Trip to Italy Part 1 – Venice & Tips for Visiting Venice
Hi, been trying to write this post on Venice and Tips for Visiting Venice, for almost a month – but it’s hard to write as it was such a special trip that I know I won’t get it all down in writing properly. But hey! my memories are all stored away so I will share some of our trips. I am going to post all of the eating out on a separate post as this will already be a long post!!!
Booking the holiday
We celebrated 25 years of marriage in May and wanted a special holiday to remember. And we decided to take our first proper holiday without the kids. Woohoo – adult only time!
We both threw in ideas of places we wanted to go to. We got the idea of a multi-centre holiday and we just couldn’t shake it. So I did some googling and found a company called eshores . I contacted them, told them what we wanted to spend etc and they sorted it all out for us. Whilst I could have booked it myself, I had a lot on and felt a bit overwhelmed by it all, so I don’t regret using them at all.
Photos
Before I get into this Venice & tips for visiting Venice blog, this is a disclaimer to say I am not editing my photo’s. Italy is a gorgeous place and I don’t think it needs editing!
I see other websites and images they are so over edited and saturated, they just do not look like Italy that I remember any more. So my photos are just my photos and I like them that way. Sorry to all proper photographers – I am purely snapping away on my iPhone!
Venice
We flew from Birmingham at 7 am, so we left home at about 4 am. We parked up and got to the airport with plenty of time. The flight to Venice was probably the best flight I have ever had with the smoothest landing.
At Venice we had booked a private transfer, that was a water taxi. The views were amazing. It dropped us off a little bit further away than we thought it would, and they charged us an extra 5 Euros for the extra case, but it was a nice way to travel!
View from the back! I mean – just look at that sky and view!
We stayed at the Hotel Ala which was just off San Marco square so it was really convenient for all of the main shopping areas, and also for the Grand Canal.
We left the beautiful entrance and were led down various tired looking corridors to the back of the hotel. For a minute we were worried about what the room was going to be like, but we needn’t have worried, it was lovely.
Not only was the bed massive, but there was a mirror on the ceiling (saucy!!). There was also a kettle, tea coffee and a mini fridge with bottles of water in.
Cake!!!!!! Meats, cheeses and fruits – standard! A Pancake machine!!!
The brekkie was fantastic too. When I saw the pancake machine, I was very excited and they were lovely!! I have never stayed anywhere where there was a pancake machine.
Things to see in Venice
When we got there, as it was early we still had the whole day and it was gorgeous weather. We headed to the square which is one of the main tourist places so it was really busy.
No filter required! The restaurants on the square had orchestras – reminded me of the titanic for some reason!
The gondola’s – no blog would be complete without a pic! We didn’t go on one as they were so busy on the hot day and then it rained!! It was 80 – 100 Euros for 30 mins which we would have paid had it not rained but I think you need to research where to get on so you get the best views!
Around 5 ish we heard people singing on the gondolas and that’s special to see and hear 🙂
We took a long walk along the canal, headed out away from the hustle and bustle of San Marco square. We stumbled across these public parks with lots of sculptures, they were amazing and it was all free. I took so many pics, but here are a few, to give you a taste of what it was like.
Big Feet!! Big Buda!!
Venice is so beautiful in the sun – here are some pics of the first day that I think sums up Venice.
The rain came!
Weatherwise we were so spoilt that first day, we had such a long day. We walked everywhere from when we arrived up until 10 pm. Also, we booked for Hard Rock Cafe for the following night and also booked a boat sightseeing tour for the next day. Then when we got up the rain came! Any boy did it rain!
We picked up the boat at the San Marco square stop, and headed out to the Islands. Murano was our first stop.
The boat trip – it threw it down and got cold on the boat 80 year old lady making Murano glass beads Tree made out of Murano Glass – I did try to Edit this pic as the sky was so grey it didn’t do it justice!
We got off the boat at Murano. It was so interesting and I bought a necklace, some earrings and a couple of charms for my Pandora bracelet.
The lady in the factory shop told us a lot about how the beads are made and how it takes years to get to the stage of being able to make the decorative beads. The beads I bought had 24-carat gold filament melted into the glass – they are so beautiful. She also told us how they melt the glass at over 2000 degrees. Apparently, we were told that Pandora does not get their Murano beads from Murano, as they would not pay the price for the authentic beads, this surprised me a little tbh. And its left a bad taste in my mouth about Pandora doing that to them. Basically ripping off their beads and selling “replicas” for much more.
There are warnings all over Murano, as they have huge issues with fake glass. Apparently, some of the shops are importing cheap Chinese glass to sell at a premium rather than making and selling the traditional glass. It’s only melted at a few hundred degrees and the patterns are on the surface and are not as deep as the authentic Murano glass ones. Such a shame that it’s like that, so if you go beware!
I think that the island would be beautiful and we did walk around it all, but it was raining so heavy it was hard to appreciate it fully.
The other islands
When we got back on the boat, we headed to Burano (and the other islands). Unfortunately, but we didn’t get off the boat as the rain was so heavy we could barely see in front of us. I have heard so many good things about Burano and I have seen some lovely pictures, but it just wasn’t fit for us to go.
I am sure I will return to Venice and that will be on the list!
Other stuff
We bought the kids some trinkets, a little gondola for the boys to build and some patches and badges for Chloe from Hard Rock Cafe’s gift shop.
We found it so hard to find a toilet in Venice – when we did find one it was 1 Euro each!! at the train station Eddie and I tried to sneak through together, but an angry Italian followed Eddie into the toilet and demanded that he paid the other 1 Euro!!
So we took to finding other ways to get to a toilet. Down at the train station there was a KFC and it was cheaper to buy a coffee or mini burger than it was to pay 2 Euros for the toilet and you got something for your money, so we did that. You did have to ask for a special receipt to be able to get into their toilet though!
Whilst sitting in KFC there was the lady in the pic above who was all dressed up on stilts! Not something you see everyday!
I have always played on the Assassins Creed games. All of the little “hideouts” on the top of the buildings reminded us of that. We could just picture scaling the buildings!. As did a lot of the historical buildings.
Aqua Alta
San Marco square flooded at night – I think the flooding is called Aqua Alta. It’s sad as it makes you wonder if Venice will be around for future generations, but also it’s fun for memories and camaraderie. Boyfriends pick up their girlfriends and wade through – Eddie didn’t fancy that and I don’t blame him lol. Other people buy these things that look like ponchos for your legs. They are thin disposable wellies I guess. Everyone else including us, just roll up there jeans etc and take off their shoes and go ahead and walk through. The water looks clear enough (no floaters ?)
Venice & Tips for visiting Venice
Here are a few tips for anyone going for the first time
- Research places to eat – I am doing a separate post on eating out that will be up in a few days
- Venice is beautiful but very busy – book any historical buildings in advance and where possible Skip the line
- Beware of some of the sightseeing tours – unless there are specific places you want to go to on the tour it may be cheaper to get the Vaporetto.
- Be prepared for the flooding – chances are you will have to wade through at some point!
- When the huge cruise ships are in, it gets very busy. There were 4 in when we were there!
- The Vaporetto is cheap, but make sure you walk too – we found lots of lovely little places off the beaten track that you would miss if you didn’t explore by foot.
Hope you have enjoyed this diary post of our trip to Venice & tips for visiting Venice. I have another post with eating out in Venice written and then I will do one for Florence and then Rome. If you haven’t read it yet, read the guest post written by Artea Fox about Nottingham Street Food Friday Nights
Let me know in the comments if you have been to Venice, and what you enjoyed the most.
Julie x
