speaker-0 (00:00)
For years, Venice has been one of those cities that's been in a very strange category for us. It's one of those places that everyone says you have to visit, but at the same time, people are quick to tell you all the reasons you won't enjoy it. We had heard our entire lives that Venice was overcrowded, dirty, and just filled with tourist traps. So when we decide to add Venice to the end of our month-long trip through Italy,
It wasn't exactly the destination we were most excited about. In fact, it probably received the least amount of planning of any stop on our itinerary. And that became obvious almost immediately. After landing at the airport, we grabbed an Uber and told the driver we were heading to Venice. About forty-five minutes later, he pulled into a large transportation hub. He got out and started unloading our luggage.
We just kind of looked at each other because we had given him the address of our apartment. We assumed that that's where he was taking us to. And one reason is because we had intentionally booked something outside of San Marco in the Canaregio neighborhood. But instead, he pointed us towards the waterfront and explained that this was as far as the cars could go. That was our first lesson about Venice.
There are no cars, no motorcycles, no bicycles. Once you enter Venice, transportation becomes boats and your own two feet. And what followed was a crash course in learning how Venice actually works. And if you've been, you're probably laughing at us right now. And as it turns out, the city that we almost overlooked became one of the biggest surprises of our entire Italy trip. Today we're sharing what we learned.
What we wish we had known before arriving and why Venice completely changed our expectations.
Speaker 2 (01:58)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (02:01)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (02:08)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (02:17)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
speaker-0 (02:20)
So Melissa, before we arrived in Venice, what were your expectations going into this trip?
speaker-1 (02:26)
So honestly, I did expect a lot of crowds after our experience in Florence, especially. just a lot of what I guess we would consider tourist traps, dirty canals, just because I had heard that from a lot of people, how Venice is very dirty. And so Venice is it seems to be one of those places people some people seem to love.
But also complain about at the same time because it is just a very unique place. And like you said, we had heard for years of these things. It's overcrowded. There's a lot of people. And I know they've enforced a tourist tax for, especially for day trips or day travelers, And it's one of those places that I think over time has really become a victim of its own popularity.
And I think it's always been one of those places that's been popular, right? This is a place like Rome, like Florence, even before social media, that obviously people have known about. It's a place we've heard about our entire lives. And so that was really our expectations. And I honestly was like, I'm excited to go see it, I guess. Or looking forward to go and see it. But I don't know that I was looking forward to.
If the experience was going to be like we had in Florence. But I was surprised. I think from the moment after the taxi, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about this, but after the taxi, the moment we stepped on the water ferry, I guess we should call it, because we're gonna distinguish between the taxis water ferries, but
I it was just like, my gosh, this is amazing. I couldn't stop videoing and those assumptions completely disappeared. It's it was just beautiful and it was just like, my gosh, this is amazing.
speaker-0 (04:05)
And I would say that any trash that was there was constantly being swept up, out of sight. They had these special like carts that would go around. It reminded me of something Disney esque, actually. They would put all the trash in there and then we saw they had this like barge on the canal and it had a big arm. It picked that trash container.
And then squeezed it and like the bottom opened up and all the trash emptied into that barge. But they were they constantly every night they would clean up the city. And so when you go out in the mornings it was fresh and clean again, even if it had gotten a little bit dirty during the day.
speaker-1 (04:47)
Yeah, and really, I mean, once we started exploring on foot and in in using the little ferry system too, we realized that there was so much more to Venice than the postcard image you see, just of the Rialto Bridge and just of St. Mark Square. It it just every little corner was something to be explored.
speaker-0 (05:09)
And I want to go back to the planning part. I think in we actually intended to do more planning and more research about Venice, but it was the end of our Italy leg. I think we just kept saying, we have time, we'll get around to it. And we never did. And so it's totally our fault that we didn't know that there was no cars.
Allowed inside of
speaker-1 (05:32)
I knew that there were parts where there would be no cars.
And then a lot of it, I just we had intentionally said we don't want to stay in this touristy place. I knew there's a place where the train came in. Obviously we found out here's where the, the taxis come in. I think I just didn't realize that beyond that one little area, everything else. And and then once you get there you you see why.
speaker-0 (05:51)
You say you realize that, but you n when I put the address into the Uber you didn't say the Uber's not gonna be able to take us.
speaker-1 (05:59)
No, I didn't know that 'cause I really thought that we were staying somewhere that was accessible. it's very obvious very quickly once you see how it's laid out that that is literally the only place, the place where the train comes.
speaker-0 (06:12)
Well, I would say the next is the second lesson that we learned because we learned some of these lessons very quickly and, consecutively. We walked up to the ticket office, we told them where we were staying, and we bought our Vaporetto, which Melissa's talking about earlier. The there are two forms of water transportation in Venice. There are the water taxis, which are like
nice, boats. most of them are like wooden cigar style boats or something like that. and then there are the Vaporettos, which is like a a water ferry system or water bus, if you will. And so we bought our tickets and the lady just kind of pointed in the direction of the
Where you get on board the the Vaporetto. Well, it's it's set up, I would say, kind of like a city bus system. And there are different places where you get on and off of the Vaporetto or the the water ferry. And this main area right there in the Grand Canal has like ten docks.
