Venice

I have always wanted to go to Venice since forever. Seeing it in a thousand movies and being a backdrop in countless books drove my fascination and yearning to see it for myself. The city itself certainly did not disappoint. A myriad of canals encircled a vibrant hub of activity as we stepped off a 6 and a half hour train ride from Munich.

This city was made to get lost in. While we managed to find our Airbnb easily after getting off a vaporetto (Venice’s ferry service), we were told that this is a place to lose yourself and any notions of time. We took it easy our first venture out though by heading to the beautiful Piazza San Marco. I felt like I was in a Dan Brown novel, a James Bond film and about to pull off a heist like in The Italian Job (Mark Wahlberg version) all at once. We further explored to the west of this square discovering where the ‘finer’ things in life were (read: expensive as all heck clothing and jewellery). We learned quite quickly that the Italians, especially in Venice, are quite good at making things out of Murano glass. It was everywhere! And not all of it was cheap with one sculpture type thing going for a cool 2,500 euros. Yikes.

Our first foray into Italian food in Italy didn’t quite go as planned for me as I accidentally ordered sea bass cannelloni. Those who know me know I’m not a big fan of seafood so luckily Cal came to my rescue by finishing off my plate (which isn’t a new phenomenon – portions sizes around Europe are sometimes a little too big for me). Luckily some pretty damn awesome gelato afterwards helped mend the woops.

The next day we explored to the east of Piazza San Marco, going further away from the tourist areas and also seeking shade wherever we could. While Venice is great, my god it was hot while we were there. We ended up at the Parco delle Rimembranze and then found lunch halfway back along one of the more open stretches of Venice. We thought we were smart by taking a different way home but ended up trapped in some garden where we couldn’t proceed as you needed to pay to get through due to some exhibition and we had travelled too far to backtrack. Luckily a free shuttle got us to a part of the island where we could walk back, letting us see things we would never have if we didn’t lose ourselves amongst the buildings and bridges. 

After our long detour (and a cold shower) we were off for a gondola ride. While you will see below that the photos were worth it, it was also ridiculously overpriced (40 euros each). We did say to ourselves at the beginning of the trip that we would go on one so we didn’t back down, but there are some cheaper alternatives to seeing the canals. More Italian food and gelato was also consumed. All in all, we had the best time in Venice and can’t wait to return.

I can’t take credit for all the photos you see below. After a quick rundown on some camera buttons and settings, Cal had a better spot at the front of the gondola and took some great pics of the front of the boat.

See you on the flip side!

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