We took a short hop over the Alps to Venice this past weekend. The last time we were in Venice was during our honeymoon circa 2006, and it was a day trip via boat from Croatia. Not surprisingly, the city looks pretty much the same as it did back then (no new skyscrapers or condo developments), ha! We landed at Marco Polo airport Friday evening and walked straight to the pier to take a boat into town. This is the first time we've taken a boat directly from an airport - now we've covered all forms of major transport, yippee! Unfortunately it was dark so there wasn't much to see on the ride into Venice. After checking in to the hotel we ventured in to the city to hit a few wine bars we read about before finding somewhere suitable for dinner. The weather was surprisingly mild and there were big groups of people hanging out in front of most bars (some bars were only take-away windows). It made for a festive feel, but we decided to find a place with indoor seating (how do you eat bruschetta if you're holding a glass in one hand?!).
After a few drinks and cicchetti (bar snacks of mini bread topped with different types of meat) we wandered the streets heading away from the main tourist center looking for a good restaurant for dinner. After wandering for a while (and on streets ending in canals) we found a cute place for some authentic Italian fare (pasta for Kate and a cheese & potato tart with prosciutto for Matt), with a huge "fresh" cheese platter to start with. Good, but it was a lot of cheese! Needless to say, were sufficiently stuffed at the end with no room for dessert.
Saturday morning we headed to piazza San Marco via the city's fish market. At the piazza we went into Saint Mark's basilica. We've seen lots of old churches on our various trips, but we have not seen anything like St Mark's. The entire ceiling is gilded in gold and mosaics. Quite the sight (and very sparkly)!
From St. Mark's we wandered through different neighborhoods towards the main train station, near where our walking tour started. The streets are very narrow and you're constantly crossing over canals via small bridges. Not so friendly for wheelchairs or prams, although we saw both? And it was still surprisingly touristy, thus quite crowded. It's a wonder that a city was ever built here, or that it has remained populated for 1600 years.
The walking tour led us through each of Venice's six districts, and while nice it was unfortunately not one of the best tours we've taken (lots of walking but not much talking). We walked back through piazza San Marco, but this time it was reaching high tide and there were small pools of water starting to form. Luckily it didn't completely fill the square (although there were stacks of planks that are used as catwalks during a real high tide). The tour ended in the student section of town with lots of restaurants (more pasta!). We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sights and aimlessly walking the narrow corridors while window shopping.
On Sunday we had tickets for the "Secret Itineraries" tour at the Doges Palace. Before heading to the Palace we ventured over to Santa Maria Della Salute church, across the grand canal from piazza San Marco. It's quite majestic, we're glad we visited. And it was fun to see the city from a different vantage point. To get back across the water we took a traghetto (a gondola "taxi" that runs back and forth across the canal). Although the ride itself was short, it was fun to experience being in a gondola on the famous grand canal.
The Secret Itineraries tour took us through the prisons and administrative offices of the Doges Palace. The highlight was the cell where Casanova was imprisoned (and from which he escaped). Afterwards we walked through the rest of the Palace on our own - it was pretty amazing, with a few grand rooms filled with large scale artwork on both the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed. Afterwards we took a vaporetti ("water bus") up the grand canal. Quite picturesque. Then it was back on board another vaporetti to the airport (but not before more Italian food - pizza this time). We were lucky with the weather, which was surprisingly nice all weekend - the rain started while were were heading out of town, so we feel fortunate to have missed it!
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