And you've got to make sure you get on the right one because only certain f ferries or vaporettos actually stop at each dock and depending on where they're going.
speaker-1 (07:37)
Yeah. And so, I mean, she was very nice. So thankfully she said, You're gonna get on this one and you're gonna get off at this stop. She even wrote it down for us. little did we know that you can actually just scan your phone or use a like your transit card on a phone. and you could do it that way. Of course, we would have had no idea where we were going. So I also felt like she charged us like whatever the whole day prices.
as well, which which seemed a little expensive because that was it was in the afternoon. And so that was the only ride that we were going to take that day. But if she hadn't have done that for us, we would have had no idea where we were going. But unfortunately we didn't realize like there's all these, it's it's just not very clear if you don't understand the system. And so I think we went in the first one because we saw a boat was coming and it was not the right one.
Well, we could have used that one. What we later learned was she didn't necessarily send us to the closest stop and we had all our luggage. So thankfully I these people were like looking at the map and standing there and I could tell that they spoke English. And I still asked them. I just said, Hey, do you guys speak English? And they had been there for a couple of days and so they were very nice and willing to help us. And I showed them where we were going and they kind of pointed us in the right direction and help us to get out of
the turnstile that we were in. So that was very nice. So we made it onto the the boat. The other thing that was also very nice, because I think sometimes you also hear that maybe people aren't going to be nice and they're going to be frustrated with tourists who have all this luggage. But once we got on the boat, the guy that was working on there, he was so very nice. I think you managed with your luggage.
But they they come and go very, very quickly. So they stop, they let people off, they let people on, and then they're ready to go. Like they stay on a schedule. And so I didn't have my luggage, I wasn't like in a like a secure position. This was a smaller boat too that had some steps down. And he took my luggage and put it up for me. And it he didn't have to do that. And I just thought that was really nice. And then when we did get to our stop, he pulled it back up for me. And so in that regard, we just really had a we had a good first impression.
We had had, two people, three people I guess in a row that had been very nice to help us out.
speaker-0 (09:51)
Rather than the Uber driver who just put us out.
speaker-1 (09:54)
Well, what was funny, so I need to go back and tell that 'cause what was funny is he kinda pulled up and he was like, this is the ferrys and this is this and he was telling us a few things and so I thought he was gonna keep going. And that was when he he said, This is where you're gonna take the boats and this is where you're gonna do this and that's when he got out and and I and I literally thought he was telling us for, Okay, once we get settled and get our bearings. No, he was telling me for right then.
speaker-0 (10:19)
Well, this is one of the things we say and we were not as great about practicing what we preach around luggage. we're traveling for three months. We had to prepare for cold weather, we had to prepare for warm weather, we had to prepare for working on a job site with Habitat Humanity. Like there's no way we were just getting away with a a carry-on for for three months.
Or a backpack for the for that matter. And so, we did have more luggage there than we would like to have had. But this is important to know when you're in Venice because you have the Grand Canal, and yes, the boat will put you out on the right side of the Grand Canal. But then when you get into these little neighborhoods, as you're walking to your hotel.
You may have other little bridges or other little canals that you have to cross. And so you've got to carry this luggage across these. Sometimes there's steps, sometimes there's ramps, the bridges that are going over these canals. So just know that. We had chosen a neighborhood called Canaregio, and we absolutely end up just loving Canaregio. And I think you've heard us say over and over again.
on the podcast recently is we like in these cities that are a little bit larger, we really love the neighborhood feel. And I think that was how Canaregio felt to us.
