Travelog: Venice

Our cruises have come to an end, but as a final hurrah and to drag out our time in Europe (plane tickets are expensive), we tacked a couple days in Venice on to the end of our trip. Traveling on land and on sea are two very different experiences so I'm delighted I had the chance to semi-immerse myself in the Italian culture. We only had three full days in Venice so we had to manage our time wisely. That worked out better on some days than others. Nonetheless, our detour was well worth it if for the food alone. Land travel means local fare so brace yourself for plenty of food photos. I'd click that "read more" if I were you. ;)

(x)

8/1/15 Venice, Italy

The morning started like any other this past month. I had to be dragged out of bed early in the morning and reluctantly hauled up to the breakfast buffet (my body is not compatible with American breakfast foods). This Greek Isles cruise made us Latitude Gold members (even though it says I’m only Silver which is very rude seeing as I have sailed just as many days as my parents) so we got special luggage tags that allowed us to disembark at any time. We got off at our own leisure but still managed to beat the rush. It was surprisingly cold out. I don’t think anybody else would consider this sort of weather cold but after 21 days in high 80s and 90s (and sometimes even the 100s), 70 degrees is a welcome change. We took the People Mover to Venice like we did a week ago but with baggage this time around. At the bus terminal (the only place you’ll find cars in Venice), we bid farewell to my dad as he boarded the bus to Marco Polo Airport and the rest of us tried to pass the time while we waited for our hotel shuttle to arrive. I personally started off our mini Venice trip with some terrible landsickness. I didn’t actually get sick but I had an awful headache and I definitely felt like I was going to puke at any second. There was no escape. Thankfully we were able to check in right away and I could lie down on a bed to rein in my dizziness. Since my dad was off to the airport on his own, we kept tabs on his flight status and after seeing that his flight had been delayed, we decided to stay in the hotel where there was wifi until he was in the air. Once he was flying, we went to check out the mall that our hotel is literally right next to. There was a restaurant in the food court called Rana by Giovanni Rana that had some fabulous Italian food. Everything was delicious and we even ended up returning for dinner. 

Doesn't look very appetizing but trust me, it was. #lasagna

I think this was spinach pasta? (x)

This had something to do with seafood.

Pistachio gelato

Once we’d eaten, we thought we’d explore the rest of the mall. Literally every store had a sale. They’re all trying to clear out their spring and summer collections to make room for their fall inventory. What a great time to be traveling. I ended up getting a small wallet at Carpisa and a shirt at Alcott (it was €5.99 which turned out to be $6.66). We also couldn’t pass up a trip to Carrefour, especially after our successful visit in Cannes. We found some interesting flavored chips (Lime and red pepper? Did you mean delicious?) and of course cheap sparkling water. Just as we thought we were ready to head back to the hotel, we walked out only to discover that it was starting to rain so we chose to pop into a large shoe store for a quick reprieve. The speedy wifi was a bonus. While we were in there, we figured we might as well eat while we were still so close to the food court but we weren’t exactly ready for dinner yet so we settled on some gelato. I got pistachio, no surprise there.

Gordon's tortellini

Squid (if I remember correctly) raviolo

Snails came out to frolic in the rain.

We wandered around the food court and came to the same conclusion as we did at lunch. We tried a few new pasta dishes this time (and lasagna again because it was that good) and it was just as delicious. Gordon had tortellini that's making my mouth water even now. Only when we had finished our dinner were we finally ready to return to our hotel. It’s so weird to think that there are people on the Norwegian Jade right now that aren’t us. Surely they realize they’re missing some very important people.

Light-up outdoor seating.

Our hotel lobby.

8/2/15 Venice, Italy

Our first full day in Venice was spent entirely in the city (we’re staying in the city just outside Venice called Marcon). We took the train to the Santa Lucia train station in Venice and really took our time checking out the shops on our way to the Rialto Bridge. It actually took us five hours to get there because we found shops that sold loose Murano glass beads and we spent hours in those shops sifting through the broken beads to find pieces that would go together. We also stopped by a place called Pedrocchi for lunch. When we’d walked past earlier, the guy said he’d give us free champagne if we came back and he was good on his word. I passed my glass off to my mom but when the waiter brought them to us, he asked if I was old enough to drink but didn’t give my younger brother a second glance. Since we weren’t on a tight schedule, we were free to pop into shops whenever anything caught our eye and we actually ended up picking up a lot of stuff. Little bits here and there can add up. Thank goodness we hit up the ATM machine early in the day.

