Holiday in Venice
This year for our anniversary we went to Venice. Not sure why we have ignored Venice for so long: maybe because of the whole touristic image it has. I was expecting to be annoyed and disappointed and find it overrated, as I find Paris sometimes. However, I absolutely fell in love with it. It’s not that much about the San Marco Piazza though, which I found impossible to navigate during the day, but about the totally amazing feeling that I had going around a place with no cars, small little narrow streets and with so much water. We were also lucky enough to have only beautiful sunny days and also to have booked an excellent apartment in La Giudecca, right near the water. Staying on La Giudecca allowed us to experience the water at various times of the day, starting from sunrise and till late night,
Morning view from the apartment in Giudecca
plus it gave our holiday a much more local, residential feeling, and allowed us to rest in the evening instead of going out to look for a restaurant. I started loving Venice the moment we took the vapporetto to go from Palanca to San Marco. The whole combination of beautiful turquoise water with classical buildings just seemed so picture perfect.
View of Grand Canal from Accademia Bridge
Being for the first time in San Marco piazza was not as impressive as it is so overcrowded.
Crowds on the Bridge of Sighs
I found that the Piazza looks so much better in the evening, around 6-7pm, when most tourists are gone and the sun light is much calmer. So we decided to walk around instead. Somebody told me that what you should do in Venice is to get lost through the back streets. I am not sure how it would be possible NOT to get lost. But that’s one of the things I liked in Venice. You feel like being in a maze and there is a surprise at every street corner: either another campo or a small bridge or just the end of the street! Really wonderful feeling, actually!
However, it makes it very hard to find again that store you liked yesterday and where could not make up your mind if you should buy something or not…
We did not spend too much time in museums this time as the weather was so amazing that it just felt wrong. We did go to see the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the San Marco Basilica, Santa Maria della Salute and San Giorgio Maggiore. We were especially happy that we went in San Giorgio Maggiore because it is a very beautiful church and the view from its Campanile is amazing!
The Basilica is beyond words. I’ve never seen anything like that and it’s even hard to react to what is inside it. It’s quite stunning, actually, both when you look up, at the ceiling, and when you look down, at the tiled floors.
San Marco Piazza
Detail of San Marco Basilica
In the Peggy Guggenheim museum we did see some very nice pieces and also discovered some quite interesting artists.
We were so fascinated with Venice that we did not go anymore to Verona, as we have planned. We did have a day outside of Venice though when we went to Murano and Burano islands. As expected, Murano is full of glass stores. It has a much calmer feel than Venice and you can find amazing glass pieces there. We did try not to spend too much or buy any big piece but it’s definitely worth going there, even just for looking.
Burano is a very small island and is extremely cute as the houses are painted in very bright and happy colours.
The colourful houses of Burano
They do have a local industry as they make very nice lace and there are lost of stores selling lace-based products. Besides the photographic frenzy we got into there, we also discovered some really tasty cookies: Bussola Buranello. They look very much like any other cookies but they are really, really tasty!
All in all, being in Venice was a very amazing experience for us and I felt really sad leaving it! Not sure why but Venice feels like a living being, not just a city you go and visit. Hmm, should explore this feeling 🙂 Anyway, we will so definitely want to go back there soon!