speaker-1 (11:43)
Yeah, I really was glad that we did that. There weren't any hotels like right in this area. Although ours was set up in this case, it was set up more like a hotel, I would say. We didn't have there were lots and lots of rooms, but There wasn't like a check-in desk or anything like that. It was a it was a self-service check-in. we didn't have a kitchen or or anything like that. So I guess it was
more so of a hotel, but still it it literally looked like it was just, a set of apartments. I do feel like the more hotels are gonna be in that San Marco area. Umce we started wandering around, I think that's where you're gonna see most of those. real quick, I wanted to say about the luggage. The other thing that I think that we sort of wish that we had kind of thought through is were there
like some sort of locker system like or something like that we had used in Florence either at the airport because we were coming and going from the airport. A lot of people may be using the train station or at the train station. So that we could have just like organized our stuff, maybe put a bag or two in there. I'm not sure. I think that there probably are, but just think about that if you want to, if you're especially if you're going for just a day or so. I think we ended up spending three or four nights.
speaker-0 (13:05)
I think it four nine.
speaker-1 (13:05)
I think
it was four nights, which highly recommend. We'll get into that, but also give yourself enough time to make it worth the effort. Especially if you're coming to the airport, give yourself enough time to make it worth the effort. But that might be something that you want to think about and look into. We just really had a good experience of that in Florence.
Is that probably if you are staying at one of the hotels that's like right on a canal, arranging a water taxi from the airport, from that main area is also an option. It is pretty pricey though. After this experience, we looked at it as an option of going back to the airport. I think it was gonna be close to 300 euros one way, and I just didn't want to spend that much money.
on transportation when there was another option that we'll go into.
speaker-0 (13:52)
Yeah. I wish we I wish we had thought about that luggage and doing what we did in Florence.
speaker-1 (13:59)
The other, the other thing though, is that here it was almost just like a very quick, baptism by fire, whatever you want to call it, into this system. And we just had to figure it out in a very short amount of time. Whereas I think if I would have researched this, I would have really overthought it, right? I would have looked into here's how you get.
So there is a boat where you can take from the airport directly into a couple of stops. That is what we ended up doing back, but I don't still don't think I think it would have been hard for us to know exactly what to do on the way. So I would have and then I would have like researched extensively all the ferry things and all the different boats. And we ended up just figuring it out and not spending a lot of time. So that's my only comment about that.
speaker-0 (14:50)
All right, well, you skipped over and let's go back to Canna Regio and talk about that because we said we really liked this and had a great neighborhood field. This is where people live.
speaker-1 (15:03)
Yeah, and it's actually a pretty quick boat ride to that main that main area. But then it's a quick walk or a quick, pretty quick boat ride to the other way on the Grand Canal. And so it was it was great in terms of location, but being outside of where just like the huge crowds are.
I will say it is where a lot of people actually live. In the mornings you would see people heading to work. Venice opens a lot earlier than places like Florence and stuff. I feel like even we noticed that more so the day that we left. Things were already open and stuff like that, but people were opening shops. You could see kids going to school, people going about their daily lives. And then the evenings, the neighborhood was just different than the like
the more place where the tourist or a lot of tourists congregate. So restaurants really filled up, wine gar bars got really busy. We walked like one canal over and over another bridge, like Scott was mentioning. And you could tell that it was locals gathering at their favorite places for the drinks and
in what Venetians call tapas, which is Chichetti. And so there was one canal side Chichetti place that we tried multiple times to visit that we had read about.
Every single time it was packed and it was just there weren't gonna be any place to like even put your drink. So we never could get in there.
speaker-0 (16:27)
And I I think that r usually says a lot for a place when it's packed every time you go by it.
think the locals clearly approved of the spot and it and really owned it, right? They were there, they were going in, spending their time, spending their money there at this this one place.
speaker-1 (16:46)
Yeah, which is really cool because it never felt like that we were stuck in just a a tourist district. we had to walk ten or fifteen minutes if you wanted to get to where all the I guess what do you say chain and luxury shops, the hotels, that San Marco where Saint Mark's Basilica and, the big piazza is. It was really like we were staying in a neighborhood.
because we were there were local produce stands, We even stopped in a hardware store one day to buy some batteries and so we were in a neighborhood and and that was that was really cool.
speaker-0 (17:24)
I
think one thing that stood out to me was how the city almost seemed to change or transform on a daily basis. We would walk out of our hotel room and, the night before there's nothing there. And then the next morning when we walk out, there's like a whole restaurant there, right? Tables, chairs, umbrellas. They weren't there the night before, So I think s Venice is definitely one of those cities that
You talk about the they roll up the
roll up the carpets at night or whatever. I don't know what that saying is, but they really do that. They take down all the tables and chairs and umbrellas and stuff and the awnings and stuff like that that they have. And so it just looks like any other building, but you walk out and there's a restaurant there or the like the last day where we we walked out and there's this fresh fruit market like right outside our door that hadn't been there though.
