Venezia (Venice), A City On Water

Venezia, unedited and unfiltered beauty

Imagine......a world without cars and fuel emissions  A place known as one of the romantic destinations in the world.....Italians singing to tourists, while navigating a gondola through the many canals. Yes, Venezia, Italia is all this and more. This trip was a very easy one for our family.  The tickets were under €30/person, round trip with Easyjet, and the flight was just over an hour long. Easy Peasy!!  

As far as budget airlines go, we had a great experience on Easyjet. Especially for a flight that is a few hours or less, I think it's very doable.  The airplane was clean, the ride was smooth, but any refreshments or snacks were to be purchased separately or brought on board.  To save hundreds, I'll happily pay a few euros for drinks and snacks, if we need any. 

Water Taxi or Public Bus?
I had researched our trip and knew that once we arrived to the Marco Polo airport in Venice, that we had to find a way to Venice actual. There are basically two main ways that we were interested in utilizing to accomplish this.....water taxi or public bus. The water taxi (aka Vaporetto) would definitely be the way to truly experience entering Venice, but this route would cost us €14/person one-way.  That's €70 total for the family to get where we needed to go!  We decided to take the bus at €8/person one-way, which was WAY less expensive.  Basically, the bus took us to the island and dropped us off.  No vehicles are allowed on the island beyond the entrance.  We were extra grateful later on that we took the bus when we ran into someone we met at the airport who told us the water taxi was extremely crowded. A win for us!

There are different options for transportation....I looked up having a water taxi pass so that we could use the water taxi each day, but it was rather expensive and I was worried it wasn't worth it. Keep in mind, I'm always budgeting these trips for 5 and not just for one person or a couple!  So, we decided to take the first day on foot, then we would decide if we wanted or needed the water taxi.  We were wise to do this. Our family is an active family and we love to walk and explore, as you've hopefully read in our previous adventures.  Venice is a bit confusing to navigate, at first, but if we had to find a water taxi station every time we wanted to go somewhere we would've wasted a lot of valuable time. We only used the water taxi once on our whole trip... to get to the island of Murano and we payed each way.  Personally, I don't recommend the use of the water taxi in Venice, outside of getting off the island to go elsewhere, because everything can be traversed on foot.

***Insider Tip:  ​Venice is divided up into sections and the address numbers are not always in order. I highly recommend having Google Maps and asking the hotel or host for the place you are staying for the coordinates of the property, as well as detailed instructions to find the entrance and access the property.  Also, try to find your room before dark, if at all possible.  These tips will make finding your room much easier than it was for us, as it took us over an hour to figure out where our room was!  

Oh Venezia!
What an island!  We walked the entire island over that three day weekend....that really was our only plan. The architecture, cleanliness, and charm of Venice cannot be denied. Nearly the whole of the island is cobblestone with little bridges linking you to different parts of the island. Venice is as picturesque as it gets, which you can see on my photos.  We went to the Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Basilica, walked along the Rialto Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs, and took pictures every chance we had. We decided against a gondola ride. It was €80 for 40 minutes during the day and €100 for 40 minutes past 7:00pm.  I believe that this price was for up to 6 people on the gondola, so regardless if you have a party of 1 or 6, it's the same price. If we wanted the gondolier to sing to us, it was an extra charge. It was hotter than Hades out in June and we didn't want to ride during the day with the sun beating down on us, we also didn't want to spend the extra money for a night time ride. We decided against a ride and we don't regret it! I did, however, take incredible pictures of them and sigh at their beauty. 

