I honestly don’t even know where to start about this part of our trip. It was as cheesy as it sounds MAGICAL! Words can’t really describe how wonderful Venice was and how much fun we had.
We took the train from Milan to Venice which was a little over 2 hours. Once there we debated taking the public transportation boat that would drop us off near our hotel and then we would need to walk to save money or to splurge and take a water taxi which would drop us off directly in front of our hotel and we would be by ourselves and no crowd. We opted to take a water taxi and it was amazing! It cost 70 Euros and it was well spent! We loved seeing the city and the Grand Canal. I really enjoyed the ride and once we got to our hotel I was awestruck at how glamorous and beautiful it looked.
Since our Milan hotel was a dud, I wasn’t expecting much from our Venice one but OMG was it beautiful inside.
Loved our water taxi ride through the Grand Canal to our hotelObvi, I was an overly excited tourist taking lots of pictures of random things lolBeautiful bridges everywhere, loved seeing the Rialto Bridge right awayAnother bridge and I took a million pictures of themThe view from the reception to the door that connected our taxi to the water. So neat you can just pull up in your water taxi to the entrance of your hotelWalking into our room we were welcomed with water and a bottle of Prosecco! Love after a day of travel to have some bubblyI don’t know about you but I love when hotels (most do) provide a robe and comfy slippers Loved the room decor Our room was so big and blue and I loved it all! Enjoying our Prosecco before our food tour So many bridge picturesI always like food tours the first day because I get the lay of the land while being fed so it’s a win win. I am by no means a foodie so as long as it isn’t spicy I’ll eat it. One of the first places our guide took us was the fish market. I always love how genius European markets are by placing things like a fish to signify a fish market so smart and simple and yes I’m easily impressed with everything in life Some yummy calamari! Dan doesn’t eat fish (I know a sin) but I don’t really complain since I’ll just eat his portion for him. Hi from us-Dan and JanetSome delicious Cicchetti and a must eat if you are in Venice. Some people (Dan) just pop the top part into their mouth and discard the bread but I find that too wasteful and just ate Dan’s bread tooSo goodAnother food stop, the wine here was really good and Dan was able to get some shipped here so we have been enjoying that and missing Venice Dessert!! My favorite part of any meal and I love during a food tour most people are full so they don’t eat much dessert but thankfully I can never fill up from dessert so we spent like an hour slowly trying all these desserts to my heart’s content Enjoying more wine after our first round of dessert in the squareLast stop was of course gelato! Random walking to digest some of the food we ateThe following day we had a gondola ride, St. Mark’s Basilica, and Doge’s Palace tour St.Mark’s Basilica, stunning like all churches but it was under construction so I told Dan I guess that means we have to come back and see it in all of its gloryI love churches for the sheer fact there is art everywhere in one. Up, down, sideways, a little nook it’s all beautifulAll this gold!! Sometimes I wonder instead of using this gold for a church could we use it for the people instead but that can apply for everything I guess. Either way, stunningMosaics all over the place. I don’t have the patience to even do a sticker by number but this is so impressive. My 6 year old loves mosaics and loves doing sticker by number puzzles so when I showed him all the pictures of mosaics and videos I took he was really stunned. Also what a sign of the times to see a mask on the church floor, thankfully we weren’t required to wear one insideThese bronze statues of horses were taken during the looting of Constantinople and were once displayed in front of the Basilica but for conservative purposes they were brought inside and replicas placed out front. This is another where I feel maybe we should return them to their rightful owner and again this applies to almost every museum and church art pieces and while I’m extremely grateful to be able to see the pieces sometimes I feel the inner guilt. This mentality usually applies to when I go to the Vatican or the British Museum, but I guess sharing is caringView from the top of the churchView from the outside at the topJust like every old church these steps make me tempt fate, I am almost positive one day I am just going to tumble down them. They are always uneven and sometimes slipperyThis beautiful hallway on the way to Doge’s palaceMore art looking upI always prefer these long wide steps, makes me feel less tired walking up themEvery room had artworkLove the gilded goldMore mosaicsA little peeping hole crossing the bridge inside Later at night enjoying my favorite pasta with clamsI’m always amazed how laid back I get in Europe, you wouldn’t catch me dead sitting on a Chicago or New York City sidewalk but anywhere in Europe sure and to top it off let me rest my hand on it too lolol On the Rialto Bridge which we passed by a lot We got random gelato everywhere but this place was the only one that had a forever line to eat it. The cookie was cute with the store’s name on it but wouldn’t say the gelato was better than others. It was on the way back to our hotel so many nights we would stop by and wait the 15-20 minI don’t know about you but I typically put my legs up at night for a bit to relax after walking all dayI love having breakfast included at a hotel. I am normally too lazy to get ready in the mornings so I love just walking down and eating then getting ready for the day. I get why some people don’t like hotel breakfast in Europe but for me it is a must to have it included Our walk to meet up our tour for the Proesseco ValleyIt was a max of 6 people in our tour and the views were just stunning! More valley views and the Dolmites A Prosecco vending machine! How smart and cute!Cheesy tourist pic setupOur tour guide set up a small picnic to start off our tour that consisted of 4 vineyards, bites, and a huge lunch. We met a great group of men from St John’s, Canada and they were just so much fun! Again, I love tours like this because you meet such nice