speaker-1 (18:19)
And almost like walked into it. I like, Whoa, like why is how is this even here? Because they use those roll-down metal doors. And so you literally have no idea. And I think the names are on the awnings. The restaurant across the street, which was so funny, has one of the It has like the little Italian man with the white hat and the
the white chef outfit and I think it probably had the menu on it or something. And they would put that inside at night. Like just everything goes inside and then everything comes back out. So and if things are closed, 'cause everything that we saw wasn't open every single day, then you you wouldn't see that stuff. So it was just a really, really neat place to stay.
speaker-0 (18:59)
Yeah, I think for like the the market, we were there over a weekend and so, it wasn't open over the weekend that we were there, but then that Monday morning you walk out and there it is and it's full glory. And so it's one of the neat things I thought about, Venice is how it just kind of transforms itself every day and things that you didn't see today you might see tomorrow and and stuff like that.
speaker-1 (19:27)
Yeah, and I would say we mentioned before we we really got to experience some of those rhythms both during the week and on the weekend. So I would say if you can give yourself at least four nights in Venice because honestly, I think it took us two days to really understand how the public water taxis worked. And by the end of our stay, we could pretty much walk all the way from our little Canarigio area all the way to St. Mark's.
Square and back not having to like use navigation. having learned a few landmarks and and things like that. And I'll be honest with you, even that second day we got on a water taxi and went in the wrong direction. And I thought it was gonna like, I don't know, loop back around or do something and it was the end of the line and we had to get off. But but it just takes you a while to learn that. I know that a lot of people talk about going to Venice for the day.
I think that would be difficult. You'd probably come in from somewhere else in the main tourist area, which would be very overwhelming. And you really wouldn't have the experience that we had in Venice if you don't give yourself some overnights. You also I think there is a hotel tax that you end up paying, but it's way less than the day tourist tax. So you do have to go online and pay like a day tax.
if you are just visiting for the day. And so I think it it tends to be less expensive if you if you don't.
speaker-0 (20:54)
Yeah, I think that's a good point. So you don't you don't have to do both, right? So if you're staying there and you pay the hotel tax, then you don't have to pay that day day visitors tax.
speaker-1 (21:04)
Yeah. So that I think that was one reason that we enjoyed it so much. is is having several days just to kind of really wander and get to know the city.
speaker-0 (21:13)
We also really enjoyed that transportation system, not just because it was easy to get around, but it you got to see so much of Venice from the water and it was absolutely beautiful.
speaker-1 (21:25)
Yeah, I I really felt the same way just from even our very first experience. It was just like, my gosh, we're here and this is what this city looks like. And like I mentioned, even though we're sitting there with our luggage and I was already like, I've got to take videos of this. It it worked very much like transportation systems that we have experienced that we're used to, places like London and New York and Paris and Hong Kong. It basically works by which direction do you want to go.
It's named kind of by that last stop. And then where do you want to get off? There were different lines. Like Scott mentioned, I think some of them are numbers and some of them are letters, but you really do get to see Venice differently from the water. And by having as much time as we did and staying where we did, we had a good mix of using that Vaporetto system and then walking, just depending on where we were going. And then also you can also definitely use.
Google Maps to do this, just make sure that you have ferrys turned on and then it populates because they run on a schedule just like most public transportation systems. But just go in your settings and make sure that you have ferrys turned on because that was my other mistake when we first arrived, is I didn't have ferrys turned on. I still think it was very helpful for just for us to ask her what to do, but other than that, it just makes it easy to figure out where you're going.
speaker-0 (22:47)
Earlier you had talked about having the transportation card, on your on your Apple wallet. And that is probably your cheapest way. There is a I think we said there was like a daily maximum charge of using that. But if you're just using it for one stop, the the charge was just like
a couple of Euros versus if you bought the whole day pass, I think it was somewhere around,
speaker-1 (23:16)
Fourteen fifty or something like that with what it capped down at.
speaker-0 (23:19)
Something
like that. I would say just use the tap on your phone and that's a cheaper way to do it unless you're just constantly on that Vaporotto system.
speaker-1 (23:28)
Yeah, and you say tap on your phone, but I think you can also tap a credit card. So you could either use like your your Apple wallet or something like that, or just tap that credit card. And as long as you tap that same credit card and then it won't charge you until the end of the day to it so till it sees how much you use it, which is the same way the system in London works.
speaker-0 (23:46)
Let's talk a little bit about the canals in Venice. I said growing up, I'd heard how dirty Venice was, and the canals were dirty, and that's just quite opposite of what our experience was in Venice. I think though everybody wasn't wrong. Like, I think there was a time when it wasn't so clean, and I think that they've done a lot.
