Throw Back Thursday: Venice, Italy.

I usually like to document one day of my trip and give you an idea of how the following days went so I will do that for this post of my trip…
To Venice!

Ohhh Venice …It is exactly how you picture it to be except it’s even better. Of course, when you think of anywhere in Italy, you think of the beautiful old buildings with character, the fashion but let’s be real… Italian food! The pizzas, the seafood (Venice, duh) and of course, the desserts with espresso. To say it was very good would be an understatement. The Italian made food I experienced is what a lot of high end Italian places TRY to serve in Canada and the US. Since it was a vacation, it was pretty easy to slip into the relaxed Italian lifestyle (carbs on carbs). I can’t imagine an easier, non-English speaking place to visit and it helps that I look Italian (I’ve been told by many) so they were very kind to me! Haha! Almost everyone I spoke to about Venice had told me it was too dirty, too crowded and too touristy. Let me start off by saying that Venice is definitely one of the most interesting and exciting places that I’ve ever traveled to, maybe because everything was new and unlike anywhere else. You load onto a boat and just take in the magical city. We were all pretty giddy on the water taxi in. You don’t really think about how there really aren’t roads until you arrive, just tiny little alleyways that you will get lost in, countless bridges and water around every turn. It was pretty unreal, really. It’s a kind of “wander and find a good spot” sort of place…There were some turn-offs like the weather but we got there at 8 am, so I knew it would get better. We started our day at St. Mark’s Square and did a walking tour with the coolest dressed lady I had ever seen, Italian vogue some would say. As if I wasn’t already interested enough to learn about a place I’ve been dying to visit since I was a kid, she had my full attention with her leather boots, fur coat and amazing sunglasses. I took note that talking to a local is so important, so you can get those silly questions out of the way (what’s the tipping like here at restaurants? what about the public transportation? what time is best and most important things to do?) So many things are different over there, so I took advantage of our local Italian tour guide and ran with it! And I’m glad I did because every moment after meeting the tour guide was pure bliss. The churches there were like little mini museums (they said no pictures but let’s be real, I was never following that rule). After a couple of hours of lurking Venice, I had gotten used to the serendipity of wandering back alley paths. I realized that this is the kind of place that was like a maze, and there was a reward for every wrong (or right) turn so I went with it. I found stores, restaurants, and coffee shops I never could find again and it made it that much more exciting. For lunch, we stopped at a restaurant facing the water and had oven baked pizza which was way better than I expected. I tried to order an espresso but they said it would be 9 euros! No thanks (there’s a difference between “yolo” spending on vacation and just being stupid) I still wanted an espresso so I stepped inside the restaurant and bought one and was charged only one euro. The prices we pay for views! At around noon we had all met up to take the gondola rides. It was straight out of a movie, so cute and our gondola man (I don’t know what to call him) was perfect. He sang and dressed the part and even pretended to tip the gondola over a couple of times haha we learned a lot about the history on the water and enjoyed the nice breeze in the strong sun. Afterwards we did some shopping and obviously found little cafés to go into for our fix of wifi haha. Later that evening, we had planned to go for dinner with a group of 8 of us but didn’t plan ahead. We didn’t realize everything closed from 5-7 but somehow we ended up in a restaurant to ourselves with literally the best pasta and lobster I have ever had! We had wine and kept giggling at the people walking past wondering how we scored this restaurant to ourselves. I loved everything and every detail about Venice. Planters in the windows, pink buildings were s’cute (I hate pink, not this time) and the feel of the place. After this trip I will never understand why people poke fun at Venice but I do get why people say it is the Disney World of Italy, which is fine by me because I’m convinced my best friend Julia is a Disney princess so for all the things I thought were too much, I thought of how much she’d appreciate it and truthfully I think it’s a pretty fair comparison because this town is where dreams come true. How anyone could snub Venice is beyond me. Is it a tourist destination? For sure. Is it too crowded? I don’t think so.. Being from a place that is super busy I wasn’t overwhelmed. Would I go back? YES, I’d be so silly not to. I am so glad I got to take this off of my bucket list and I can’t wait to go back with my friends and/or family! xx

A couple pictures of the amazing food

The gondola ride

The beautiful masks of Venice.

Some photos I took throughout my stay