Our last destination in Italy was Venice. Located in the North East quadrant of Italy, it is arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But, with all of the beautiful sights we have seen in Italy, how much better could it be? Quite a lot, as it turns out…
We chose to stay just outside of Venice in Quarto d’Altino, at the Crowne Plaza just next door to the train station. As in most Italian cities, you want to leave your car and take public transportation into the city, or else, you’ll be sorry! In this case, Venice is a car-free zone, so public transport is the only way in.
As we were driving up from Florence, we regularly checked Venice weather on all of the major internet weather sites. Most predicted heavy rain for the next two days, except for BBC.com that predicted “patchy blue skies with occasional heavy rain” (nothing like covering all your bases!). We decided to forego going in to Venice until the following day, and instead, headed into Treviso, a nearby town from the hotel.
After our arrival in Treviso, we quickly found parking near the city center. Although Treviso also has canals running through the city, it is unlike the grand canals of Venice. A beautiful town, none-the-less.
Since 5:30pm is way too early for dinner in Italy, we walked around and did some sightseeing before the restaurants opened at 7:00pm. Luckily, the city center had some beautiful structures and shops to keep us occupied until then.
We walked over to the Duomo, dedicated to St. Peter, and took a quick look inside. Beautiful, as you would expect.
Nearby, there were shops and narrow roads that lined the canals. We saw few tourists here, possibly due to it being off-season. However, we didn’t mind having many of the streets to ourselves.
7 pm quickly arrived and we were one of the first to be seated at Da Pino Pizzeria Ristorante. Highly recommended by several sources, we were again, not disappointed. The pizza and salads were great!
The next day turned out to be sunny and clear! (Where do these weather forecasters get their information?) After breakfast in the hotel, we walked next door and boarded the train for the 20 minute ride into Venice’s St. Lucia station.
Venice was spectacular! We were overwhelmed by its’ beauty and by the excitement in the air. Here was one of the most famous cities in the world and we were fortunate to have come during great weather and light crowds. It doesn’t get much better than that!
We boarded the vaporetti (water buses) that will ferry you to different areas within Venice, pretty efficiently, I might add. You just find your route and stand in a small area that looks like a “bus stop”. The boat arrives and you are quickly on your way.
We headed for Piazza San Marco, the famous square where St. Mark’s Basilica and the bell tower are (and don’t forget about the thousands of pigeons there as well!)
The girls all went inside the Basilica, but since my backpack (stuffed full of umbrellas, rain gear and water bottles) looked suspicious, I was asked to go to another security station, or else sit outside. I chose to go outside…
We had lunch at the new Hard Rock Café that just opened in Venice. Although it was a bit hard to find, it was worth it since we all love the food there. We also enjoy seeing their different locations throughout Europe (so far we've been to seven). And it’s a chance (for me, anyways) to have a “real” hamburger and not that thing they call a burger in Europe!
We saw Rialto Bridge, one of the four famous bridges that cross the grand canal, just before PS fell asleep in her stroller. That is my cue to sit down, relax and rock her stroller, while Jo and DS go off to do some more sightseeing and shopping. I am content to just sit and people watch while PS snores soundly asleep. I figure I better enjoy it now, before she gets out of the “nap” stage…
Soon enough, it started to get late and we had to start thinking about getting back to the hotel. Jo decided she wanted to take the vaporetto the “long way” back to the train station, and mistakenly chose one heading the opposite way back. It turned out to be the REALLY long way back! It was ok, though, because how many times are you going to be in Venice? In addtion, the sunset cruise along the canals was quite spectacular...
A quick snack at the train station sufficed for our dinner that night, and we took one of the last trains back to Quarto d’Altino. And conveniently, the hotel was just next door which made it a blessing after the long day on our feet.
We had been told by some Europeans to save Italy for last, because nothing else will measure up to her beauty. Well, that may be so, but if we were to do it again, I definitely wouldn’t wait this long to go there – that way, you can immediately start planning a return visit before time runs out…
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