Day one
After a quick stop in Verona this day, we hopped back on the train and made our way to Venezia!! This travel day was insane…if you read the last post you know that we traveled through many cities to get to one final destination, but looking back now, we also took MANY forms of transportation to get there! We started by car, then by train, then by taxi, by foot, back by taxi, then back by train, then back by feet over a bridge in Venice (with all of our luggage) then (FINALLY) by water taxi to our hotel…WHEW!
Our water taxi ride to our hotel was so magical…our travel agent planned all of our transfers for that day at the most perfect times. We arrived in Venezia at sunset…pure magic. The weather was perfect, the water was calm, and the sun was setting. I was dying. Heart exploding. Everything I had ever imagined Venice to be.
We arrived at our cute little hotel on the water and made our way up to our room. All we wanted to do was crawl into bed but we rallied! It was dinnertime!
Zurich and Como were pretty expensive towns. We also did a little bit of splurging on yummy meals but overall those have been the priciest cities on this trip. So we decided that Venice would be our money saving city. If you ever plan on doing this same trip, Venice is the perfect spot to do this. (If you don’t do a bunch of shopping like we did on day three…oops) I mean more in the food and drink area. We decided that we would find small, hole in the wall places instead of sit down restaurants. Venice has lots of places called cicchetti bars, which are similar to Spanish tapas. These little spots were everywhere. They remind me of a fast-casual type of restaurant in the states. So we found a spot that night and enjoyed some food. After dinner we headed home to hopefully get a full nights rest…tomorrow would be a busy day!
Day two
Aaron and I were finally starting to sleep through the night. The first couple nights of our trip were rough, waking up at 2 or 3 am every night. Our sleepless nights were finally behind us. Breakfast was served at the bottom floor of our hotel. We fueled up and met our walking tour guide in the lobby. Her name was Almay. She was born and raised in Venice; she had lived there over 50 years. Needless to say, she knew the town like the back of her hand. We walked all throughout the city as she pointed out interesting facts about every nook and cranny. We toured the Basilica Di Marco, Doges Palace, San Marco Square, the Bridge of Sighs and the building where Casanova once lived.
She also explained to us that Venice floods over 200 times a year! There are raised platforms all over the city for this very purpose. I had heard Venice called, “the sinking city” before but didn’t entirely understand until it was explained. Not only is the city sinking, but it’s ever so slowly falling apart. It’s very sad when you think about it because truly, the reason why the city is so beautiful is due to its age and tarnished walls. But in all reality, it’s a man made island…created within the last thousand years…No kidding it’s falling apart!
Towards the end of our tour, Almay pointed out a vintage bookstore…soooo cute! She marked it on our map along with many restaurants and must-see locations to check out during the next few days. Almay was the sweetest! We said our goodbyes and went to one of the lunch places we saw on our tour. It was another tapas place with grab and go pasta dishes, sandwiches, pizza and more! We ordered pizza and lasagna with a glass of wine. YUM!
Right after lunch we went straight back to the bookstore. I could have been there all day…it was so cute! Musty and old…right up my alley. I searched though hundreds of old, tarnished prints from artists all around the world, sketchings and painted pictures of this beautiful city. I found an artist who continued to catch my eye so I picked a few prints. His pieces were black and white sketchings. (Side note: I really want to do a black and white photo gallery down my hallway one day. I’ve already started collecting old photos, prints and more. I was inspired to do this by my grandma who has an entire wall in her house with b&w photos of our whole family. It’s so cute!) I continued to explore the shop and found a “1 euro” section with some awesome tarnished books. I have no idea what kind of books they are but I grabbed two! I ended up picking only one print and kept all the books. Writing about this little spot right now makes me so excited to get those little gems home…I enjoy little treasures like this so much.
After the bookstore we made our way back to our room. It was VERY cold that day! Like bone-chilling cold. Aaron and I weren’t prepared to continue exploring so we decided a nap sounded nice. Then later we would head back out for some dinner and more exploring.
After our mini nap, Aaron lit a cigar and we opened a bottle of Prosecco. Our room had a huge outdoor patio with views of the Grand Canal and lagoon. It was so much fun sitting out there, bundled up in our blankets, watching people. I was starting to get pretty hungry at this point so we threw on our warm coats and loaded up the computer (I was hoping to find some good internet…Italy’s internet is the freaking worst) to post my blog about Zurich! After our walking tour of the day, I got a little too confident in our surroundings and lead us off the beaten path…WAY off the beaten path. If you know me, you know I have a good sense of direction. Venice totally messed with me!!
Anyways…we eventually found our way back to an area with food. This evening we ate at more of a sit-down type restaurant with wifi…hoping to post my blog. We ordered fettuccini alfredo and both decide it was “okay,” nothing special. I also had no luck with the Internet…surprise, surprise.
Day three
Another full night of sleep!! We agreed the night before that we would take it easy this morning. No alarms, no plans, just wake up when our bodies wanted to and enjoy the morning in our room. We both slept in pretty late and decided to have breakfast sent up to the room. Aaron and I both worked for a little while and then decided to go do some shopping.
I had multiple people tell me that Venice has great shopping so I was excited to look for Christmas gifts! It wasn’t hard to find exactly what we were looking for. We pretty much spent the entire morning in and out of shops! I was looking for some black leather booties, possibly another coat and a few specific Christmas gifts.
For the past couple of years, my family has been picking names instead of buying every family member a gift. It just gets so expensive, and the truth is, none of us need anything. So this year we knew we HAD to get the gifts here in Italy! I won’t share where we shopped or what we got…because they will read this. But it’s good…real good!
After a full morning and mid-afternoon of shopping, we decided to take a gondola ride. We went back and forth on whether or not we would do this. It just felt so “tourist-y” and we were trying to avoid that. But I had to! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride a gondola in Venice! I’m so glad we did. It was so beautiful seeing the city from the water, a completely different perspective.
Our ride ended on the opposite side of the Rialto Bridge. Almay had given us a few restaurant recommendations in this area so we walked around a bit and searched for some dinner. Unfortunately, we were looking at the wrong time. Nothing was open yet. Like I mentioned in the previous post, Italian restaurants are usually open from about noon to two or three and then open back up again around seven. We decided to walk back to our side of the bridge and find something closer to our hotel.
This was our last night in Venice, so we wanted to find something good. Every evening on our way back to our hotel we walked by this pizza place that was very busy and looked really fun. Every night we would say, we should try that place! Thankfully one of us remembered because it was the BEST pizza we have had so far on this trip!! Perfect way to end our stay in Venice!
Day four
Ate a quick breakfast and hopped in our water taxi back to the train station…OFF TO FLORENCE WE GO!!!
Where we stayed:
Where we ate:
- Al Chianti
- Restorante E Pizza
- Farini
- Al Verde Coffee and Wine
- Rossopomodozo (best pizza!)
What we did:
- Private walking tour of the city, set up with Select Italy. I highly recommend doing this the first morning you arrive in a new city. We have done this in every city so far and it’s been amazing! Not only do you get your own personal tour guide, but they also offer so much more history and facts regarding the city. They answered all of our questions, pointed out must-see areas and restaurants, etc.
- Walked around the city and explored the city
- Checked out the bookstore called Liberia Aqua Alta
- Shopped in San Marco Square
- Took a gondola ride down the grand canal and throughout the smaller city canals
(Stay tuned…Florence, Italy is up next!)
xoxo, madison naomi
My favorite 💓😭 I love everything about this post! You’re amazing mad, and I can’t believe how you’ve grown with your blogging! This is your thing! I can’t wait for what’s coming next!😘 I love you!