Heyyyyy, Europe! We're back!
Thanks for the warm welcome, Venezia! When we booked our trip, Venice was more of a necessity than a must-have stop because it is from where our cruise departs. We came to Italy in 2008 with our friends Frank and Megan on our first Mediterranean cruise. We saw Florence, Rome, and Naples, and fell in love with the Amalfi Coast. Venice wasn't part of that trip, and we didn't really mind missing it. In talking with folks about our trip, we received a lot of mixed reviews on Venice.
It's beautiful.
It's expensive.
It's smelly.
It's overrated.
Sometimes I think our most fun travels come when we have lower expectations.
Don't get me wrong-- I know this is a trip of a lifetime, another honeymoon, and I'm so grateful we could make it happen this year. But, we didn't expect to wow-ed by Venice. Maybe that's why I've ended up liking her so much.
After arriving at the airport (and reporting Sam's missing luggage), we took a bus into the heart of Venice. We purchased the bus + waterbus combo ticket at the airport, but decided that our hotel didn't look that far away, so we walked. Without Sam's big suitcase, we only had my rolling carry on and Lo & Sons bag, so walking the cobblestone streets was quite manageable. Maybe even welcome after eighteen hours of sitting in an airplane.
After booking our cruise and feeling like we had to forfeit a limb to fly out of Roanoke to Venice, I was on the lookout for a good deal for our three nights in Venice (two before the cruise, one after. ) I scouted out reviews on Trip Advisor, priced out different hotels on Expedia, and finally got a little daring and went to Hotwire. My research had shown that Cannaregio was a nice neighborhood adjacent to the tourist area with lots of shops and cafes with a nice mix of locals and tourists, still within walking distance of San Marco and Doge's Palace. So, when I saw a "4 star hotel in Cannaregio" for half the price of the hotels I had been looking at, I clicked book. And up popped the message that we would be staying at the Hotel Ca'Vendramin di Santa Foscua. Does it matter if you can't pronounce your hotel name? :)
The hotel is a converted 16th century palace on a quiet street with a canal running right in front of it. The outside area is beautiful.
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| Hotel Ca'Vendramin and the Ponte Vendramin (Vendramin Bridge) |
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| Sam the Duke in the Palace's dining hall |
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| Hotel Ca'Vendramin Lobby |
I had read mixed reviews on the rooms and service, but don't generally worry as Sam and I have a pretty "go with the flow" travel attitude. If it's clean, it'll work. The receptionist Jessica (said with a beautiful Italian accent), showed us to our room, which was maybe a bad idea. She opened the door to our room on the first floor and walked in, and Sam followed. And then I couldn't fit. Ha! She had to back out for me to go in. Our "luxury economy" room looked like she was escorting us into a closet. It's the Mini Cooper of hotel rooms. The ceiling is higher than the room is wide or deep, so that really keeps it from feeling claustrophobic, plus the bathroom is modern and clean. The best part about the hotel is the warm, residential feeling. You walk out over the Ponte Vendramin and you are at a beautiful trattoria, and just a block from the main road Santa Fosca that can take you to either Piazzale Roma or San Marco. There are cafes on every block and storefronts, but it doesn't have the crowded, packed in tourist feel that San Marco's area has.
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| Our cruise cabin-sized hotel room |
Since we both had middle seats (not together) on our overnight flight to from Montreal to Brussels, we got in at what was the equivalent of around 9 am Roanoke time, with very little sleep from the night before. It was nearly 3 pm Venice time, so we decided to get settled at the hotel and keep going, and but call it an early night to help our bodies adjust to the time difference. Plan set. So, I took a quick shower, and Sam... fell asleep on the bed. Feet hanging off the end and all.
So, I decided to go out and grab a converter, since I forgot to buy one ahead of time. I cam back to the hotel; Sam still sleeping. Explored a little longer, checked back in; Sam still sleeping.
Finally at 7, I went back to get him, and sweet thing was still sleeping. By that point, I hadn't eaten all day and hadn't slept since the night before, so I figured maybe he would pull a Willa and just not get up until tomorrow morning, so I might as well lie down, too. Forty-five minutes later, he wakes up bright-eyed and ready to go. :/
So I rolled out of bed, shook of the bedhead, and went out to enjoy Venice for the evening.
Sleeping for thirteen hours wasn't on our tip bucket list, but if it had been, we would've checked it off. Oops! We didn't wake up until nearly noon (6 a.m. Virginia time), so our day got off to a bit of a late start. It seemed like the perfect day to go out and see the traditional Venice tourist spots, so we took the vaporetto (water bus) down a few stops to San Marco Piazza. Since the island portion of the city does not have cars, the only public transportation utilizes the canal system, and our 'bus line' went right down the Grand Canal. Venice is truly best seen by water!
Walking in to San Marco Piazza was breathtaking. It is really Venice's only piazza and after weaving through narrow alleys and cobblestone streets, when you walk into the square, it feels massive. We hadn't eaten yet, so we decided to sit at one of the cafes along the square and enjoy a brunch al fresco. We enjoyed taking in the sights, including seeing Guy Fieri from Food Network shooting about 50 feet from us. Since there are several cafes with eating areas along the piazza, there are quite a few pigeons. Sam kept pretending to feed them, and I fussed him about attracting more. About 15 minutes later, I was just sitting, chatting with Sam, when splat. Yep. Bird poop on my head. I have never been so appreciative (sans kids) that an area was loud, as I let out a little scream before I ran to the bathroom to clean up. I'm glad Sam got his laugh in for the day. :)
We walked to Doge's Palace and along the Venetian waterfront. It is just beautiful. Even with it crowded, I never found Venice to be smelly, and certainly no worse smelling than larger US cities. There aren't a lot of trees here, but we found a park area with some tree-lined streets that were stunning.
As we were finishing up our stroll, we noticed it looked like it was about to rain, so we decided to jump on a vaporetto to head back, since to walk would be about 45 minutes to an hour. We figured we would just use our unused ticket that we purchased from the airport the day before, and make our way back to Cannaregio. Well, as we are sitting enjoying the view, an ACTV (their travel council) officer starts making his way through the bus, scanning tickets. We had him ours, and he informs us that ours have not been validated. Not only do you need to purchase the ticket, you have to validate it as well by placing it against a little machine that is near the bus stop. Well, he did not feel sorry for the dumb Americans. Not one bit. So, we were each fined 59 euro. 118 euros total (about $135 US). Thank you for gasping with us, because that's how we felt, too. I am positive that is the most expensive bus ticket we will ever buy. We had looked at doing a water tour earlier that day that would have been around 120 euro, so we tried to look on the bright side and say we did the unauthorized, at your own leisure, vaporetto version. What else can ya do?
It did in fact rain, so we went back to the hotel so I could wash the bird poop out of my hair and get ready for dinner. We didn't pack an umbrella, but we still went out on in "our little neighborhood" for a nice dinner and gelato together. And oh my, can we just talk about the hand churned gelato from the little gelateria? We split a scoop of vanilla with chocolate and caramel, and it was out of this world. I feel pretty certain that secretly created as an Italian and didn't just marry into the name because bread, pasta, and gelato could be easily be my favorite foods. The ol' low carb eating has had to take a backseat on a few meals!
Happy to spend our last evening in Venice before our cruise, eating together outside, listening to the rain, and jumping through cobblestone puddles on the way back to our cozy room. Here's to getting in the gondola ride when we return next Saturday!
And here's how our trip got started:
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