***Insider Tip:  This city would not be very easy to navigate with a stroller, since it's cobblestone, and there are a lot of arched bridges.  I would recommend some sort of kid carrier or have your kids walk with you.  Our kids are old enough to walk.
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Venice is home to Carnivale (Mardi Gras), which is basically a festival full of balls and celebrations that end right before lent.  The Carnivale masks on display are very elaborate, and are all throughout the city. I've been to New Orleans and Venice's masks and representation of Carnivale are different. Both have their own beauty. I was entranced by the class and elaborate style of the Venetian masks. Our kids were, too. Right away, our little ones let us know that they wanted one of the robotic looking masks as their souvenir for the trip.  We made it a mission to check out every mask in Venice in order to find the right one for them. 
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Cheap Eats In Venezia.......Eat Without Breaking the Bank
In order to travel to all of these unique locations and continue to do so, we're always aware of not overspending. Venice is expensive, so we looked up some 'cheap eats' and planned our trip around those particular restaurants.  My husband found this fantastic little restaurant called Bacareto Da Lele, which we highly recommend. They sold little sandwiches for €1-2 each and small glasses of wine for about €3 each. Restaurants in Venice charge a Coperto, or cover fee, for sitting in the restaurant and being served. So this type of food can be eaten on the steps nearby or on the go....not only are you saving in the price of the food, but you're also saving the cover charge for sitting in a restaurant.  This meal served as a perfect lunch and filled our family up for less than €20.
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For dinner one evening, we had Dal Moro's Fresh Pasta To Go.  Each pasta is about €5-7 each. Now, to be honest, it's not the best pasta I've ever had, but it filled us up and tasted good.  My pocket book sighed in appreciation. I tasted each of the pastas that we purchased and they all tasted good with the exception of the Alfredo. There are signs all around the restaurant forbidding people to sit on the stairs or the bridges to eat.  We got creative and snuck into a little area on the water and ate without being disturbed. 

We did enjoy our 'cheap eats' for two meals, but we also ate at some delicious local restaurants that were not cheap eats. At one of those restaurants, my oldest son ordered a local specialty of Squid Ink Pasta.  I try to try everything and encourage the same of my boys, even though sometimes I don't want to.  Our opinion: It didn't taste very good and it looked creepy. Mwahahaha

Bacareto Da Lele Sandwich and Wine Shop

Pasta To-Go

Squid Ink Pasta

The Island of Murano~Known Worldwide for Glass Blowing
On our second day, we decided to venture outside of Venice proper to see the island of Murano. We took the water taxi to the island, walked along the shops, purchased some souvenirs, and watched glass blowers in action. It was an incredible experience!  I had no idea how much detail and work went into blowing glass. The artwork created by these artists was astounding.  For souvenirs, there are items as small and inexpensive as cross necklaces for less than €10 and as grand as human sized statues and everywhere in between.  We went to Murano on a weekend, but we were told by locals that the best time to go to see the artists is during the week. So, keep this in mind. For a weekend, a few hours was plenty of time to see everything we wished to see without our kids knocking down any glass sculptures (Thank God!). There was also a small 'to-go' sandwich place along the main walkway with decently priced sandwiches that made an excellent lunch. 

Many tourists also venture to another island called Burano.  Burano is known for lace-making.  They make clothes and linens, among other things. However, my boys had zero interest in seeing this island, to include the lace. 

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A Murano Glass Sculpture

Murano Glass Vases

​The World Cup
Experiencing the world cup in Europe is something that I did not realize I would love as much as I did. There were large TVs inside and outside of cafes all throughout the city. It was so much fun to sit there, surrounded by Europeans, and watch the games. We watched two in a row that weekend!  I've never gotten so into a professional sport in my life. I was hooked!  The spirit of Futbol in this part of the world is definitely something I'm grateful to have experienced.  Having three boys and a husband who have all played soccer, and my life as a soccer mom, made the experience even better because we were all into it.  In the states, not all of the games could be seen on our network and there just wasn't a big buzz about it. Having so many people, all over Venice, watching the games added to the atmosphere.

World Cup Beer & Fabulous Venetian Hat

​Pictures just don’t do the beauty of this city justice. I highly recommend visiting Venice for a few days. I don’t believe the area needs much more than that to see just about everything. The city is quiet and clean, safe. My husband and I enjoyed a few glasses of wine sitting on a bridge, watching the city at night. Watching some tourists looking for their rooms in the dark, another group of tipsy tourists laughing and talking with Italian passion, and boats bringing goods for all of the restaurants, bars, and other venders for the next day’s business.  Looking at each other, we were so grateful to get to experience the moment.
 
The next afternoon, we jetted back to Napoli....hit full force with the smell of a city full of vehicles, crazy driving, horns honking, and we sighed. Venice was a lovely break, but we’ve learned to love the chaos that is Napoli. It’s already become a part of us.  Home Sweet Home.

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