To focus on the cleanliness of Venice. But the canals are just so picturesque. whether you're walking down the streets and crossing these canals on these little footbridges, or, maybe a gondola ride, and let's talk a little bit about that, doing our gondola ride. But
These canals just provided
Kind of a I'm gonna use Melissa's word, kind of a magical experience in looking at this city. And it's so unique to to Venice is I don't know there's anywhere that's that's just like this.
speaker-1 (24:46)
So they have that canal that the the grand canal and then all the little canals that connect everything. And I mean what you'll notice is that our gondolier, which we're gonna talk about in a second, but he, he basically pointed out a lot of things. If you see these.
This is where you could park, this is where you could drop off for the hotel. And then in a lot of the smaller canals, closer to like where we were staying, is where people could store their own personal boats and watercrafts and and things like that.
speaker-0 (25:14)
Well, that's a really good point because as much as I just said that these canals were so picturesque and and beautiful in different places, that even that's not their purpose at all. These canals are really part of the infrastructure. the locals use the boats the same way that many of us use cars.
We saw deliveries being made by cargo vessels. We saw supplies being loaded for shops and restaurants. And then you've got water taxis moving people throughout the city. And I would say most of the taxis are probably used by by the locals. And even people with their personal boats going from here to there. You you commented on Saturday morning.
Or Sunday morning, I don't remember which one, but anyhow there was a man and his two kids and they were out on the boat. You said they'd probably been out and, doing some shopping or stuff like that.
speaker-1 (26:12)
Yeah. I just said, can you imagine just like running your errands and and doing stuff on with your boat? But then of course a lot of the locals do use the vaporetto system as well. to get around and to run errands and to get from here to there.
speaker-0 (26:27)
Well, if you're going to Venice, you're definitely going to want to do a gondola ride. Now, listen, the gondola rides are not inexpensive. I think like if you did it in the middle of the the day, it was
speaker-1 (26:42)
It's ninety dollars for I think it's half an hour, right? And then if you do it between seven now, they don't stay open super late. So you're not gonna do like nighttime ones, but I think from seven
it may depend on the time of the year. because he had told me if it's between seven and eight thirty, then it's a hundred and ten. So it's basically twenty dollars more if you want to do it later in the evening. And then he said that they finish at eight thirty. Now this was their particular gondolier stop, their his little circuit that he did. We also saw people getting on and off them.
at the end of the Grand Canal, like in front of St. Mark's square, where it was, I don't know, the water was a bit rougher and you would be out more in the open water. Where we actually got on was like deep in a canal. But what was really cool about it is that we went out into the Grand Canal, under the Rialto Barridge, turned around, and he was like, this is my favorite view. And all of Venice is looking back at this bridge.
And then, back into the canal and back to the stop where we came from. We picked this one out completely at random. Again, we didn't really do any research. I had seen the stop earlier. I had seen some people waiting. I saw some people getting off. And funny enough, I actually stopped and talked to our gondolier. Matthew.
Actually talked to him, asked him a couple of questions, including like the timing, how long would he be there? Cause we had kind of talked about we want to do one in the evening and said, Okay, we'll talk about it and come back. And funny enough, when we came back, it was the same guy and he recognized me. He was like, you came by earlier. And so we decided to do that with him. I won't say for all of them. He actually took car. He was able to accept a car. I would be prepared either way. But we also it was funny because we also saw people
a lot of places standing in long lines to do this.
speaker-0 (28:34)
And our recommendation is to stay away from the busy canal. Get into one of these smaller canals. Like, we found Matthew, and if if you guys want to go and find Matthew in in the same place, there was a pizza restaurant called Hoot H U T T E. And it was on one side of a small canal.
And then there's like a gelato shop on the other side, which is where the bench was where you could sit and wait for the next gondola. But look that look that place up and maybe you can get Matthew too. Matthew was great because he was born and raised there in Venice. he showed us where he went to elementary school and and things like that.
And he really knew a lot about Venice and was happy to share that. He he asked us though, he's like, do you want me to be quiet and just kind of guide you or do you want do you want me to tell you some stuff? Obviously we chose the tell us some stuff, but he he was a definitely a great gondolier. And I think he might have actually owned
several of those boats or something like that. One thing I will say though is if you want music on your gondola ride, that's an option. We saw people playing the guitar, we saw people playing like the accordion. We saw people singing. So that is an option, but I think you're gonna have to go like to the Grand Canal and and choose one of those. It is
I think like fifty Euros more to add music in to your gondola ride.
speaker-1 (30:15)
Yeah. But honestly, I mean our experience with Matthew, so that we could like hear all this stuff, he told us that the origin of the word graffiti comes from there in Venice. He told us so many things. he told us some history about the hospital and he said that's where a lot of the kids play football in the afternoons, which would be what we would call soccer, but and he told us, some things to go if we had a chance to go look at that.
