Venice - November 2008

3 Nights in Venice – A Sinking City

Our longest day of travel was when we went from Cinque Terre to Venice. The trip required 2 train changes and took about 6 hours. It was raining when we arrived in Venice and that made me a little nervous. It floods in Venice, normally in November and March, so I was hoping we wouldn't be there for any flooding. It had been raining in Venice the previous 5 days, but luckily for us, it only rained the day we arrived.

We opted to use our Hilton points for our stay in Venice, might as well save some money. We had been staying in small hotels and family-run B&Bs throughout our trip, but we enjoyed the comfort of the hotel. We had a nice, large, flat screen TV to watch the U.S. election results, we arrived in Venice on Nov 4. It was also our anniversary and the hotel had a bottle of Bellini and a card waiting for us in our room. After getting used to having a cappuccino and a croissant for breakfast, we had a nice buffet that included eggs, potatoes, waffles and the most delicious ham. Staying in the Hilton was a nice way to end our trip and celebrate our anniversary.

Venice has some great architecture and lots of canals and bridges everywhere. The gondolas everywhere were beautiful. We got lost in Venice a lot! There are no major streets and none of the streets go straight and once you hit a piazza, the streets go off in different directions. We had the most trouble looking for restaurants that were in our Rick Steves book. By the time we found a place, I was starving! There were signs along certain paths that pointed you in the direction of the major sites, like St. Mark's Square, the Rialto, even the train station, but it was hard to stay on the right path. All the sudden there weren't anymore signs. It was neat though seeing the backstreets of Venice, not knowing where you were. You couldn't get too lost, since you were on an island!

The food in Venice was my least favorite. There were a lot of fish on the menus. We like fish, Mike more than me, but options for non-fish dishes were very limited. I was brave, however, and tried cuttlefish in ink while we were there. It was a popular dish in Venice, so I wanted to try it. I didn't like it much, but ate what I could. We went to a hole in the wall joint for lunch one day and I had spaghetti with clams and Mike had fish lasagna, both were pretty good. Our last night, we went to a restaurant that proudly served no fish. It was one of our favorite restaurants from our trip.

We flew out of Venice and were able to find our way to the airport without having to pay 100 Euros for a private water taxi. We took the 8am hotel shuttle to the Zattere stop and walked to Piazzale Roma in about 20 minutes. From there, we took the 8:40am bus #5 (2.50 Euro pp) to the airport and were dropped off at the terminal in 25 minutes.

LODGING

Hilton Molino Stucky (TA Review)

We used our points to stay at this hotel. We were visiting Italy for 2 weeks and Venice was our last stop and it was our anniversary. 

The hotel is located on the island of Giudecca, but they offer a free shuttle that ran from 0800-2350 while we were there, it may run later in the summer. It left the hotel at :00 and :40 every hour. When leaving at :00, it stopped at Zattere and San Marco. When leaving at :40, it only stopped at Zattere. It left from Zattere back to the hotel at :30 and :45 every hour. It left from San Marco back to the hotel at :20 every hour. There was an hour break between 1340 and 1440 and between 2040 and 2140.

ACTIVITIES

Tour the Grand Canal by Vaperetto – Great Scenery and Architecture

We bought a vaporetto pass once we arrived in Venice.  It was for 48 hours.  It really came in handy if you want to get somewhere fast.  Walking is not fast as you can get lost very easily, which is fun too if you aren't in a hurry (or hungry!).

We got on line 2 at the train station going down the canal.  We sat in the back outside for better views.  We stayed on the vaporetto all the way to St. Mark's Square.  I read the guide book while we rode down the canal and tried to point out things to Mike as he snapped pictures.

There were other people doing the same thing with different guide books.

Doge's Palace – Venetian Gothic Palace

This palace was the seat of the Venetian government and home of it's ruling duke for 400 years.

We decided to do the Secret Itineraries Tour to go into rooms not normally open to the public.  It was 5 Euros extra per person to do this tour.  Our group was only 15 people, which was very unusual according to our guide.  Our tour lasted a little over an hour.  It was really cool hearing the story of Casanova and how he ended up in prison there and also finally escaped.  I would really recommend this tour.

After the tour, we toured the main halls of the palace.

Top of the Campanile di San Marco – Views of St. Mark’s Square and Venice

You don't climb to the top of the Campanile, you ride the elevator!  There were some nice views once at the top, but I think the views from the San Giorgio Maggorie across the lagoon were better.

