The first stop on our Italian vacation was Venice. We flew into the Venice Marco Polo airport and met up with our tour group. We were the last to arrive, which wasn’t entirely our fault given the arrival time of our plane, the exceptionally long line at customs, and a trek through an unfamiliar airport in a brand new country we’d only just set foot in. After introductions, we were led to the airport boathouse to catch a ‘taxi.’
It was already a unique experience as we waited on the platform to board our water taxi to take us to the island. There were various bays, all numbered and all full of waiting taxi drivers. Our luggage was loaded onto the small covered boat, and we filed in. We watched the waves as our boat sped towards Venice, bumping up and down on the water in our ‘lane of traffic’. Buoys marked the outlines of each ‘lane’ and we learned that water roads have similar rules to regular roads. They even have speed limits.
We slowed as we entered the Grand Canal and caught our first glance of an Italian city. Colorful, rustic buildings greeted us. Gondoliers passed us as we floated along the small canals through the city. Up above, clothing hung from the small balconies that dotted the sides of buildings (we wondered aloud what would happen if a strong wind came through and blew the clothes into the canal).
As we reached our destination, a dock at our hotel, we stepped out of our taxi into the sights, noises and smells of the island. Venice is a beautiful city that, honestly, looks like what we always imagined Italian cities looked like. It has modern conveniences but an old world feel that you have to experience for yourself to truly appreciate.
If you’ve never visited (or researched) one of Italy’s most famous cities, one important thing to note is that there are no cars. Everyone travels by boat around the island, even ambulances. But the main mode of transportation for tourists is their own two feet. Get ready to do a lot of walking!
In today’s blog we’re going to talk about some of the highlights of our visit to Venice and a few things we learned (like how to turn on the lights in an Italian hotel).
Sites
After depositing our things at the hotel, the first thing we did was venture over to St. Mark’s Square in search of something to eat. There, we found St. Mark’s Church, several restaurants and a whole lot of pigeons.
The square is a constant flurry of activity. There you will find many tourists milling about, snapping photos and (for some reason) feeding the pigeons. We would not recommend feeding the pigeons because more will arrive and, before you know it, you are surrounded and must run for your life. (Perhaps an exaggeration, but you get the point.) Some people were even playing Cinderella with the pigeons and letting them land on them for photos (we do not recommend this either).
The restaurants on the square are targeted towards tourists. Their menus are in English and you will probably overpay for a small pizza that is just okay. But when you’ve just gotten off of a 12 hour flight and are super jetlagged, you stop at the first place you can find.
St. Mark’s Square is also a good point of reference in San Marco as almost all roads lead back here. If you ever get turned around while wandering the streets, just look for the tall bell tower or the yellow signs on the corners of buildings that will guide you back. We had been warned that it is easy to get lost in Venice and to just embrace it and wander. We did that and still managed to generally find our way back, but just allowing ourselves to roam around was an experience we normally don’t have as people who hate being lost.
Our next stop after lunch was a book store we’d read about on the internet, libreria Acqua alta. It is a small hole-in-the-wall shop filled with books in various languages. If you love to read or collect books (a friend of ours buys a Harry Potter book in every country she visits in that country’s language) then you should definitely pay this place a visit. The aisles are narrow and often a one way street, but if you can make it to the back they have a staircase made of books. It is a popular photo spot. We had to wait in line to take ours, but it was a neat experience.
You can’t visit Venice without taking a stroll across the Rialto Bridge. The bridge connects the districts San Marco with San Polo and is the oldest bridge in Venice. It is also a good point of reference. If you can get back to the bridge, you can usually get your bearings.
In the few days we were in Venice, we also visited the Bridge of Sighs and Doge’s Palace. You may have heard of the Bridge of Sighs. It earned its name in the 19th century because it was the last view of Venice prisoners had on the way to their prison cells. The palace is a grand, Gothic-style building that was formerly inhabited by the Doge of Venice in the 14th century. The Bridge of Sighs actually connects the palace to the prison as it also housed political and judicial institutions in the 16th century. Today, you can take a tour through the palace, across the bridge and into the prison (so you can get the full prisoner experience). This was one of our first tours of the trip and we really enjoyed it.
Everywhere you go in Venice, and at a lot of stores throughout Italy, you will find Murano glass (or what stores claim is Murano glass). Chances are, if you see cheap necklaces or earrings in a gift shop, it probably isn’t legit. We were able to visit the island of Murano and the factory where they make the glass products. We watched glass figurines being made (very impressive) and then browsed the multilevel showroom. You could find everything from wine glasses to chandeliers to a giant fish tank with bubbly water (all made of glass of course). Most bigger items were out of our price range, but we each walked away with a little something because the pieces were so pretty. You can also get great souvenirs here!
And of course, you can’t go to Venice and not ride in a gondola. The ride was a bit different than we’d always pictured. Mostly, it was quite crowded on the canals because there were SO MANY gondolas on the water. And several of the gondoliers were on their phones half of the time and we saw a few almost collisions. But our tour director hired a musician to play for us as we floated so we got a pretty cool and authentic experience. Overall it was a highlight and worth doing at least once. Also, just a heads up, they do expect a tip at the end of the ride.
Food
One of the first things we did after arriving in Italy was try a spritz. You may or may not have heard of the Aperol Spritz. It’s a very popular drink in Italy and we’ve seen quite a number of Instagram posts featuring the bubbly orange beverage. We even had it specifically recommended to us to try. So it is fair to say that our expectations were a bit high.
Now, everyone’s taste buds are different and we all like different things. But between the three of us, we all found it… terrible. It was incredibly bitter and we all had a difficult time finishing it.
We later decided to try the Campari Spritz, another popular drink, to see if we would like it any better. Unfortunately, it was even more bitter than the Aperol one. We actually added sugar to the Campari spritz, much to the dismay of our waitress, but it didn’t help much. So, even though a lot of people claim to love them, these popular spritzes were not for us.
But what is a good spritz? Limoncello. Stay tuned for our Sorrento blog to hear more about that one.
The most notable restaurant we ate at was Vino Vino, where we all had delicious spinach ravioli (and the Campari spritz). The ravioli was the second best thing we ate while in Venice and definitely recommended.
The best thing we ate? Gelato at Gelatoteca Suso. Their nutella gelato was delicious (the shop calls it the Manet). The chocolate hazelnut flavor actually tasted just like the nutella you get from a jar. Definitely worth a visit.
Lodging
We stayed at the Hotel Monaco and Grand Canal right along the canal. Something notable about this hotel: our room had a really awesome bathroom. (Mal- I do judge books by their covers and I judge hotels by their bathrooms. And this one was one of the nicest I’ve ever seen. Automatic plus in my book.) It was one of the nicest hotels we stayed at on our trip. And though we can’t be sure of the cost, as we paid one amount for the entire trip, this hotel is definitely recommended.
The night the lights wouldn’t come on in Venice…
When we first entered our room, we encountered a bit of an issue. We couldn’t figure out how to turn the lights on. There were lamps and sconces on the walls but none of them would switch on. We searched and pondered and came close to calling the front desk to inform them there was something wrong with our lights. After a good bit of time passed, we finally realized there was a card slot next to the door. As it turns out, you have to put your room key in this card slot to get the lights to come on. We felt a bit dumb, but better when we realized many of our fellow tour group members had the same problem. You learn something new every day.
Overall, the first stop on our Italian tour was pretty awesome and set a bar for the rest of the trip.
Our McTravels 
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