ITALY--honeymoon blog (Venice)

Sunday: Arrival in Venice

We arrived at the venician airport and traveled by taxi to the island. Once we got to the island, we traveled by water taxi to our hotel. We could not travel along the grand canal because there was a big regatta happening that day and thousands of boats were racing around the lagoon and through the grand canal. We ended up being dropped off in San Marco’s square and walking through the shopping district to get to our hotel – The Westin: Europa & Regina. It was beautiful. The lobby was ornate, marbled, and beautiful. The hotel is right on the grand canal and has a boat entrance for pick up/drop off. Our room was beautiful. I felt like we were sleeping in a room in a mansion. Our hotel used to be the home of the famous 18^th century Italian artist, Tipelo. We were exhausted from our flight and ended up taking a 3 hour nap before heading out to explore Venice. We headed to San Marco’s square, where we saw the outside of the Basilica di San Marco, the Campanile, and the Palazzo Ducale.

We walked along the pier where we observed the other tourists, hagglers trying to sell knock off designer purses, and cafes, restorantes, and tratorrias every 10 ft. We ended up eating at a little café. Ben had a quarto fromaggio pizza and I had pasta ragu (pasta with meat sauce). We shared a bottle of white wine (chardonnay) and ended our meal with limoncello (Italian lemon-flavored after dinner drink). After dinner we went to the old prison and watched a quartet perform Vivaldi’s four seasons. We then went to the piazza de San Marco and had dessert (tiramasu and red wine) in one of the café’s in the square. Each of the café’s in the square had a live band that performs traditional/classical Italian music.

Monday, May 24 -- touring venice

Ben and I started off the morning with the hotel's complimentary breakfast out on the patio next to the grand canal enjoying a gorgeous view. We then set off to explore the city. Venice has so many little squares or (piazzas), bridges, and little streets, and we explored a good deal of them before ending up at the Rialto bridge around lunchtime. The Rialto bridge is the largest bridge spanning the canal, and the surrounding area is a bustling marketplace, selling everything from meat, fruit, and bread to jewelry and murano glass.

We stopped to have a drink at a cafe next to the canal before heading to explore the marketplace and the San Polo district. Later in the afternoon, we also explored Dorsoduro and Ca'Rezzonico -- a palace once owned by Browning. It's now a museum with beautiful decorative items and paintings. We then took a vaporetta (a sort of public waterbus) back to San Marco's square, we we tried to find a place to eat lunch. We ended up getting some mozarella and tomato paninis at a cafe near the square. We then did some shopping (buying some murano crystal and glass) and then took a brief nap at our hotel before heading out to San Marco's square to see the Basilica de San Marco, a beautiful chapel in San Marco's square. Later in the evening, we took a romantic gondola ride to dinner. Although our gondolear did not sing, it was still a great experience.

We ate at Sempione which definitely had some authentic venecian food (such as a fried sardines and eel). After dinner, we walked back to San Marco's square along the pier and tried to go into the famous "harry's bar" founded by an American. However, they wouldn't let Ben in because he was wearing shorts, so we ended up going to a tratorria near our hotel to get a late night snack and some drinks.

The next day, our travel guide picked us up from the hotel and we traveled by water taxi to the train station, and we were off to Firenzie (Florence)!