He just had so much good information, like I mentioned before, about, this is where gondolas can stop, this is where they can park. And so we just got lucky picking this certain one. I also sort filmed this little video. I I think got Scott's directions that H U T T E pizza, and then across from that, the gelato shop. But I did film a little quick video.
that I haven't posted yet. I'm gonna post it on social media and I'll put the link to that here as well. So that if you wanted a visual representation of where that was. But we just we just absolutely feel like we lucked up on this. The other reason is because we went through a lot of little bridges from little canals. And so I think that's where you really see their skill because they're having to guide it right to the middle and, lean down and
of course, keep the boat upright and not, hit their heads and and all that stuff. So you really and and also to fit the the tips of those gondolas, right, where it has the metal piece, like so they don't scrape. And so you just really see their skill level all while like telling you things and and talking to you.
speaker-0 (31:43)
Yeah. He also talked to us about the future of Venice and the concerns that many of the locals have about the city because it's continuing to sink and challenges that the rising sea levels may create over time. And his viewpoint is that it probably won't flood in our lifetime.
But it definitely could within the next hundred years. And so, there's a lot of mixed thoughts on that, but that was a locals viewpoint on it. And he said everything has a beginning and everything has an end. And, he was just kind of realistic about it. I think we're just kind of glad that we visited Venice at this exact moment and rode in this gondola
with Matthew because now as we like to do, it changes it from just a place that we're visiting and we're tourists to now we're sitting with the local or, we're talking to a local and we're really interacting with them on that more personal level. And so always encourage you to try to do that when you travel.
speaker-1 (32:54)
Yeah, it was a hundred percent worth it. Scott and I actually talked about this before we did the gondola ride. Is this something we wanna do? Do we wanna spend the money on this? And he was like, we have to when we're in Venice. We absolutely have to. if you get the right person who will tell you some things like we did.
It is like getting to spend a short amount of time, with a local and just hearing from their perspective, which was just was great. So I definitely think it is something that you have to do when you go
speaker-0 (33:20)
And I think as far as like the music, it would be neat to have that, but you can go stand on some of these inner canals and just listen and you'll be able to hear someone else paid for that music, but you get to listen to it.
speaker-1 (33:35)
Yeah, it's also fun just to stand there and watch people people watch and take pictures or videos or whatever of the people going in and out in the canals in the gondolas as well.
speaker-0 (33:45)
So another place to to visit in Venice was Saint Mark's Basilica and the Campanille. Strongly recommend that if you're visiting the basilica, that you add the museum ticket to it. I think that ended up being one of my favorite parts was that museum. We had gone inside the church and we were looking around and
I'd say there's there's probably not a whole lot to see in the church itself. Like parts of it are closed right now 'cause they're doing some refurbishment and and stuff like that. But we did add on the museum and we went up there
I was just blown away. And really, there's one thing that I would say that's up there that you just have to go see. And it's these four original bronze horse statues. And they're like lifelike size horse statues. And they believe that these statues date back to the first or second century BC.
They're inside the museum. They've created some reproductions that are on the outside of the basilica, but those originals are inside there and just being that close to something that was crafted and done potentially one to two thousand years before Christ, I mean that's amazing.
They came from Constantinople, which I think a lot of artistic treasures came out of Constantinople. I don't know if like they just sold off everything that they owned for time or what, or or if it was like yard sales, like, hey, I've got these four horses, why don't you take them? I I don't know, but they're they're now at that Saint Mark's Basilica and it's just unbelievable.
speaker-1 (35:28)
Yeah, honestly, the the whole church is. That's probably one of the well-most known things of about St. Mark's Basilica. The other cool thing, so I mean, they just have a fascinating museum because just like a lot of these places, a lot of the originals are where they show how they've had to do some of the restorations. A lot of the originals are in there, since you get to go higher in there, you get a closer view of the ceiling in several places.
But then you also get to go out on the balcony where the reproductions are, and you just have a view all of the front of St. Mark's Square and that whole area. So I think I don't remember exactly. I want to say it was like something like 10 euros for the base ticket just to get into the church part. And then maybe another 850 or something like that to add this on.