and unique people. I love Prosecco and this tour did not disappoint Our tour guide gave us each a bottle of this and it was so good! Dan in Prosecco heaven tooOur huge lunch that was brought to us by our tour guide’s brother in law! It was delicious! There was way more food after this but I was busy stuffing my face to take a picture The sardines were my favorite here, but really everything tasted amazing I swear vineyards are so picturesque Couple pictureThis trip Dan really stepped up his picture taking game. Funny, I was so hot and needed a break while walking back, felt a breeze and asked Dan to stop so I can cool off and he took this without me noticing and it was one of my favoritesObvi, after the huge lunch I needed more food at nightRandom walking at nightThis was on our way to meet up our tour to Murano and Burano IslandsI know you can buy stuff on the main island but man the beauty of the actual Murano Island glass is incredible!! They didn’t allow many photos but they did let us take one here and I quickly snapped this oneThey gave us a demonstration of them making a glass horse and it left me in awe!! I took a couple of glass making classes in my 20s and let me tell you it was way harder than I imagined. I have many deformed paper weights I made and gave to my family and even then when I tried to make a simple heart it just came out a big blob. Their technique here was beyond anything I imagined and was even better than my teachers I had at my glass making class did. You can tell this is a family passed down tradition and I absolutely love that, family can mean so much and what great memories and history you can pass down. I made a video of him doing the the horse, but I don’t know how to post a video so I took a screen shot of the final product. It literally only took like 5-10 min for him to make this and the details were amazing!! Can I have talent or skill like this please? My souvenir bracelet I got for myself while on Murano IslandWe got a snack at the next island, Burano Burano is known for their lace making and it was another family passed down tradition. These ladies have such skill and just beautiful, intricate designs they make. If I had a daughter I would definitely have gotten her a wedding veil from here. More cute bridges in Burano with their jelly bean buildings. It was such a colorful island and I was happy I wore a bright pink romper this day to go along with the buildings. A pretty pink building I just had to take a picture withAgain with my favorite clam spaghetti dishThis dessert was so good and I ordered two of them because I loved it so much More night walking I know it may be frowned upon but graffiti always fascinates me. This was in a random passageway I then looked farther down and saw this that made me laugh out loud so much. I cackled away while I showed Dan (he didn’t approve) Not over any of the random bridges I kept posing with, they were the best prop one could ask forMy one real request for Venice was to go to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection Museum. I love art so much and it was so nice to see some art my eyes have never seen in person before. This Picasso was one I was seeing for the first time from his pieces. I have been very lucky to have viewed and admired so many artworks in my life but there is something special seeing an art piece in person for the first timeIf you know me, you know I love everything Andy Warhol. I have seen so many of his flowers pieces but never this big white flower from his series. It was always his colorful ones, so imagine my surprise and squeal as I went into a hallway and saw this and just screamed in delight.I was so so so happy and it felt like it was meant to be because my dress for the day was even white! Almost like I was meant to see this piece and kismetAfter the museum we took a mask making classI was super surprised about this because Dan isn’t really an art guy or a creator per say but he planned this and I was so excited to make my own maskI picked the “princess” design and Dan picked the “joker”As much as I loved painting my mask my real favorite part was watching Dan get into his artwork and creating a beautiful mask CreatingThis was the son of the shop owner and this is another family passed down tradition. He added beautiful gold touches to our masks and again I wish I knew how to post the video because he did it so fast and created beauty in a matter of minutes A snack at our hotel before relaxing for our night outLast night of our trip was just wonderfulYes, I am very much obsessed with my seafood pasta dishI stood here for awhile just taking it all in We did a last minute decision to take a night gondola ride and I am so happy we did. The price was a little more than the day time one but so worth it for usSaying goodbye from our water taxi to the airportThis airplane food was slightly better than the one we ate on the way to Italy
Overall, it goes without saying I absolutely loved our Italy trip this summer. Venice was a perfect city to end our trip and it was so relaxing. I can only think of one day that it was really crowded and the passageways were hard to walkthrough but the rest of the time it didn’t feel too bad.
I will add links to trip advisor and Viator to some of my favorite things we did during this trip, but again this is all an opinion so what I may have loved some/a lot of people won’t and that is ok. We all have varying opinions and even me and Dan went back and forth on stuff he liked and I didn’t and stuff I loved and he didn’t.
We ate at a lot of restaurants, some I loved and some I hated lolol. I wrote everything down in my travel journal (that is temporarily misplaced) but I really feel you can’t go wrong anywhere you eat in Europe. I love tourist traps because I absolutely love people watching and it is always best right there but the ones off the beaten path tend to have way better food and way more intimate which Dan loves. We compromise a lot and take turns picking-if I pick lunch he picks dinner and vice versa. Per usual with all travel I always feel way closer to Dan and truly feel it strengthens our marriage and relationship. We always bond more and have so many beautiful memories.
Next, I hope to post my souvenirs from this trip because I always find it fascinating what people deem a must have to bring back
Adventures of Janet 