Travel Blog - Venice, Italy

For who just started following along, I recently re-discovered my old travel blog from my first trip to Europe in the summer of 2014. I wanted to share these entries with you, because it is amazing to look back and reminisce on that trip. [Side note - this was all before I was vegan, so if there is any confusion about that food I was eating, that's why.] Here was my third blog post from that trip.

August 1, 2014;

"Our flight landed in Venice, Italy at 9:00am. After we got off the plane, got our bags, and went through customs, we had to take a public water taxi to the island, where we are staying. On the boat, we met a family from Virginia, and we talked with them the entire time. It took about 40 minutes to get from the airport to our stop at the Rialto Bridge, right near our hotel. The boat ride was very hot and crowded, but it went by pretty fast and it was fun seeing everything for the first time as we were pulling up. When we got to our stop, it took us awhile to find our hotel, although it’s only about a 2 minute walk from the taxi stop. We got to our hotel at about 11:00am, but check-in wasn’t until 2:00pm, so we left our bags there and decided to go explore.

The first place we went was St. Mark’s Square. Naturally, the first thing I had to do was feed the pigeons. I got some bird food, and within a minute they were all swarming around me. It was pretty scary because they were flying around my head very fast, and I thought they were going to poop on me, but I don’t think I’ll have another opportunity to do that any time soon, so why not? From there, we took a boat over to Murano Island and went to the glass blowing factory. We watched them make cups and glasses, and then we went into the showroom and gift shop. We didn’t end up buying anything, but it was really cool seeing how they make all of it. When we were done, we ate lunch at a restaurant on Murano. None of us were really hungry because of all the food we had eaten yesterday, so we ate pretty light. I just got a Caprese Salad. The food was just okay, and very overpriced.

When we got back from Murano, we checked into our hotel room. We’re on the third floor, and there are no elevators, and all of our bags weigh nearly 50 pounds, so it was definitely an adventure trying to get all of our bags up the stairs. Not to mention, we’re all very sleep deprived. We got settled into the hotel and decided to take a nap since my mom kept almost falling asleep everywhere we went. We took a nap for an hour, although I only slept for about 20 minutes, and then went out again around 4:00pm.

This time, we went over to the Rialto Bridge and walked around the Rialto Market. We tried finding a restaurant that was recommended to us by our hotel concierge, but instead we got lost. This turned out to be my favorite part of the day, though. It was great to just wander around the less crowded parts of Venice, and see the quiet parts of town. The houses and canals are so beautiful. Everything looks so different, and sometimes you have to walk through tiny alleyways in order to get where you need to go. I find it amazing that Venice is made up of hundreds of little islands, all connected by bridges.

Around 6:30, we decided to eat at a restaurant right on the Grand Canal, called Caffè Saraceno. We decided to just sit down, relax, take our time, and enjoy the view. We were in no rush, so we ordered drinks and our meals were all amazing. I ordered the Spaghetti with Seafood. It was spaghetti noodles with shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, octopus, and cuttlefish. It was definitely worth the wait to finally have such an amazing meal in Italy.

After we ate, we went back to St. Mark’s Square to just walk around and people-watch. Obviously, I had to hold the birds again, and my dad was so funny. He was walking around with his arms stretched out (picture below) with no food in his hands, trying to get the birds to land on him. He kept walking, though, instead of standing still. Somehow it worked, because the birds all loved him. I think he’s a bird whisperer. There was one bird who stayed on his shoulder the entire time and just hung out there. Rachel held a few birds, too, but she was kind of scared so she didn’t try again after that. My dad and I were loving it, though.

Since I haven’t slept in about 30 hours (minus the nap), and we're all delusional, we decided to head in early since we have to be up early for our cruise tomorrow! We’re back in the hotel room now, at 9:15pm, getting all of our stuff ready for tomorrow. I think it’s safe to say that we all have had a very eventful past two days, and we’re ready to get on the cruise and relax!"