There was also another add-on that you could see to go into the very front part of the church and see some of the things that they have there. we did not do that.
speaker-0 (36:29)
Yeah,
it was like a shrine or something like that or
Chapel.
speaker-1 (36:32)
Yeah. And so we decided not to do that, but we are glad that we added on this other part, which we did actually while we were inside. it was kind of hard to tell exactly, what the different things were. What I would say is that if you want to go inside St. Mark's and you're going in the summertime, so I would say June, July, August, I would make sure to buy these tickets ahead of time, just like you would for Rome and Florence.
We got lucky. We weren't really sure which of the things we'd want to do and what we would, be fun seeing from the outside or whatever. We were able to get tickets like for the next day. and I looked fairly early on.
speaker-0 (37:09)
and so from the top of St. Mark's, if you go to the museum, you get to go on that balcony. And as Melissa said, you got the best views of of St. Mark's Square. However, if you want the best views of Venice, you need to go into the bell tower that's across from the Basilica. And let me tell you, if if you don't like to climb stairs.
You're in luck. There's no stairs to climb. They've got an elevator that takes you up to the top of this bell tower.
speaker-1 (37:39)
Yeah, and I don't even think it's climbing the stairs is an option in this one. Like it's the elevator or nothing. The thing I loved about it is that you could stay up there as long as you want.
speaker-0 (37:48)
Yes.
No one was forcing you to hurry up or, keep moving or anything like that. And you had these three sixty panoramic views of Venice, just unobstructed, gorgeous views. And so I would say definitely make sure that that is on your list of things to do.
speaker-1 (38:09)
Yeah, thankfully we were able to get tickets just like for the very next time slot. This was not something that we planned ahead, but we did this early on. I think we did it not the day we arrived because it was late, but the very next day and we were down there. You do have to get them online. You can't buy them right there. But I just went online real quick and I think it was like I could get them for a time slot that was like 10 minutes later, which was at before sunset, I think, as well. Be aware.
that the bells still ring. And it will scare you to death. And they ring for a while. So just be aware of that. They're very loud and they and they ring for a while. probably our my second, second favorite thing that that we did. So definitely worth it. So you can just see bird's eye view of what Venice looks like.
speaker-0 (38:40)
Yes.
Well, so finally w we did go see the Rialto Bridge. Melissa talked about it. We sa that we saw it from the water when Matthew took us on our gondola ride. But we decided that we would walk over to it and and see it on foot and in person as well.
It's similar, I would say similar to Ponte Vecchio in Florence. I don't know. I maybe it's something that you need to do, but we saw much better views of it from the from the water.
speaker-1 (39:24)
I think I agree. It's not about being on it unless you just want to go and have your picture made on it. there's just gonna be a lot of people. But definitely it's about seeing it from a distance and like you said, from the water is is best.
speaker-0 (39:39)
Yeah. It is an iconic bridge, but the the best pictures are gonna come from the water or away from the bridge, down by the water, not on the bridge itself.
speaker-1 (39:52)
So thankfully Venice is also one of those cities where like just wandering around, maybe getting quote unquote lost, because you're not really going to get that lost because it's not I don't know, it's not that big. And you can't wander too too far. But it's really a part of the experience. And so sometimes it was fun just to not really pay attention to the map, maybe turn down a street or turn
a couple of streets before, cross a bridge that looks interesting, stop on it, keep wandering, pop into a church, look at the shop windows. And I really think
I mean, this, as you know, was our frustration in Florence. You could wander and wander and wander and find absolutely nothing, but Venice wasn't that like like that at all. I mean, there were shops everywhere, there was restaurants everywhere. And I think some of our favorite moments really happened when we were just kind of wandering around, looking in things and we weren't necessarily trying to get anywhere.
speaker-0 (40:53)
Well, let's spend just a minute talking about the food.
And remember, we had been in Italy for about a month at this point in time. And I think we've shared that along the way we found we found it really difficult to
Get a lot of protein, right? There's a lot of carbs, breads, pastas, things like that. But we found Italy to be difficult to get a lot of protein in. And I think by the time that we got to Venice, we were just like carbed out. We needed some protein. And I don't know that Venice is really known for its foods.
speaker-1 (41:32)
Yeah, and I think also having just come from Puglia where there was just like really good food.
it it made it a whole lot harder. we'll talk about a couple of things in a second, but Venice also, even if you think you know what you're gonna get, it's gonna be something different. They have their own food preparation method. So what I would say if Venice is your first stop in Italy and you're looking forward to pasta and I don't know, all the Italian things you're looking forward to and you're going other places too, don't worry, because it will definitely get better.
