Ciao Italia- Venezia

Last year around this time Ken came to me with an idea. He wanted to take a cruise in the Mediterranean. The cruise he was looking at had us leaving Rome and going to Spain, France and Northern Italy. I told him I was in, but I suggested that if we were going to spend the money to fly to Italy, we should make it worth our while and go early before the cruise to see other parts of the country. You see, my husband, who I love dearly, doesn't really like to go to places he has already been. I had tried to get him to honeymoon in Italy but he had been there and we compromised and went to Hawaii instead. However, I’ve never been to Italy and saw this as the perfect opportunity to get him to spend some time there with me. And that is how our incredible trip began.

Ken and I love to travel, as evident by some of our blog posts. One of the tricks we have figured out is to book our big vacations and even some of our smaller ones, depending on where we are going, through Costco Travel. Once we knew the cruise line we were going to use, in this case Royal Caribbean, we booked through Costco. This gives us the same rate as the cruise line but they also throw in a gift card to their store as a bonus and on board cruise credit for booking through them. We then tried to look into finding our own hotels and travel for the cities we wanted to see before and after the cruise but found it very overwhelming. So once again we turned to Costco. They gave us a list of hotels in each place that fit our budget (we selected the ones we liked) and they made all the arrangements for hotels, train travel and car transfers that we would need. We truly did not have to worry about a thing. Ken also booked all of our tours in Venice, Rome and Naples through a company called Viator.(I have enclosed the link, because they also do tours in the United States as well). We didn't realize how thankful we would be to have used Costco until we got to Rome, so I will save that story for an upcoming blog post.

To say I've dreamed of going to Italy my entire life, is no exaggeration. This has been in the top 5 of my bucket list of places to travel since I was a little girl. When we arrived in Rome, we were met by our driver who took us to the train station so we could go to our first stop, Venice. I was a little nervous about the trains, in my mind I envisioned a cramp train car, with no AC, stuffed full of people, (clearly the old movies I grew up watching made an impact.) This was not the case. We had assigned seats, with AC and a complementary drink and snack for our trip. It was a very fast train and it took about four hours to get from Rome to Venice.

When we arrived in Venice, it was just a short walk to our hotel, Hotel Papadopoli. We had a beautiful room that over looked a park and one of the many side canals. As a thank you from Costco each night we stayed there, which was two nights total, we had a small gift. The first night we had cookies and the second night an assortment of chocolates. Since we arrived in Venice late in the afternoon, we decided to just walk around and went to a restaurant that my sister and brother-in-law recommended, Trattoria Stoica, and after dinner we walked back and went to bed.

So on our full day in Venice, we tried to pack in as much as we could. Ken had planned two tours for us. The first tour was in the morning. We walked to St. Mark's Square to meet up with the Viator representative who introduced us to our tour guide and to hand out our radios. With this tour we explored St. Mark's Square, the Doges' Palace and St. Mark's Basilica. The name of our guide is Alessandro. He was very knowledgeable and you could tell the deep pride he had for his city. He took us through various rooms of the palace, but with this particular tour, the Doge's apartments was not included. It was neat to go through the palace. It was cool to see the Bridge of Sighs from the palace and to see all the beautiful artwork within. When we moved to tour the basilica we encountered something that I have always wanted to see, the Tetrarch. This is a small statue, maybe 4 ft. tall, that is on a corner of the basilica. It represents the period in the later part of the Roman Empire when the empire was divided into two, Eastern and Western halves and had two Caesars and two little Caesars whose job was to help their respective Caesar rule their half.

When you look at the basilica there is so much history just on the outside. Not only does it have the Tetrarch, it also contains at the top the replicas of the four horse statues that were taken from the Hippodrome in Constantinople. The originals are within the upper part of the basilica and they are exquisite to see up close. As you move to the front of the basilica you start to see these amazing mosaics on the inside of the arches to the doorways that lead inside the church. It is full of such rich, vibrant colors. The only negative that I would say about the basilica is that you cannot take pictures once you are inside. On the one hand I get it, there are so many people and you want to protect the art but it is such a good example of Romanesque architecture. After beginning herded through the lower level, we went up to the balcony, this cost extra but was included in our tour. This is where the original four horse statues are located. You also can go out to the terrace and from there you get amazing views of the clock tower and the main canal of Venice. Also included with our tour was entrance to a museum opposite of the basilica. I went in and it was very nice. Unfortunately Ken didn't go in because he sprained his ankle on the terrace at the basilica and needed to rest. My husband was such a trooper on this trip. If this happened to me, I'm not sure I could have done all we did and not complain. He was amazing!!

We then grabbed some sandwiches and drinks and walked along the main canal until it was time for our next tour in the afternoon. Our afternoon tour was a boat tour that took us to three of the islands around Venice. Our first stop was Murano. Murano is known for its glass. As soon as we docked we were led into a factory for a glass blowing demonstration, where a master made a glass pitcher in like 5 minutes, it was incredible to watch. I truly appreciated their skill, and the fact that they are doing it with so much heat coming from the furnaces. We then had about 45 minutes to walk and explore the island. The next island we went to was Torcello. This island had a nice walk down a small canal that opened up to an old church you could visit. It was a nice stroll but I wanted to get back to Ken who decided not to walk but rest understandably. Our last stop was Burano. This island is known for its very intricate and delicate lace that is made by hand. We spent about an hour walking and looking a different pieces, each was unique and exquisite. After the last island we went back to Venice. Ken and I walked back to the hotel and ate a place right by our hotel. On our way back we stopped to take pictures of the Bridge of Sighs. We absolutely loved our quick visit to see Venice. I hope to go back to the city and explore more of what it has to offer!

More to come in my next post on all the incredible sites in Rome!