My wife and I started an 18 day trip through Italy and France with a 3 day stay in Venice. Having never been, several threads on this forum were extremely helpful, so I’ll try to pay back that help a bit. Particularly P. Moy, whose extensive posts here were invaluable (as well as helpful PM advice). Most of the rest of our trip was wine-related, so I’ll post on that in Wine Talk.
The one and only benefit of the merger between US Air and American Airlines seems to be that their Philadelphia hub offers several destinations new to long time AA fliers (moi). So we were able to fly SFO to Philly, and then directly on to Venice.
Venice is famous for being built on the water, but San Francisco has some waterfront too
Looks like an early winter in the Italian Alps
There’s global warming, then there’s this…
We chose to take the Alilaguna water shuttle from the airport into the center (Rialto, in our case). A water taxi would have been faster (about 30 minutes vs. closer to an hour, but we were just killing the day anyway, and getting to see the sights), but 15 euros each, vs 120 for a taxi. That’s a nice bottle of wine!
I disobeyed all of Peter’s advice by choosing a hotel right on the Grand Canal, and right at the center of the densest tourist area (though he endorsed the choice). Hotel Al Ponte Antico really made the stay in Venice (it’s the smaller white building, sandwiched between the larger yellow and brown buildings, just right of center with the covered terrace).
A little more than our normal budget (and we got the least expensive room), but the service is top notch. It’s a small place (like 9 or 10 rooms?), renovated in period style. Our room was on the first floor, no view, but the benefit was it was very quiet, well insulated from both the canal and the bustle of the area just outside the hotel.
What got my attention was the picture of the terrace on their web site, which was easily worth 100e/night just to be able to sit out there for breakfast, or afternoon drink.
The hotel was really a nice oasis from the crowds, at the end of a small alleyway. We had to merge into traffic leaving the hotel
Our first dinner was one of our most enjoyable of the trip. Osteria Enoteca ai Artisti is a tiny place, maybe 9 tables, and a couple of seats at a window bar. Warm and cozy, unpretentious, elegant food (some of the best calamari I’ve ever had).
I wanted to order another 5 of these:
Spaghetti with shrimps
Baked pumpkin gnocchi
A nice, flavorful, affordable white wine; perfect match for the style of food
Call ahead, like a month in advance for most restaurants. It was easy, and I stopped counting people who walked in to various restaurants and were turned away.
View from Ponte dell’Accademia on the walk to the restaurant. Oh, bring your walking shoes, Venice is a walking city.
Pet shop security guard
We were up early the next morning, so took a walk over to Piazza San Marco.
Then back to the hotel for breakfast
The owner Matteo, cooking up breakfast for guests. This guy works too hard. Owns 2 hotels in Venice, 3 more in Trieste (closed for winter, so he was at our hotel most of the time), and another he’s renovating in Tuscany. Runs a tight ship, and has his staff trained very well. His wife bakes pastries for the two Venice hotels, amazing eggs from his grandmother’s farm. If you’re looking for the larger scale resort experience, this isn’t it. But as a small, intimate, cozy hotel, with attentive, knowledgeable, helpful service, Al Ponte Antico was great.
The canals are busy in the morning. There are no cars or trucks, so everything and everyone travels by water.
The next day we went back to San Marco, figuring we’d get in line to wait for entry to the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace - which raises a pet peeve: why oh why can we not just have names of places in their original language? I don’t need “english” translations for Milano, Roma, Torino, or 100 other famous cities and places around the world). This is the home, offices, and meeting places for the rulers of the Republic of Venice during the late middle ages, Renaissance, and later. Makes you realize there has always been a large wealth gap in the world. As luck would have it, there was no one in line, we walked right in.
Sampling of the weaponry exhibit
View from inside the famous and unimpressive Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri), leading prisoners from the palace to the prison complex.
And the Bridge of Sighs from outside
Next we walked all the way out to an old church, the Chiesa di San Sebastiano. Unfortunately, being renovated on the outside, and no pictures on the inside, but a beautiful 15th century example. But on the way back, we turned randomly on to a tiny street where we found an amazing little bakery: Dal Nono Colussi. Matteo told us this is the best in the city, and you can’t get near it around Christmas, they are so busy.
For lunch we went to Ostaria dai Zemei for cicchetti. Lots of little sandwiches and small savory treats.
Then a little gelato, with what would be the first of about 10,000 macarons we saw in Italy and France. I didn’t know that the macaron originated in Venice.
Walked by this place on our way back (Acqua e Mais), which I vowed to come back to, but never quite made it. Serving cones of deep fried fruits of the sea, looked delicious. They advertise themselves as “Venetian street food”.
A few random Venice scenes:
An example of the unusual and amazing glass art found around the city
Rialto Bridge
The secret to controlling health care costs in Europe
One thing we didn’t do, but should have planned for, is take in a concert. There were classical concert venues all over, and I’m sure it would have been amazing to hear some great live music in the beautiful, small halls.
Dinner the second night was at Osteria Oliva Nera. Bit of a disappointment, particularly as the owner sold me a wine that turned out to be problematic. Should have known something wasn’t right when the server went through a strange decanting ritual, pouring wine into one glass, aerating it, pouring into another, before even letting me taste. I should have sent it back, but it wasn’t terribly expensive, and I didn’t want to be the ugly american. But we saw different bottles being served normally, and at least one bottle of our wine going through the same ritual. She must have had a bad batch of wine she was pawning off on dumb americans. Oh well.
We ended up at Oliva Nera because I hadn’t called soon enough to Osteria Alle Testiere, a place our hotel owner Matteo says is one of the best in the city (he proposed to his wife there). So go there instead, but call well in advance.
Our last full day was reserved for general sightseeing. We crossed the Grand Canal over Rialto Bridge to check out the pretty impressive morning market
From there, we headed back to San Marco to catch the ACTV Vaporetto (water bus). A number of different lines cruise around different routes. We chose one that goes up the Grand Canal, out and around the cruise ship terminal, then back along the island of Giudecca, where we got off to have lunch at Palanca. You can buy a single trip ticket, or a day pass for 20E. We got the day pass, which allowed us to get on and off several places to explore, as well as grab the Vaporetto back to our hotel after dinner.
You’ll never find me on one of these
This one, OTOH…
Lunch at La Palanca
Views back toward San Marco area from the tower of Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore
Last dinner in Venice at Ristorante Agli Alboretti, highly recommended
“Bigoli” pasta with scallop and black truffle
Tagliolini with lobster ragout
Another delicious white
Walking back over Ponte dell’Accademia
The next morning we took a water taxi to the train station, heading to Milan, where we did a quick walk around the center, and picked up a car to drive to Piemonte. Water taxi is a bit spendy (60e in this case, plus tip and being extorted by the baggage handler on the dock), but a fun splurge, and definitely easier than schlepping your stuff through the streets, over bridges, on and off the Vaporetto. Being picked up from the dock of your hotel is the way to go
Milano Centrale
A walk through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on the way to the Duomo
We enjoyed our time in Venice, definitely a bucket list place to check off. Will we go back? Probably not as a destination in itself, though if we ever have the chance to stop there for another reason, like a cruise passing through, I would happily spend a few days exploring. It’s a tourist destination, and at this point exists primarily for that reason. But there is tremendous history, beauty, culture, food. I call it the 800 year old Disneyland for adults. You do need to be tolerant of crowds, even in the shoulder off season (end of October) we were there. There were times we literally couldn’t move through a narrow street, and had to find an alternate route, or just shuffle along for a bit. But we are glad we went, it’s truly a unique place, like nothing else anywhere.