The beautiful canals of Venice!

Our next big trip was to celebrate our 3^rd anniversary.  We decided a romantic place to go would be Venice.  We had a wonderful time, but if you ever decide to go to Venice, DO NOT go at the end of July.  It was around 100 or more with the heat index every day that we were there.  We spent the warmest part of the day in museums or back at our bed and breakfast.  At any rate…..here we go!

We flew RyanAir into Venice and had to take a bus from the airport to the island.  This should have been about a 45 minute bus ride, but the lady at the ticket counter for the bus told us to get on the wrong bus that didn’t go all the way onto the island.  So, we had to get off the bus and figure out when and where to pick up the next one to take us where we needed to go.  We ended up waiting for about a half hour or so for our next bus, but made our way to the island.  Brandon found a great bed and breakfast on the island about a 15 min walk from the main bus station.  We checked in, relaxed for a few minutes and hit the ground running. 

There are absolutely no vehicles in Venice except for by the main train and bus station, so to get around everyone uses boats.  They have a public transportation system that is all done by vaporetto (water bus).    To get our bearings and see some of the famous buildings we took a vaporetto ride down the grand canal and used our Rick Steves book to educate us on what we were seeing along the way. 

After our canal ride we walked around the city a bit to take in the sites of such a unique city.  Venice is VERY touristy, but off the beaten path is a lot more quiet and nice.  We love wandering around and getting away from all the other tourists when we travel; however, in such a small city you aren’t away from other tourists for long.  We saw some of Venice’s famous buildings and went back to our room for a little bit to cool off.    We had the top floor of our bed and breakfast and although it was a little warm even with the air conditioner on, the room was awesome!  It was a studio apartment with our own private rooftop balcony.  We have really come to love staying at B&Bs or apartments when we travel.  They are usually a lot bigger and more comfortable (and you get “free” breakfast!). 

We found a great place to have some local wine and cichetti (traditional venetian appetizers that were mainly seafood) along with some great pasta.  We ventured out of our comfort zones and tried some traditional food.  We ate sardines, squid and octopus (well, one of us tried all of those things…the one that doesn’t even like seafood to begin with).  If I tried something and said it was okay, Brandon would try it after me, haha!

After dinner, we walked to Piazza San Marco for a drink at one of the restaurants downtown to listen to the “dueling orchestras” and enjoy the ambiance of Venice at night. 

The next morning we slept in, had a great breakfast at our B&B and headed out to a day filled with (hopefully air conditioned) museums.  We visited Doge’s Palace which was really neat.  The palace is the old residence of the Doge of Venice who was the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice.  We also visited the Correr museum which was filled with paintings dedicated to depicting Venetian history.  We found a great little sandwich place to have some lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the back streets of Venice and climbing the bell tower on Piazza San Marco.  During the hottest portion of the day, we went back to the hotel for a few hours and scouted out a great place for dinner. 

Other than the heat, we had a great time in Venice and would love to go back some day when it isn’t so hot!  This was a wonderful place to spend our 3^rd anniversary and a trip we will never forget!