Venice

Country Italy

Travel Companion Andrea Haney

My Favorites cecchetti * walking the canals at sunset * Burano colorful houses * Murano glass blowing

Currency Euro

Have about 10-20 Euros of cash on hand for each day you are there. It is often easier to pay in cash, especially at locally trafficked businesses that have unique souvenirs or traditional food. It is helpful to have a contactless payment method because chip readers exist but their use is uncommon.

Time of Visit End of June/ Start of July 2023

Weather 75-85 Degrees Fahrenheit

Closest Major Airport Venice Marco Polo International Airport

views from takeoff from Venice Marco Polo International Airport

You can also arrive in/near Venice via train. We took the train from Florence to Venice and the process was very smooth and timely. We used the Venice Marco Polo International Airport when we left to fly from Venice to Santorini and it was very easy to get to the airport. We had to utilize a taxi service because our flight left outside of normal bus hours, but there is a bus that travels regularly to and from the airport during the day.

Transport train, bus, taxi, waterbus

We used trains to and from Venice from our hostel. We used buses to get around in the town our hostel was in. A taxi was used to get us to the airport for our flight to Santorini because our flight was earlier than the bus service times. We used the waterbus to get us to and from the Islands of Murano and Burano on our day trip.

Packing

refillable water bottle * sunscreen * hat * walking shoes * breathable clothes for the daytime * sweater for going out after the sun goes down

Above are the must-have items. If you want the complete list of what I packed for my 40 days in Europe, click here.

Accommodation Anda Venice

a view of our Anda Venice 9-bed female dorm suite

In this hostel, we stayed in a 9-bed female dorm suite. In the room, there were 2 private showers, 1 toilet, and 4 sinks. There were tons of hooks around the room that we could hang our things on and a sitting area. Most importantly, we had air conditioning that we could control. In Italy, it can be a challenge to first find a place with air conditioning and places with air conditioning often control the temperature. This hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the train station and it was about a 10 minute train ride into Venice, so it was very convenient to get to the hostel and get from the hostel to Venice.

What I Did

Day 1: We arrived around 3 PM to our hostel just outside of Venice via a train from Florence. After checking in and unpacking at the hostel, we took the 10 minute train ride into Venice. We spent the rest of the day walking around through the canals. We stopped at Ghetto Nuovo to look around and had cecchetti (Venice tapas) at Paradiso Perduto. The cecchetti we tried were tiny fried ham and cheese sandwiches and they were delicious, one of Andrea’s favorites on our entire trip.

cecchetti (Venice tapas) at Paradiso Perduto

We made sure to walk along the outside of the city facing more open waters as the sun started to go down so that we could see the nice sunset colors and get a better breeze. It was interesting to pass hospitals and police stations because they all have boats instead of cars and their entrances are from the water.

While walking around, we passed the Rialto Bridge and around this area I found a bubble waffle ice cream/gelato store and enjoyed a desert while continuing to walk through the canals.

The Rialto Bridge is impressive, but the area around it is very crowded and touristy, so it was not my favorite area of Venice. Once the sun went down, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for a busier day in Venice tomorrow.

Day 2: Today just happened to be July 4th which is obviously an exciting day at home. It was the first time I haven’t been headed home on this day because flights to the United States on July 4th are often very cheap so this has been my “go home” travel day the last couple of summers. After spending some time in the grocery store and getting ready for the day, we made it to Venice by 11 AM. Yesterday, we walked left from the train station and explored that area of Venice, so today we walked right and focused our energy in this area. We followed the main path/street all the way to Santa Maria della Salute and made a few stops along the way.

We got glass blown jewelry from one store, saw gondolas getting repaired at Squero di San Trovaso, ate delicious sandwiches at Bar alla Toletta, went into a mask shop/workshop where you could purchase masks or pay to take a mask-making class (the class was a bit out of my price range and I’m not sure how I would’ve gotten my mask home in one piece), and went inside the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute because it was free and very pretty inside.

From here, we walked to the S.M. Del Giglio Traghetto and took this water taxi from this side of the canal to the other for only 2 euros. Any time you are paying in cash, make sure you get the correct change back. On this taxi, the people working tried to give my less change than what I was owed. This was a great option for us to ride in a gondola without paying the expensive price of taking a gondola ride for an hour around Venice.

gondola ride from S.M. Del Giglio Traghetto

On the other side of the canal, we walked to Teatro La Fenice and I purchased a lemon slushie for this walk because it was quite hot today. We paid the 7 euros to tour the inside of Teatro La Fenice and it was worth it, the inside is beautiful and they give you an audio guide to go along with your entrance fee.

We continued walking to Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo which was a really cool looking building from the outside. It looked like you could purchase tickets to go inside the building but we did not because we didn’t know what was in there.

By this time, we were ready to sit down and have a rest break so we purchased a couple cannoli (apparently cannolo is singular and cannoli is plural, the more you know) and sat alongside a canal. I enjoyed one pistachio and one tiramisu cannolo and the tiramisu flavor was my favorite.

After resting we headed to Libreria Acqua Alta which is a unique book store but they also had other interesting things for sale. It is very unique inside and has access to the canal once you are inside.

We then headed to the Bride of Sighs and ate pizza for dinner at Caffe Internazionale because the prices were good, the staff was very nice, and it was on the water. After dinner, we went up the Bell Tower of St Mark's Campanile and the views were great. There is an elevator to take you up and down which is nice.

This was a very packed day, but we knew we needed to see most of the Venice sites today because tomorrow we would be going to Murano and Burano. We walked 28,340 steps, 11.42 miles, and burned 3,000 calories so it this itinerary was definitely packed for today.

Day Trips Murano & Burano

We got a later start to the day because of our packed day in Venice yesterday. We purchased a 24 hour transportation pass from a local store because we knew we would be utilizing the waterbus service in addition to traveling to and from Venice from our hostel. This is definitely the recommended transport ticket to purchase if you plan on visiting Murano and/or Burano. The waterbus service can be a bit choppy in certain areas, so if you are prone to getting sea sick, definitely take medicine if you plan on getting on one of these.

Our first stop was in Murano and the first thing we did was eat our lunch that we had purchased from the local grocery store on the way here. We then went to a glass blowing demonstration at Original Murano Glass and this was definitely a highlight of the day because the older gentleman creating the blown glass was very talented and so adorable. The demonstration was free and we did not need to make a reservation. If you are going with a larger group, I would recommend making a reservation because the room was packed. We spent some time in the glass shop here and purchased some souvenirs.

glass blowing demonstration at Original Murano Glass

After wandering around some more shops in Murano, we took another waterbus to Burano and got off on the second stop when we should have gotten off on the third. On the second stop, there was a church and I purchased a sun hat, but other than that, there was nothing else to see here.

We took the waterbus one more stop and this was where all of the colorful buildings were. We spent about an hour wandering the streets of this island because the house colors were so striking and they differed on every turn.

It took us almost two hours to get from Burano back to our hostel, so we settled on McDonalds for dinner because we were exhausted and hungry. We discovered here that a smarty blizzard is their version of an M&M blizzard and that smarties aren’t sugar candy, but they are chocolate candy.

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