Venezia

Wow, how amazing is Venice? As soon as I got on the vaporetto (water bus) from the bus station, I was in love. It's such a special city, unlike any place else and yet exactly how I'd pictured it. (mostly thanks to movies like Casino Royale and The Italian Job) Even though my co-worker noted that it's basically just a tourist city - there's no other real commerce there, I didn't care. As far as tourist cities go, it's beyond superior to Solvang, Orlando or even Vegas. Despit being dominated by non-Italians, you still feel the history of the city in your bones as you walk around the tiny alleyways and cross the canal bridges. Anyway, obviously I'm totally enamored with it.

I feel really lucky that I was able to go when I did - I've been repeatedly told that it's a sweltering zoo of people there from June-August, but going in mid-April was fantastic. The weather was lovely - no rain, one day I need a light sweater and the other a jacket but it was easy to walk around. Even though I had pre-booked a couple of museum visits, I really didn't need to and everyone else were just walk ups.

So here's my itinerary and commentary. Enjoy....

I stayed in the Dorsoduro district, which is in the south west part of Venice. I booked everything through lastminute.com and I have to say it worked out really well. The hotel, San Sebastiano Garden worked out perfectly. It's a little 16 room hotel, on a small canal within easy walking distance of the San Basilio vaporetto stop. (yes, even with luggage). Both people at the front desk were incredibly helpful and friendly. I was in the handicap room (or one of them), and it was completely lovely. The doors were all extra wide, the room and bathroom were huge and everything was neat and tidy.

Arriving Friday evening, I was nervous about figuring out how to get to my hotel from the airport but it was easy to buy the bus/vaporetto tourist pass at the airport and then it was pretty obvious that the #5 bus was the one to take you to the center of town to catch the vaporettos. The hotel's website had great directions so I knew which vaporetto to hop onto and it was a lovely evening boat ride over to the hotel's stop. Once I set my bags down, the front desk offered up 3 different choices for me for dinner and left it up to me. I really appreciated that approach because then I didn't feel like he was getting a commission or always suggested one restaurant to all the guests. To get to all 3 restaurants, I had to walk down the tiniest alleyway I've ever seen. About 15 feet in, it opened up into normal size, but I definitely never would have walked down there at night on my own if I didn't know for sure that there were all these restaurats. Anyway, in an attempt to be a little adventurous, I went to one with a lot of fresh seafood in the window, La Furatola. Along with a lovely bottle of wine, I had...wait for it...spaghetti with cuttlefish in ink sauce. It was a really nice dish, obviously very fresh. The cuttlefish in the pasta was very tasty, but I have to be honest and say I could only choke down one of the tentacle pieces. I just can't eat things with suckers on them. But the other bits were delicious. Also, I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the restaurant who didn't speak Italian, so even though they had a menu in English, I was pleased that it was good enough restaurant that actual Italians ate there.

The next morning, I went to Basilica San Marco first, before it even opened, at the guidebook's advice. There was a small queue but it moved along quickly as soon as the doors opened. It's absolutely gorgeous inside, with incredible gold mosaics covering nearly every surface. I walked around St. Mark's square for a little bit, caught the end of a random fashion shoot going on in the square and marveled at the growing crowds (although, still really not that bad). Then I went across to the campanile in the square which gives you an amazing panoramic view of Venice. It was such a gorgeous, clear day, I could have stayed up there for hours just taking it all in, but there was more to do!

Still in the square, I went to tour the Palazzo Ducale (Doges' Palace) and was able to get on one of the "Secret Itineraries" tours, which I'd read about online. I don't usually go for the extra expensive tours, but this one was SO worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat and HIGHLY recommend it for anyone going to Venice. Because I hadn't pre-booked, I had about an hour to walk around the palace before the tour. I was worried that I'd be doubling up on stuff we'd see on the tour but when they call it "secret itineraries", they're not kidding. We didn't go through any of the public rooms at all on the tour so I was glad I saw all of them first. It made the "secret" tour so much more rewarding. They take you into locked passageways where you see the chancellor's offices, in particular the chancellor in charge of secret documents and the bigger room where all of the secreteries worked handling all of the other non-secret state documents. Then you get to see the cells where Cassanova was imprisoned and are told about his crime, his attempted escape and his second, successful escape. But the best part for me was when we climbed up the stairs and were in the rafters above the massive gorgeous council room I'd seen earlier. the ceiling of the room is covered in beautiful paintings surrounded by enormous gold gilt frames. Anyway, when you're up in the rafters, the guide explains that the room was rebuilt after the first in the late 16th century but even at that time, it was rare for a room that size to have no columns, let alone with those massive paintings embedded in the ceiling. But you get to see the massive feat of engineering up in the attic that made the room possible. It's very cool. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take any pictures on the entire tour. Except of the box where citizens could anonymously denounce tax evaders, which is the slideshow picture of the stone man with the slot for notes in his mouth.

I wandered around a bit, then went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and l'Accademia in the afternoon. Admittedly, I have a relatively low threshold for religious paintings, so after the first few galleries in the Accademia, I might have glazed over a bit. Peggy's collection is small, but wonderful and a great contrast in its modernism. I highly recommend it. The house and grounds are gorgeous enough to justify the visit and the collection is gorgeous. I just wish I could have a few of them for my house on the canal. =)

Since I'd got on out on a culinary limb the night before, I decided to try to go to this restaurant called Ai Gondolieri which (according to my guidebook) was more meat-centric. It was. And it was delicious! It was also very expensive - even by Venice standards, but I'm always happy to splurge on a good meal. Without boring with you with too much detail, there was a huge bread tray, plus veggie crudite as soon as I sat down. I had an amazing artichoke appetizer and then yummy veal in gorgonzola sauce (sigh). Now to be completely forthcoming, this restaurant was filled entirely with English speakers so it's definitely a tourist haven, but a fancy pants delicious one.

Sunday, I took the vaporetto to Lido - the island where they hold the Venice film festival, also the only island in Venice with a beach. After wandering around there, I took the vaporetto around to Murano. Wow, are there a lot of cheesy glass shops there. But I did find two gorgeous hand blown kitchen glass with a cute red, green, white and yellow swirl... Much nicer than I'm explaining right now. From there I took the vaporetto back which goes up the Grand Canal through the center of Venice and then got off near the Rialto and walked and shopped around there for a while. Then sadly, it was time to head back. The airport was kind of a disaster on the way back, but that's no one's fault...every single flight through Venice was delayed and we got off relatively easy in the end with only an hour push.

Here's my slideshow below, hope you enjoy...