Instead of arriving at 7am, we got to Venice (or rather the ferry port south of it) at 10am. Disembarkation happened at 10.30am. From here, we drove home. Lunch happened in Brescia and was amazing. Switzerland drove Flo nuts, especially the two hour trafic jam before the Gotthard tunnel. However, he wanted to get home and just kept driving. We were home at 2am.
Okay, just as a warning, there will probably be a lot of squeeing. It is my first time in Venice. And Venice is one of these places that you know something about without ever having been there. It’s the city in the water. Also, being in Venice during carnival and going all out on a costume is on my bucket list.
The day started on our lovely campground. Flo organized two-day passes for the public transport in and around Venice which will make getting around so much easier. We packed up and left. Of course, I forgot the “Italian road trip” Lonely planet, which is the only guide book we brought, on the campground while the Venice guide book is still at home. -.- Oh well. At least we had the app.
Off we went. The bus left super close to the campground. Taking the land bridge to Venice, we already saw the sea and then buildings started to appear on the horizon. Venice!
The bus stop is where everybody got off for their own personal Venice experience. We opted to use the “face first” approach for the city and take a vaporetto to San Marco. Vaporettos are water busses which take you around Venice. Line 1 goes along the Canale Grande and stops at every lamp post. However, since we just wanted to get to our starting point, we used line 2, which took us to San Marco quicker but on a less picturesque way along the outskirts.
So, our day started on a boat. We were lucky enough to get seats outside, put our noses in the wind and eventually have a good view on a couple of amazing buildings, including the doge’s palace. Piazza San Marco was our first destination. It was already really hot in the sun and it was only like 10.15am. Then again, it’s just beautiful. You walk around and everything around you is just so lovely to look at. We are really fortunate to travel now as Piazza San Marco was nowhere near the level of crowds it usually draws. As our half-Italian friend put it when he saw a picture “Wow, it’s empty!”. J
So this was our start. Looking at the doge’s palace, San Marco basilica, the tower and the buildings surrounding Piazza San Marco…we just wanted to stay here for a bit. This is why we sat down in Cafe Florian, which has been around for the last 300 years, and the prime spot to look at the buildings and take it all in. It also has the most expensive coffee Flo (10.50 € a cup) had ever had. No matter, we were here to enjoy ourselves. We had coffee and tea and some macaroons and life was good. J
Coffee time moved straight into lunch time. Number 3 got hungry so we started walking around a little on our way to a little lunch place. As soon as you turn away from Piazza San Marco, the city quiets down. Sometimes, we were the only people in an alleyway. Just taking the city in through walking is something we really enjoy. The Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal was busier again and in the sunshine and thus too hot to linger.
Further we went, into the little alleys with tiny bridges over canals, here a turn, there a tunnel…it’s a maze and I don’t know how people get around without google. You can tell who’s local just by how confidently people turn corners into what looks like a house entrance but turns out to be a tunnel underneath a house and your only way to get to where you’re going.
We had lunch at a tiny whole-in-the-wall type place which made amazing pizzas. So far on our trip, it was pasta all the way. It was really nice to change to the other staple Italian food for once. It was good pizza. Even Number 3 enjoyed it and he’s not the biggest fan of pizza. As a side note: Number 3 was utterly charmed by the city. It had everything he wanted: Boat busses, water and food; including sweet treats. After lunch, we went on another boat ride, this time straight through the city until we got to the railway station. We didn’t mean to stop here but Number 3 needed to go to the toilet and in a classic move, we went into the wrong entrance first and had a little tour of all of the railway station in our search. Number 3 was delighted by the trains on display – he thought this to be a highlight of the day.
I had looked up a pastry shop where I wanted to have afternoon coffee really close to the railway station. Also, the railway station has a vaporetto stop which is just *so* convenient. From there, it was just a couple of minutes to Dal Mas. Oh, they had great stuff! Still being rather full, we all could just get one thing but they were all delicious.
Our first day in Venice was a Sunday which meant that churches were closed for tourists as regular mess was held. Luckily, San Marco Basilica opened up at 2pm for tourists. We decided to get out of the sun and into a church. Another boat ride. By now we were professionals at riding a water bus.
The line to get into the basilica looked long, but it took 10 minutes tops to get in. We had our temperature checked, used disinfectant hand gel, got an audio guide for Flo and looked around inside. There is much to look at from the mosaics in the entry hallway to the colourful Venetian marble floors to the Pala d’Oro, for which we paid another 5 € to see. Given that the admission into the church is only 3 € per person, we could easily justify that extra expense. J
After this, we did a good bye tour of Piazza San Marco. Both kids were really, really tired and it was getting close to dinner time. So we took another boat, went back to Piazza Roma and took the bus back to the campground.
Such a great day. Number 3, especially, is the best city explorer I know. He walked so much today!
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