Venice in a Day: Round One!

JULY 2015

After a long, hard week of living in a hotel and waiting for our worldly possessions to arrive, we were ready to go exploring. Luckily, we are only a 45 minute train ride from Venice! Armed with a Rick Steves' Venice guide book, two bottles of water, and zero plans, we set off to our iconic destination. In his book, Rick (because we're on a first name basis with Rick Steves) identifies Italy as his favorite country, and Venice as his favorite city. His number one piece of advice is to "get lost" - and that's exactly what we indented to do.

Our first train! After a cappuccino, of course.

We hopped on a train for about 6 Euro, and it was such a fun ride. We enjoyed views of the Italian countryside, local train stations, and finally, the blue waters between the mainland and the islands of Venice. Venice's train station was BUSY. Goodness gracious. If we had large suitcases with us, it would have been very difficult to navigate. Luckily, we didn't, and got out of there as quickly as possible. We were halfway up the bridge outside of the station, and took the opportunity to snap a photo of our first impression.

Grand Canal

Knowing that we had our paper map in our guidebook, and Google maps on our phones, we tucked them away, and set off on our adventure. Our route was determined by looking where the tourists ventured to, and going in the opposite direction. We generally tried to head South though, so we knew we would end up near St. Mark's Square. Along the Grand Canal and main shopping drag, its shoulder-to-shoulder people traffic and pick pockets galore, but on the back streets, the beauty of the city can truly be appreciated.

Gondola "parking lot"

We enjoyed an early lunch, since we were hungry from lots of walking, and wanted to beat the crowds. We found this adorable pizzeria and bruschetteria and enjoyed sandwiches and cold water. As we sat outside in the sun to eat our lunch, the chef started singing in his rich, tenor voice. The only way we can react to experiences like this is to say, "Now THATS Italian!" He was actually singing "Strangers in the Night," which was one of my best friend's wedding song, which made me a little homesick, but also made me grateful for the experience!

A Venetian Lunch

After lunch, we decided to head into the belly of the beast, and make our way towards St Mark's Square. We've read about the notorious crowds in the area, and braced ourselves for the worst. Since it was a little bit of a walk and we wanted to make sure we had a plan of attack, we walked along the outer shoreline of the square, and decided to stop at a hotel to gather our thoughts. Of course, that also means to enjoy a cappuccino. We definitely picked a good spot, because it was a beautiful venue, complete with Venetian glass-blown chandeliers.

Casual cappuccino in air conditioning

St Mark's Square 

St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Square and St. Mark's Basilica

Since we were out of dress code for St. Mark's Basilica, and the line was quite long, we decided to tour Doge's palace and the Correr Museum. Thanks to Rick Steves' book, we found a discounted ticket at the Correr Museum that covered both venues, and allowed us to bypass the long line at the Doge's Palace. We didn't like waiting in line - especially on a hot July day!

We used Rick Steve's book throughout the Doge's Palace and the Correr Museum with ease. The Correr museum was a little out of order due to some restoration work, but each room was numbered, and therefore we could jump around our guidebook and get the full experience. Doge's Palace with his guide book was AWESOME. We weren't stuck with a tour group, traveled at our own pace, and got to be our own tour guide - and even included a few classic Rick jokes :)

Doge's Palace

Bridge of Sighs (Doge's Palace)

Inside the Bridge of Sighs - seeing the last view prisoners would enjoy before they went to jail (Doge's Palace)

Favorite statue in the Correr Museum - Icarus getting his wings from his father, which were attached with wax, and therefore melted when Icarus flew too close to the sun. 

After our 40,000 steps, we boarded the train home around 4. Needless to say, we were very tired, and very ready for puppy cuddles!

No, Venice doesn't smell bad. Yes, there are a LOT of people. Yes, there are pick-pockets. 

Yes, we will be back again!

Favorite photo of the day!

Final Thoughts

Like I said in the title, this was Round One! We are so grateful that visiting Venice is a day trip for us. We didn't want to explore and experience every single thing that Venice had to offer on our first trip, since we knew we would be going back all the time! So far, as of My 2016, we've been to Venice a total of 7 times, always for day trips. One day, we just went for lunch! For this first visit, we just wanted to simply get into the city (out of our tiny hotel room) and enjoy a relaxing Venetian day! Mission: accomplished.