Venice: 💚❤️

I LOVE VENICE!

I said in my last blog that I didn’t care for Milan. I just never connected with the city, Venice on the other hand grabbed my heart the second I stepped out of the train station.

If you know me, you know I’m a water baby, hell, ast month I paid $60 to float in a tank of salt water for an hour! I guess my childhood spent on Lake Vermilion had an effect on me.

So, that being said, Venice is humid A.F. Imagine that, a city that has water for streets is humid! I’ve given up on wearing any make-up this trip besides eyeliner, because I just sweat it all off. But my skin has turned a lovely shade of bronze, so make-up isn’t really needed (not that it’s ever needed).

I purchased my 3-day Vaporetto pass, and boarded the vaporetto I was told would bring me to the stop close to my hotel. A vaporetto is what Venice has instead of busses. They’ll hold like 200 people, but not very comfortably. The farther the vaporetto traveled down the Grand Canal, the deeper I fell under Venice’s spell.

I got off the vaporetto at the stop the hotel told me to, and followed their directions. I did not find my hotel. I found a small square with a restaurant, and a very helpful hostess, who pointed me to a very narrow street off a different part of the square. I took a left at the T when I should have taken a right to get me to my hotel. I found it easily after that, and got to my room. This hotel room was a bit bigger than my room in Milan, but the shower was smaller. BUT the air conditioning worked perfectly and that’s what really matters!

After spending a few minutes in the glorious AC, I left to go check out the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. It’s a modern art museum, but not like most modern art museums, which I hate. I don’t “understand” modern art. I just don’t get it, Meredith and Thomas could do something better than a lot of the modern art I’ve seen. But this museum is just Peggy Guggenheim’s collection that she personally collected over the years.

There were several paintings by Picasso, and Dali, and Miro, and one of my personal favorites, Magritte. There was also a special exhibition by a Mexican artist whose name escapes me at the moment. He was inspired by the ancient Aztec cities, and had many black and white pictures of the sites. I really liked this museum, but the best part was the front porch. The museum used to be Peggy’s house, so she had her own boat dock, right on the Grand Canal. The view was spectacular. I could have sat there for days, just watching the boats go by.

Monday morning, I had booked a tour of the city, that included a gondola ride. We met our guide in a little square just off the Rialto Bridge. There were 10 people in my tour group, a family from California, a couple from Las Vegas, a family from Washington via Qatar, and me. We had a walking tour of the city where we learned all about the history of the city, and how it came to be. We also got an insight into how Venice was built, let’s just say, A LOT of imagination. After about 2 hour we were dropped off at the gondola stand. Normally a gondola ride is 80 Euro, for a 35 minute ride. I just couldn’t justify that expense for myself, but as part of the tour, I could justify it. I was in a gondola with the family from Qatar. It turns out they’re both teachers at an International school there.

I really admire the gondoliers. They balance on this narrow boat, rowing with their one oar, and duck under bridges, while dodging other gondolas, vaporetti, and water taxis.

After the gondola ride, it was time to find lunch. I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I’m really hot, and sweating a lot, I don’t want to eat. Anything. So I did find a cold bottle of water, and a lemon granita (slushie).

We were left near St. Mark’s square, the major tourist center in Venice. I didn’t like it. Up to this point we had been in small streets and less densely visited areas of the city, but this square was just FULL of people. I didn’t like it. I don’t like feeling like a tourist.

After we re-convened after lunch, we had skip the line tickets for St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace. St. Mark’s is beautiful, as you would imagine a church in a major stranding city would be. The ceiling is done in mosaics, and the background of the whole ceiling is gold. The mosaics tell all kinds of stories, from the arrival of St. Mark’s remains in Venice, to the creation story, to the story of Jesus’s life. They’re all beautiful and elaborate and vividly colored.

The Doge’s palace is where the Doge, the Duke, or ruler of Venice lived. The Doge was an elected official, at first elected by everyone, then only by the upper class. There was a Doge ruling Venice until Napoleon conquered the city. The Doge’s Palace is full of art. It felt like walking though a museum, there were so many paintings on the walls. I didn’t get much from the Doge’s Palace, because I was really tired at this point, and my feet and back were hurting.

I went back to my hotel to stop sweating for a few minutes, and to rest my feet. After about an hour, I went in search of dinner, then some shopping. Again my dinner was 2 courses, both of which were more than I would want to eat for 1 course, and my pasta was underdone. It was NOT al’dente, it was about 2 minutes away from al’dente, but it still tasted good, so it’s ok.

My second full day was on my own. I decided I wanted to go to Murano and Burano, 2 other islands in the same lagoon as Venice. Murano is known for it’s glass. All of the mosaic tiles in the roof of St. Mark’s Basilica were made in Murano. Murano is amazing. There are WAY less tourists than in Venice. Every shop is selling amazing glass creations tht were made on-site. The reason Murano is known for its glass is because they were essentially kicked out of Venice. The city rulers told all of the glass makers that they needed to move to Murano, because obviously making glass involves a lot of fire, and Murano is a very small island, so if there was a fire, only Murano would burn, not the whole of Venice. Luckily I accidentally forgot my credit card when I went to Murano, or I might have spent A LOT of money, like A LOT of money.

Burano is even smaller than Murano. Burano is known for making lace. There were a lot of different clothing stores, but like all of the clothing stores I’ve admired up to this point, I don’t go in because I assume they won’t carry my size. Burano is also known for it’s colors. Every house in Burano is painted a different color. I’ve never seen such a colorful place, because even though every house is a different color, nothing ever clashes with anything else.

The trip from Burano back to my hotel took almost 2 hours, because of vaporetto schedules, and the vaporetti from Burano and Murano are usually VERY full, so I was standing for most of that time. I stopped back at the hotel to enjoy a little more AC, and use a free bathroom (most public bathrooms cost at least 1 Euro, usually 1.50 Euro.

I went out to find some souvenirs for the family, and decided to have gelato for dinner. I went to Amarino, which is apparently a chain of gelato shops across Europe. Their claim to fame is that their cones of gelato look like roses. You pay for that artistry though. It was good gelato, but for the price I could have bought twice aas much at a different shop, though it DID make for pretty Instagram post!

Speaking of Instagram. I have had it up to here with Instagram “models”. I get it honey you want to take the “perfect” picture, but when you block the path for 5 minutes to get that picture, or hog the picturesque photo spot from everyone else for 10 minutes, you’re just being annoying. AND if you’re spending that long taking your picture, don’t be annoyed when people walk between you and your photographer. You’re blocking a public walkway, not in a photo studio.

Sorry for that rant, I needed to let it out. But now I’m on the train to Florence, which everyone tells me “is beautiful”. So I hope it is. I’ll write again soon, love you all, and write some comments peeps!