“I’ll never forget the first time I saw the water and it suddenly dawned on me – I was in Venice! “
The Flights
It’s been over 6 months since I travelled to Venice, but I still can’t believe I was ever there. It’s honestly one of the most magical places I’ve ever been to in my life. My boyfriend and I had a wedding in Sicily but as neither of us had been to Venice we decided to stop over in the floating city. We got really good tickets on Easy Jet, so flying from London to Sicily via Venice for both of us ended up costing less than what one direct flight from London to Sicily would have!*
The Hotel
We landed in Venice at 11.30pm and got a taxi to the Anthony Hotel which we had booked for the night. There are so many benefits to staying outside of central Venice. The Anthony Hotel is located in an area called Campalto which is a 5-minute drive from the airport and 15-minutes from Piazza San Marco in central Venice. Not only did we save over €100 compared to the average room rate in central Venice, we also had a more pleasant traveling experience. Campalto is much quieter than Venice so you can get a good night’s sleep away from the hustle and bustle, a larger room, and it also means you won’t have to lug your luggage through the cobbled streets of Piazza San Marco – win, win, win!
Getting Around
The Anthony Hotel was perfectly fine for our short stay. The rooms were clean and the breakfast the following morning had a lot of great options. But hands down, the best thing about the hotel is its location. Even though our hotel offered a shuttle service into the city, we decided to kick off our Venetian adventure by getting the bus.
Taking public transport in a foreign country is one of my favourite ways to experience how the locals live and I always recommend trying it if it’s available and safe.
The Italian transport system isn’t the simplest I’ve tried to navigate though as all the signage is in Italian, but luckily we found someone that spoke enough English to confirm that we were waiting at the right bus stop.
Car access stops about 20-minutes from Piazza San Marco, so make sure you have a comfortable pair of walking shoes on! I booked a 9am walking tour but with the nearly one-hour commute from the hotel to the starting point, it was very ambitious of me to think we’d make it. Needless to say, we didn’t!) We tried to book a walking tour with the tourist companies around the pier but they didn’t have any times that worked with our schedule. Instead, we decided to spend our morning exploring the streets and shopping. In hindsight I’d say that was a much more relaxing way to spend our morning.
Everywhere I turned there was something beautiful see. The rich colours, cobbled stone, stunning architecture, boats glistening on the water.
Gondolas
The one thing we had to do in Venice was a gondola ride! Don’t let he negative Nancies on Trip Advisor deceive you, it was easily the coolest thing we did in Venice. Gondola rides prices are fixed at €80 euro for 40 minutes for a maximum of 6 people. From my research I knew it’d be best to get a gondola on a quieter canal rather than the Grand Canal which can be rowdy. So when we found our gondolier Alan waiting on a quiet canal in his beautiful gondola, we snapped him up!
Another tip I got from my research was to look for other tourists to share with to split the cost. We found two girls from New York to share and looking back on the experience (and our pictures) I don’t think sharing our gondola ride with two other people took anything away from our experience. If anything it added to the experience because they were able to take photos of the both of us together! Having said that, I think 4 was the perfect number, and 6 passengers would be too cramped .
During the gondola ride, all I could think about was the “Row Your Boat” song. Cliche I know. But life really is “but a dream” when you’re riding in a gondola gently down the streams of Venice.
Saint Mark’s Basilica – Venice’s Most Famous Church
After our gondola ride we continued to stroll around the Piazza, sampling some of Italy’s finest pizza, gelato and a cannoli or two before heading to Saint Mark’s Basilica – Venice’s most famous church. We booked fast track passes through Trip Advisor so we didn’t have to queue. I would definitely recommend that because even in late September, Venice was PACKED with tourists! We purchased audio tour guides from inside the cathedral and learn a bit about the church’s history. Pictures aren’t allowed inside the cathedral but I was able to light a candle and say a prayer. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.
After Saint Mark’s Basilica we were out of time and decided to get a water bus to the bus stop. The water bus was a great experience. It allowed us to rest our legs and see the Grand Canal which is of course stunning! Then we caught the bus to our hotel to pick up our luggage and the hotel shuttle back to the airport. The only negative thing I have to say about my time in Venice is it was too short! I can’t wait to go back!
Have you been to Venice? Tell me about your experience in the comments!
PS: If you’d like to know how we managed to wrangle our flights deal, please let me know. I can write a post on some of my favourite flight booking hacks for you.
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