Day Trip Guide: Venice

This was the last of my day trips abroad… I can’t believe I am starting to experience some of my “lasts” abroad.  This was also the last trip that I took with Tim before he left on November 15th.  I can not believe how fast the time has flown by and that I will be home in weeks… not months anymore.

Venice was a perfect destination for a day trip so you can’t call me crazy for doing this one.  It was also a nice change of pace because every city I have been to so far had a lot of destinations to get to, whereas Venice was more about the experience and roaming the streets.  The one thing I wanted to make sure we did was St. Mark’s Basilica and Rialto Bridge.  We were able to do both and I was disappointed because the Rialto bridge was under construction, but you could still understand how large it was.

Venice was one of my favorite places, which a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me.  I loved the quaintness of it.  There were streets that we would get to where there was no one in sight.  You would turn a corner, and the road would end and turn into steps that went right into the canal.  When you look at a map, Venice seems minuscule, but it actually took us awhile to get from point A to point B because of all the obstacles.

The canals are clearly a huge part of Venice since there are absolutely no cars.  The canals are where you can catch a “taxi,” which we did.  I know Venice is famous for the gondola ride, and I am sure all of you are wondering if Tim and I did it because it would have been super romantic, but we didn’t.  The gondolas are a huge tourist attraction, and it was 100 euro to take one for 45 minutes.  We are broke college students, one again, so this wasn’t something we saw as a productive way to spend our money.

When you walked on some of the streets near the river, we noticed these piles, which were small wooden stages stacked on top of each other and we realized that when the river is high, Venice will use these so that tourists can still walk around.  We were lucky that the river was low and everything was pretty dry for the most part.  My friend was there the weekend before and said some places were closed off because they were flooded.

Another risk that you run when traveling to Venice around this time of year is it can be extremely damp, cold, and rainy.  Tim and I didn’t run into any of this.  The day was mild temperatures and clear blue skies.  I loved not having an agenda and just roaming the streets.  I think this is why some people didn’t like Venice as much because there isn’t really a list of things to do.  I was totally fine with it.

We got back on the train, and we were back in Florence in an hour and a half.  Our train was around dinnertime so unfortunately, I can’t tell you about an amazing dinner in Venice but it is definitely a place that I think people need to see.

Until next time,