"If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is -- Venice is better." -- Fran Lebowitz
You've got to LAND somewhere
Once we'd decided to take the Heart of Italy tour, we had to select an arrival city. Sure, we could fly into Florence, the tour starting point, but as long as we're flying to Italy, why not pick another nearby city to visit first? Venice seemed like the kind of place one should definitely visit, so why not start there? We picked up the latest copy of Rick Steves' Venice guidebook and got to studying. We chose not make any advance plans for our stay in Venice, having read that the best part of Venice is the city itself. Anything else that we found would be icing on the cake.
What did we do?
What did we do?
GET LOST
Venice is made up of a series of labyrinthine streets, paths, and alleyways that are amazing to explore. It's extremely helpful to know what general direction you want to go, then follow the gold signs pointing towards the major landmark. (The photo shows a sign directing people towards Piazza San Marco.) There are so many little walkways that it's nearly impossible to use a map. We had almost no real plans, and just wandered. Sometimes that was more successful than others. Don't wander too far if you have to be somewhere at a particular time, as it always takes longer than you think it will. Fortunately, we had an easy-to-locate hotel near San Marco, so we could always get to the Piazza, then get to the hotel from there. Adventure!
THE GONDOLA
You're in Venice, you have to. Yes, it's expensive. Find a gondola stop that's on a quiet side canal so you're not jammed with a bunch of other tourists around San Marco. Our gondolier took us around the quiet side canals, then into the Grand Canal, and back. It was lovely and really the ultimate Venice experience.
The vaporetto
The ACTV vaporetto (water bus) was a great way to get around without walking, especially if you wanted to get somewhere along the Grand Canal or to one of the islands. We took Rick Steves' Grand Canal audio tour one day as a break from walking. It's a good idea to research the pricing available and match it up to how many trips you think you'll be making.
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go to the top
What better way to get the lay of the land than to go to the highest point? St. Mark's Campanile offers a beautiful view of the city for under €10. We were lucky to find a short line and a quick elevator ride to the top.
Try new things
Try the local specialties. Venice is on the sea, and there's lots of fresh seafood available. We'd heard that the squid ink pasta was something that had to be tried. Lesley took the leap and ordered it. And it was fine, but you had to get past the black color of the sauce. Wine helped.
Murano
We didn't have much time in Venice, and it was hard to decide to leave Venice proper to visit the island of Murano, known for its blown glass. We went at the very end of a business day, so it was quiet and simply beautiful to wander around. Next trip, we'll make more time for Murano and Burano, the island known for its lace making.
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HOTEL SERENISSIMA
Hotel Serenissima was a smallish hotel on several floors. It wasn't fancy, but the staff was friendly and the breakfast tasty. The location was close enough to San Marco to make it very easy to locate (a huge plus!), but far enough to avoid the crowds.
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