Home Chic Raleigh: Venice, Italy

Venice is truly a special place. It's romantic, exotic, historic (established around the 8th or 9th century!) and extremely beautiful. It's existence is truly a modern marvel. When you really think about Venice being built on 117 different islands intertwined by canals and connected by bridges, it really hits you how unique Venice is. There is NOTHING like it and there will never been any place like it. Sure you can say that about a lot of places, but when it gets down to it, can you REALLY compare Venice to anything else?! No, probably not. I feel lucky enough to have been able to visit and I wish we visited longer and I wish to visit again!!

We only stayed one entire day, we arrived late on September 9th, around 8:30 and by the time we took the Vaparrato to the B&B and ate dinner it was after 10:30. We did wander for a bit, hubs had a beer in the streets and we met a nice couple from Kyrzakhstan who offered us jerky from their home town, we retired for our one full day in Venice. It poured rain that night and when I looked at the forecast it said rain for September 10th and I was so sad, but determined to make the best of it. BUT, we woke to wet streets and the sky clearing to allow us to take in the magic of Venice!

Here are MANY images of why Venice is SO special! (Sorry this is such a long post, it's just THAT beautiful and I couldn't decide which images I liked best, so enjoy the story.)

St. Mark's Basilica in St. Mark's Square. All the artwork is made up of mosaic tile pieces!

One of the few items we brought home with us is a piece of art, it's actually the piece in the far left of the image. We still haven't gotten the image framed yet but we hope to soon!

We didn't go into Venice really having any agenda at all. We did head to St. Mark's square first thing in the morning to beat the dreaded cruise ship tourist hoards and went into the basilica because it was free. We were going to go into the Dodge Palace but it was 16E a piece and by the time we reached Venice we had seen a lot of art. We also knew we REALLY wanted to take a Gondola ride and knew they were about 80E.. Quite the splurge but once in a lifetime.. Instead we just took the opportunity to wander around Venice, get lost, take in the sights and eat!! We popped into a local shop for lunch that was making homemade pasta in the window but we DID make prior reservations for dinner!

This guy I definitely didn't intend to look at me but I thought it was SO neat that he was hand painting these Venetian masks! I just wish that he had not looked up at me! Ha!

We decided that we would take a gondola ride around sunset so that we didn't pay the night prices but had a romantic glow to our ride. We had passed some side street gondolas and wanted to find them again because we wanted to start where it was more private instead of the grand canal (like above). It took a little bit to find the gondolas but we did!! It is an exuberant price to pay for a boat ride, but really it was SO special to see Venice from the water like it was meant to be enjoyed and it was even better with my husband next to me! Plus our gondolier even gave us some history on Venice.

After our gondola ride we were a bit early for our reservation so we had some wine and sat next to the canal and cherished the quiet moments that Venice had to offer. We also made sure to scope out our restaurant since things are hard to find in Venice! We did find it and saw that they did have an open table even though our reservation was for a bit later. The restaurant, Osteria Alle Testiere, had rave reviews and so I booked very early. They rarely have room for walk-ins so I'm glad we planned ahead. The chef goes to the market every morning to pick the freshest seafood to offer on his menu. It was a lovely meal and a great end to our evening in Venice!

We had such a nice night and it was a shame to leave early the next morning for Tuscany but all good things much come to an end.. Arrivederci Venice! Until next time..