The Travel Buggers: Venturing in Venice, Italy

Our arrival in Venice signified the beginning of our independent travel. No more cruise ship to go back to. Just us in Europe on our own. The guide books were right about one thing – it is difficult to navigate in Venice by street name and is much easier to use major landmarks. Our first task was to find our hotel. Luckily, we had been given a free map when we caught the vaporetto (the public water taxi, no yellow cabs here) from the cruise ship terminal. We got lost only a few times while walking past restaurants, shops, and people through the narrow alleys and open squares to our hotel. We stayed at Casa Boccassini, which ended up being much cuter than we expected with 10 guest rooms, friendly owners and their cat, and a courtyard garden draped in fresh lavender. Once we dropped our bags off, we headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was the Rialto Bridge, the most famous bridge in Venice, built in 1521, and one of only four bridges that cross the Grand Canal. The Rialto Bridge was much larger than we expected and was crawling with tourists speaking different languages and shopping in the little shops on the bridge. We watched as gondolas rode under the bridge and we were surprised that the gondodliers seem more like New York City taxis drivers – talking to and joking with one another as they squeezed past each other under narrow bridges – than romantic tour guides. As we strolled through the crowded streets of Venice, we stopped to take photos, looked in shop windows, dodged the cigarette smoke clouds of the locals, and ate Caprese sandwiches (tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil on pita-like bread), panforte (a dense Italian cake with fruit and nuts) and gelato – Kim’s favorite Italian treat (like ice cream but creamier and better). Our next stop was Saint Mark’s Square, the most famous square in Venice which contains Saint Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace, and the Clock Tower. Like the rest of Venice, Saint Mark’s Square was overflowing with tourists and kiosks selling Venezia hats and tee shirts. In addition to the two major tourist sites, we also walked through the Jewish ghetto, wandered around the fish market and the Sunday market randomly set up in a square near our hotel and spent entirely too many Euros buying bottled water from the shops in the tourist areas. Our favorite thing to do in Venice was to wander away from the tourist areas to find quiet bridges all around the city where we watched boats and gondolas floating by and took tons of pictures. Venice is definitely a pedestrian city which we explored on our two very tired sets of feet.