I also think that you can find really good, probably more expensive restaurants.
speaker-0 (42:11)
Yeah. One one example is we had had the fried sardines in different places across Italy. And the fried sardine was always the same. It's the little small sardine. It's lightly coated and and then fried. And it's crunchy, hot, crispy, hot, right? Fresh. Well, I ordered
What on the menu said fried sardines, and they came out to the table. They were ice cold, they were slimy. And so I said something to the waiter. I was like, This isn't, I don't think this is what I ordered. And he said, this is the Venetian preparation of that. So if that was true, then yeah.
Venice can keep its own preparation because that was horrible.
speaker-1 (43:07)
Yeah, when it's just like so frustrating when you're expecting one thing. which I will say happened quite a number of times in Italy. But a lot of times it was just like, okay, this is just different, but not, ooh, I really don't like this.
So the other thing that was different was the Aperol spritz. So when you've been in Italy three weeks and you've had a number of Aperol spritzes.
speaker-0 (43:29)
Yeah, so let's talk about this. What would be the normal garnish for an Aperol sprit? It's usually an orange. Guess what in Venice they decided that they needed to do? They put an olive in it. It's not a martini.
speaker-1 (43:33)
Well it's usually orange.
And you do not like olives. Typically green olives, with the pit on the steak, but you're just like, No, what what?
speaker-0 (43:44)
No.
It doesn't belong in a Aperol Spritz. That's not an Aperol Spritz.
speaker-1 (43:54)
Yeah. So we did fond, we did ha eat at one place.
where we ended up doing a chartre board that was very, very good.
We didn't really end up having the chicchetti. the one place that we had tried to go, but then also it's I don't know, it's kind of like I would say when you go to Barcelona and it's the the ones that are already prepared and have a lot of stuff on it. We don't typically do those either, just because you don't there's certain combinations of things and it was hard to tell what was on these different little taccetis.
So we ended up eating at a place that was really near where we stayed. We'd seen it a couple of times. We looked it up. It was called the Oriental Experience. It was more Bangladesh food, which has a very strong we like Indian food. So that kind of influence, which was very good, it gave us like a break. And that's the kind of food that we eat in London, which is funny. It's not like we go to London and eat fish and chips and fish and chips.
So that that was fine. We also had seen in several places in Italy, or at least a couple of places, something called Old Wild West. Yeah. And so that was like, okay, we can go here and get some protein. Hamburger steaks. It actually ended up being really good, but it was really funny because like their Alabama burger was a a vegetarian burger, which doesn't fit. You usually think of that like in California.
We kinda got a kick out of the the Wild West experience, but
speaker-0 (45:19)
Yeah, I mean it's okay. You can try different things. You don't have to go to Venice and only have Italian food. And I'm certain that there's something that we're missing in Venice that is just outstanding. But like I s we talked about this was the end of a a month in Italy. We had had some great food in Puglia.
and in Bologna. So I I think we got the Italian experience.
speaker-1 (45:50)
Yeah. So like I said, if this is your first stop and you're like, my gosh, what is happening? Don't worry, it's gonna get better. But also don't come to us for your Venice restaurant recommendations. I did have a couple of people send them to me, but it was a little bit too late, unfortunately. So
speaker-0 (46:06)
And I do want to just call out though that that pizza place I told you about HUTTE if you find yourself kinda late at night and maybe you skipped dinner or had an early dinner and you're just looking for a quick bite or quick smack, highly recommend that pizza place.
So we went in there and we had like this chicken swarma pizza. It was it was something totally different and we decided we'd try it. It was really good and so you can get something like that. And that's one of the places that we would recommend if you needed something.
when we arrived in Venice, we expected to spend a few days checking a famous destination off our list. Instead, it became one of our favorite stops in Italy.
We discovered a city that was clean, it was vibrant and full of life. A city where locals gather in neighborhood wine bars, children grow up attending schools along canals, and boats replace cars.
If Venice is on your travel list, don't rush it. Stay a few nights, learn the Vaporetto system, explore neighborhoods like Canaregio, and take time to wonder. Because Venice isn't just a city to see, it's a city to experience.
And sometimes the destinations we're least excited about end up becoming the ones that we remember most. Venice was that place for us. We arrived expecting crowds, dirty canals, and a city living on its reputation. Instead, we found a vibrant community built around waterways, neighborhoods full of local life, and a city that was far more authentic than we had expected.
So if Venice is on your list, don't just visit the landmarks. Explore the neighborhoods, ride the vaporetto, sit beside a canal with a glass of wine and get lost on purpose. You may discover that, like we did, that Venice is much more than the postcard version
you've seen your entire life. Thank you for joining us today. And until
next time, keep exploring, stay curious, and remember.
The world is full of sunshine and surprises.
