World Tour Stop 27 - Venice, Italy

After a short train ride from Florence we arrived at our last stop in Italy, the one and only Venice. This has been a city that I've wanted to visit for many years. First of all, it is a city that is built on water. The entire city is just sitting on stilts that hoist it above the ocean. That is insane to think about and an incredible architectural feat. Second, I have visited so many cities that claim to be the Venice of the east (Bangkok), or the Venice of the North (Bruges or Amsterdam), so it was about time that I got to enjoy the actual Venice.

Again we are staying in an airbnb, but unfortunately this one was a bit off the beaten path. Not that Venice is very large and it is made so you can walk the entire city (by bridge) or take water buses/taxis, but I definitely did not book us a very centrally located place this time. If you're planning on visiting, I recommend getting a place near San Marco's or near the train station to avoid so much travel time unless you're planning on spending a lot of time at the islands off shore.

We arrived around 6 PM to our place but I had to water bus all the way back to the train station because I didn't read the airbnb check in instructions that the meeting place was a travel agency. With that said, it wasn't that big of a deal because I purchased the three day Vaporetto (water bus) pass that allows you to take as many trips as you need to in the three day period for 40 Euro. Needless to say that I got my money's worth in the first 24 hours. A single trip pass is 7.50 euro so it is definitely the way to go if you're going to spend any length of time in the city.

Also, not to be nit-picky to my home city, but if a city with no above land transit (no trains, cars, etc) can have a perfectly well working public transit system, then why are we so bad at it Atlanta?

That night was pretty relaxed as we were exhausted from the past 80-ish days of travel so we had some dinner and then went back to the airbnb and checked out the space. This one had a bedroom, a kitchen and a living room with a pull out couch which was more than enough space for the three of us. An early night meant that we drank the wine we had picked up on the Tuscany tour the day before and went to bed before midnight!

The next day we were pretty hell bent on getting to ride a gondola, because, when in Venice, do as the Venetians do (this is actually strictly a tourist activity and none of the Venetians actually participate, but alas, we are tourists and it was a fun was to see the city and our guide was so nice).

We received an amazing lunch recommendation and it was very much a local spot. Several gondola tour drivers (is that the right word? or is it paddler?) were there on their lunch break as well. It was such good food and even better service. We enjoyed a few drinks and took our time. Also, eating meals in Europe always takes about two hours. Just sit back and relax, don't try to rush because it just does not work that way.

After that we headed to another Irish Pub (Inishark) and met some more American tourists along the way. Essentially, if you wanted to watch the world cup, the Irish pubs were the only places guaranteed to have it on so all of the Americans knew to go there. This was the big day for the finals of the WWC and we didn't want to miss a moment, so we arrived about an hour before kick off and had a couple of pints to get ready. Even better, team USA won the whole thing, beating the Netherlands 2-0 and bringing home the championship for the fourth world cup win!

We walked back to our place after the game and had dinner at the same location as the night before (yes, I know there are thousands of restaurants, why go to the same one twice, but it was somewhere we already knew we would enjoy and right by our place). We had met some fun people during the match and had planned to meet up with them later but sadly it was a Sunday night so most places were closed and we ended up just wandering around Venice for a while. With that said, San Marco's plaza at midnight with non one else around is pretty majestic.

The next morning we took a water bus over to Lido and spent the day on the beach. It is very much not like the beaches in the US that we are used to, but instead a lot of seaweed and sadly pretty dirty water with rocky beaches, but still a nice relaxing day of sunshine. We probably spent a couple of hours here but could have spent many more. That evening we went to dinner at Ristorante Giorgione where the owner sang songs to us during dinner, even after having to chase down chairs, tables and umbrellas that were outside amidst a strong summer storm. Emily and I split scallops and seafood risotto and of course, happy bellies afterwards.

For our last night in Venice this was a pretty perfect meal.

The next morning we had to check out and take all of our stuff to store as check out was 10AM but our flight wasn't until 3. We stored our stuff and took the worst route to get to our 11 AM appointment to climb St. Mark's Campanile (water bus backlog), but were about fifteen minutes late and the skip the line guide still let us up! Thankful for nice people out there to excuse our tardiness. The campanile again allowed us the best views of the city, so paying to get the bird's eye view was again worth every penny. Definitely recommend doing this as it takes about an hour but gets the most postcard worthy photos.

The City of Canals looks pretty cool from the top.

We also walked around San Marco's square before heading to the airport to leave Italy, but Italy certainly provided us with so many new stories and adventures. I think Venice was my favorite city that we visited in Italy, why we probably took so few pictures. Sometimes you're too busy experiencing to get a photo op.

Ciao Venice, til next time!