Top of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore – Better Views than the Campanile

We decided to visit the church and go up the belltower to see the views.  Again, you ride the elevator to the top.  The church has a Gregorian Mass at 8am that I wished we'd gone to, maybe next time.

Murano – Island of Glass


We took a vaporetto to Murano to walk around and look at all the glass.  The island is popular with glass factories and a glassmaking museum.  We strolled the main canal Via Fondamenta Vetrai to visit the various stores selling glass products.  There were some amazing things made out of glass!

Drink Wine at Al Marco – Have Some Wine With Locals

One of the things Rick Steves recommends doing in Venice is a pub crawl.  He recommends going from place to place having different courses or appetizers at each place.  We didn't do a full pub crawl, but we did stop at one of his recommended places to have a drink.

This place is just a hole in the wall that serves a nice selection of wine.  You order a glass and just stand around in the square and enjoy conversation and the wine.  We ended up having 2 glasses each and by the time we left, there were several others that had come up and were standing around the square.

St Mark's Square - Great Vibe

There are a lot of people in St Mark's Square most of the time.  This is the square where you see people feeding the pigeons.  People try to attract a lot of pigeons and take photos of themselves with the pigeons all around or on them.  

We came here one evening to find some live music.  During the busy tourist season there are dueling orchestras.  We found a pianist playing outside a little cafe on evening during our visit.  We sat at a table and ordered 2 cappuccinos and a piece of cheesecake to share and enjoyed the music.

RESTAURANTS

Brek – Cafeteria By Train Station

We got off the train in Venice and was starving.  We wanted to eat something right away.  We went to Brek, which is a cafeteria style place 5 minutes from the train station.

We had lasagna, pasta and shared a huge salad.  It was a great fast place for a meal and was very busy.  We spent 15 Euros on our meal.

Trattoria da Giorgio ai Greci – Canalside Setting off the Grand Canal

We were looking for canalside dining and decided on this restaurant as it was a little away from the "Rialto Bridge Tourist Trap."  Supposedly, the restaurants along the Grand Canal are becoming known for bad food and service and expensive prices.

There is canalside setting at this restaurant, but there are only 4 tables and you have to make reservations for them.  It was cool at night when we were there, so we were ok sitting inside.

I decided on the tourist menu (17 Euros) here and decided to try cuttlefish with ink.  It seemed to be a popular dish in Venice and I wanted to try the local food.  I didn't like it so much and wouldn't order it again, but it was a fun experience.  Mike had the lasagna, it was just ok.  We spent 42 Euros on our meal and that included wine.

One downside to this restaurant was the moldy smell during our meal, but we were in a corner.  Venice is known for this smell due to all the water.

Trattoria alla Rivetta – Eat Where Gondoliers Eat

We wanted to experience this place as it was popular with gondoliers at lunch.  If they like it, it must be good!  It is a very small place and gets crowded when it's busy.  The restaurant has long tables and they  mix parties at each table.  We were sat with another group of young girls.  They try to give one basket of bread for the whole table, but we politely asked for our own.

Venice is very popular with the seafood dishes!  It's hard to find entrees without fish sometimes.  We decided to go with the spaghetti and clams and the fish lasagna.  Both dishes were very good!  We also had wine and spent 27 Euros for our meal.

It was fun watching the gondoliers eat their lunch.  They eat a lot of food!

Enoteca e Trattoria la Bitta – No Fish Served!

It says "No Fish" on their business cards.  I've mentioned that Venice is popular with seafood and it's hard to find entrees without fish.  I wasn't too impressed with the seafood in Venice, maybe because we have great seafood in San Diego?

I was amazed at how easily we found this restaurant walking from our hotel shuttle stop at Zattere.  We tried to follow a map in Rick Steves book, but could never find the names of the streets we were on.  We just kept walking, turned a corner, and there it was!

The restaurant is very dark inside, but it's a nice and cozy little restaurant.  We decided on a bottle of wine, the gnocchi and this green pasta with sausage and peppers.  Both dishes were absolutely amazing!  The best food in Venice and possibly our whole trip.  The service was pretty good here as well.  We asked the server for recommendations and she was very helpful.

This restaurant only accepts cash (most places in Venice prefer cash) and our bill was 52 Euros.

Continue reading our trip:

3 Nights in Rome

3 Nights in Sorrento

3 Nights in Florence

3 Nights in Cinque Terre