Venice

If you’ve never been to Venice, you should go. There is no other city in the world quite like it. Of course, nowadays it’s mostly just a tourist trap, but you can still have a wonderful experience there. I went in early February so it’s still quite cold and windy, but on the plus side there are way less tourists.

The best way to see the town is to get a public transport pass for the day. This includes all buses and vaporettos, which are essentially water buses. They come to stops regularly and with Google Maps or just the route maps at each station, you can get around quite easily. If you want to walk you can get most places by foot as well, though distance is deceptive there, since there are few straight routes.

Vaporetto stop, they are all over the city.

The Bridge of Sighs, which connects the Doge’s Palace with his prisons. I suppose he liked to keep a close eye on his prisoners. Apparently they would be taken through this bridge on their way for execution, and they would get one last glimpse of Venice.

San Marco Campanale, you can go up there for a great view of the city. Or, you can go across the water to San Georgio Maggiore for similar view, but without the lines. It’s about 8 euro to go up, but visiting the church is free so worth it.

Early morning Venice is completely empty. I would highly recommend waking up early and going to Mass at San Marco’s Basilica. It is a beautiful service, and afterwards you get to enjoy the city for yourself for a bit.

San Marco’s Square. There are shops all around on the ground floor, but the upper floors are all beautiful museums. You can buy a museum pass that’s good for about 6 months (in case you want to come back…), which includes most museums in Venice.

View of the Doge’s Palace from San Marcos. They put up the causeways because it was supposed to rain later that day, didn’t end up having to use them fortunately. Apparently, when Venice was built they didn’t have the high tide and flooding problems as they do now. The built a bunch of wells all over the city, and through the years as the water table went down, the buildings in the city started sinking. It has stabilized since, but they still have to deal with the after effects. Also, raising sea levels.

San Marco’s Basilica is one of the most beautiful churches I have been to in Italy so far. One of the smaller ones, but by far the most elaborate. They don’t use frescos, like most other Italian churches for decorations, because the humidity makes them deteriorate fast. Instead, it is covered almost entirely in mosaics from Murano glass. Murano is a Venitian island where they had all of the glassworks. From the 13th-16th century, most of the best glass in Europe was produced there.

The art at the Basilica has a very Byzantine style to it. Venice was heavily influenced by trade with the Byzantine Empire.

Tomb of Saint Mark. Apparently his remains were stolen by Venetian merchants in the 800’s from their tomb in Alexandria, ruled by the Muslim Caliphate at the time. They were eventually placed in the Basilica.

Courtyard of the Doge’s Palace.

View from the Bridge of Sighs

If you want art, visit the Doge’s Palace. Every room is more elaborately decorated than the next. With so much to see in such a short period of time, especially if you visit the other museums, it can be a bit too much to fully appreciate.

All of the random canals are just beautiful.

View of the Grand Canal at night. It’s a good time to wander the city, since there aren’t too many people about.

View of Venice from San Giorgio Maggiore Campanale, try to make it up there at the half hour mark, when the bells start going off.

View of the Venetian Arsinale, which was one of the keys to Venice’s success as a military power. At their height, they could produce a warship a day at the Arsinale. It is an active military base currently, so we couldn’t go inside unfortunately.

“No mafia Venezia e’sacra”

These are frittelle veneziane. Though to be fair these are poor replicas found in Lucca. The originals are much bigger, and the best damn pastry I have ever had. They are traditional Carnival food, fried sweet dough with raisins inside, or cream, covered in sugar. Surprisingly, not as sweet as you’d think, certainly not like most pastries in the US. Do yourself a favor and hunt some down while you’re in town. Eat them at the counter with your coffee though, they charge extra if you sit down.

Parting thoughts, go to Venice you won’t regret it. Go in the winter though, apparently something like 50,000 tourists visit the city each day during the height of tourist season. The city is small and the streets are narrow, don’t go through that torture…