist that a boat ride over to the island of Murano where they blow the beautiful glass was complementary, so we booked a trip over there.
Beautiful boat to take us over!
While it was a sight to see, it’s kind of one of those scams, you know, kind of like a timeshare thing where they get you over there, but they want you to buy their blown glass. Can I just say it is not cheap. We did see beautiful chandeliers but at $52,000 and over $1000 to ship it back to the states, I don’t think so.
But here are some some photos watching the glass being blown. I wanted to take home the aqua vase he made, but it has to sit awhile and oh to ship it home...crazy money!
Then it was back to Venice simply to stroll around and see what we could see, sit at outside cafés, people watch, and we got in a teeny tiny bit of shopping. We had no reservations for that day, and it was so fun just me entering around even though that was the day we got lost, lol.
Note: Wore this amazing cardigan from Amazon 3x's on our trip! So high
BEST Bruschetta I've ever had!!
The Rich History and Architecture never got old.
More gelato of course from the 2nd rated shop.
It was up bright and early the next morning to go to the airport. Another tip is you want to definitely travel light when heading to Venice. If you have other suitcases along with you, I would highly suggest renting a locker, which was only five dollars a day at the airport, And keeping your bigger suitcases there. We combined our clothes into one little carry-on and it was so much easy to maneuver around and take a small suitcase on the boats.
BYE VENICE
Never been so tired, had been up for almost 24hrs here on our long layover back in the states, so very grateful for my comfy outfit!
Venice is one of those places I don’t know if we’ll get back to you, but I’m sure I am glad we got to see it in our lifetime! Highly recommended! The pic below is my favorite that Mr. Nine took and captures the magic of the city at night perfectly! Ciao!
Happy Monday to all and Happy Thanksgiving week!!
