We had a long weekend for All Saints day, so you guessed it, we took the opportunity to visit a new location. As has become our routine, we compared our destination list with flight prices, and Venice turned up as the most economical option for a weekend getaway. So off we went! We flew early Saturday morning out of Eindhoven into Treviso and caught the bus into Venice proper.
Our hotel was in the center of San Marco district, so we naturally took Rick Steves' advice to ride the number 1 vaperetto (water taxi) up the Grand Canal. The sites were amazing with hundreds-year-old palazzos lining the water. Rick's audio tour explained many of the interesting facades. The boat traffic was also entertaining, with vessels for all purposes flying past (we were passed by an ambulance in the first few minutes on the boat). Our last stop was San Marco square. We navigated the massive crowds for a bit to take in the amazing exteriors of San Marco basilica and the Doge's palace. Getting tired of carrying our bags, we went in search of our hotel. This was our first introduction into the famously narrow and winding streets of Venice. With some lucky guess work, we ended up finding our hotel without getting too lost down what appeared to be an alley.
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| First glimpse of Venice |
After quickly checking in and dropping our bags we headed out on a walk of the San Marco sestieri (neighborhood). This walk included beautiful churches, the Academy bridge (one of only two over the grand canal), a stop for gelato, some getting lost, and of course some stunning sites. After a quick bite of lunch, we headed for a similar walk through the Rialto bridge area. This walk would have been better earlier in the day as most of the markets had already closed up. The bridge itself was the highlight, well lit and picturesque in the afternoon sun. Tavern Al Remer was an interesting and delicious happy hour experience. Twisting through several empty alleys, we arrived just before 5:30 to an already waiting crowd. As soon as the doors opened, the experienced patrons rushed in and started loading up plates at the buffet. It turns out that the buffet is free as long as you buy a happy hour drink. Once we sorted it all out (and got elbowed a couple times in the process) we ended up with some tasty Aperol spritzes to drink and a wide smattering of local offerings to eat (mushroom risotto being the best). Although probably only meant as a first course, we filled up enough to call it dinner, and we headed out into the night. We retraced a lot of our steps from earlier in the day, getting a chance to see the beautiful landmarks in a different light. We crashed early after a long travel day.
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| Empty Rialto markets |
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| View from Academy bridge |
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| Rialto Bridge |
Our agenda for Sunday was much the same. We picked two walks to follow and started off. The Castillo neighbourhood was one of our favorites. The crowds were less since it was early, and we were excited to see the sun shining. By the end of the walk, we had worked up an appetite and trekked over to the start of our next walk to have lunch at Gam Gam. Venice contains the oldest Jewish ghetto in the world, and Gam Gam is one of the oldest restaurants in this area. With our bellies full of matzah and artichokes, we started the next walk though Cannaregio, the ghetto district. This part of the city has a different feel to it with higher storied, less exotic appearing buildings. The canals run straight and long here offering great views down the water "streets." The day was still young, and due to poor planning, the next walk we had planned was for the western Castillo neighbourhood. This meant we had to wind our way across a couple districts to find the starting point. This took much longer than expected with many wrong turns, but we ended up at a great coffee shop for a sweet treat and cappuccino to refuel us. The western Castillo walk took us by the arsenal, city park, and one of the few active residential areas on the island. We ended at twilight on the Riva walk to watch the sun set over the grand canal.
We got an early start the next morning to beat the crowds again. Monday's agenda was island hopping. From the north shore of Venice, we took the vaperetto to the nearby islands of San Michel, Murano, Burano, and Torcello. San Michel is a small island used only as the cemetery of Venice. Apparently Napoleon got the idea to move the dead away from the space constrained main city. The problem is the small island has also run out of space. It seems you can get your own resting place for about 10 years, then you are moved to a group stack or family plot (except for the rich and famous of course). Next up, Murano was the biggest island of our stops and is known for its glassmaking trade. A lot of the shops and furnaces were closed as it was a holiday, but we still got to see a brief glass blowing demonstration. We took a leisurely loop around the island and decided to head on to Burano. At this point, the crowds had caught up with us, and the experience of being herded onto an extremely full water taxi was not a highlight of the trip. Burano was a surprising delight. The little fisherman's island has the tradition of painting their houses bright colors. It makes for great pictures and gives the island a sense of childish joy. From there, we hopped the next boat over to Torcello. The smallest of the islands, Torcello was the original founding point of what would become Venice. Today, it is little more than a church, an inn, and a few restaurants. However, it did have quite a bit of open green space to wander. We took full advantage after feeling a bit cooped up in the tight streets of Venice. An hour long boat ride back brought us to where we had started the day. It was late afternoon and we were snacky. Thankfully, Venice has the culinary tradition of cicchetti. Osterias serve these light snacks with a glass of wine or spritz as a warm-up to dinner. We stopped in at Bar Puppa to see what it was all about. Great choice. Fried risotto balls, samosas, and a spinach mozzarella roll served with a tasty Aperol spritz hit the spot. We had kind of forgotten that it was Halloween (a bit purposely while on the cemetery island) but since the time had just changed it was already getting dark and the spooks started coming out. Since there aren't many actual residences in Venice anymore, the kids in costume run from bar to restaurant to bar trick-or-treating. It was fun to see. Our dinner reservation was at Vineria alle'Amarone, a wine bar and kitchen with supposedly the "best tiramisu in town." We had a great meal but Tyler's pistachio, lemon, raspberry ricotta desert may have topped the tiramisu.
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