We got more mussels than expected.

Delicious seafood stew

Squid ink pasta -- a Venetian staple.

The best view of the Rialto Bridge we can get.

The last time we were in Venice, we had walked across the Rialto Bridge to get to San Marco Square, since that was our primary goal, but this time we wanted to get pictures with the bridge itself. Turns out that’s easier said than done. Due to the Catholic (I think) pilgrimage thing happening in Italy next year, everything is under restoration so all of the landmarks are covered by scaffolding to hide the construction. On top of that, there was no place to get a good view anyway so we just gave up and wove our way to San Marco Square one last time. Allison and I thought it’d be funny to take a silly picture in the same place with the same pose (sorry if it’s difficult, Allison) a couple months apart and what better place than right in front of San Marco’s Basilica? (Funny story about these photos... It didn't go as planned. More details to come in a future Happy Hub.) When we’d had our fill of photos, we started back towards the train station to catch the 7pm train back to our hotel. It occurred to us as we were walking that we should probably have dinner in Venice so we wouldn’t have to go find something near our hotel. We were nearly at the train station before we found a good place to eat. There was no alcohol involved this time but my seafood pizza was spectacular. 

Seafood pizza

Clam linguini

Gordon's ham and mushroom

Grilled salmon

Having sat down for dinner, we missed the 7pm train. The trains don’t run as often on Sunday so that meant the next (and last) train was at 10pm. By the time we left the restaurant, we had two hours to kill. All around Venice, you’ll see stalls of artists displaying their art and sometimes even painting or drawing right there. We stopped by one of these carts to watch an artist draw with charcoal and I just couldn’t pass it up. I ended up buying a beautiful watercolor painting of San Marco’s Basilica. (I'll update this post with a photo once I get the thing framed.) When I bought his art, the happiness on that man’s face alone made the purchase worth it. It was also the first original painted I have ever purchased so it’s extra special for me. Obviously, buying a painting didn’t take up two hours so we crossed a bridge to get to the other side of the Grand Canal and discovered that we were right next to Piazzale Roma, the square where the People Mover let out. With nothing else to do, we went into the train station to validate our tickets and wait for our train as we watched the rats scurry across the platform and over the tracks. Very romantic. Back at the hotel, we were finally able to catch up with my dad via video chat and get some rest before our last full day in Europe.

Calatrava Bridge at sunset.

8/3/15 Venice, Italy

In case of flooding, recruit the nearest lion to carry you.

For our last full day in Italy, we decided to go to Murano Island, just outside of Venice. Murano is famous for their glass and they make a range of items from jewelry to sculptures, all with fine attention to detail and their unique glass. When we were ready to set out to Venice, we discovered we hadn’t looked closely enough at the train schedule so we had a couple hours until the next train since everything had shut down for lunch hour. In that time, we checked out Ina Market instead and ended up buying a lot of purses. Everything seems to be on sale in Italy. While we were in the area, we walked over to the mall while we bought more sparkling water at Carrefour and some shower gels at Yves Rocher. My mom was so excited when she found this store because it’s her go-to place to shop online. Having taken the train to Venice, there were water bus stops right in front of the train terminal. We wanted to take line 3 to Murano Island because that was a direct route. Waiting in the bus stop, which is floating on water and would rock violently whenever a boat passed by, there was an interesting sign. It must be an experience visiting Venice during flooding season.

Murano clock tower 

I'm smitten with the little octopus.

The flowers in the box are made of glass.

In Murano, we were hoping to take pictures with the colorful buildings that everybody talks about only to discover they’re on Burano, the island that makes extremely detailed lace and also the island that we wrote off as being not interesting enough to visit. Thankfully the trip to Murano wasn’t a total loss. We ended up buying more than we probably should have and even visited a glass blowing workshop and purchased some of the glass figures made that morning.

Capricciosa pizza at Approdo

It wasn’t until 4pm that we finally had “lunch” at a pizza place called Approdo. My mom and I split a capricciosa pizza. Magnificent. 

Look at it compared to my face.

We browsed for a little while longer before taking the water bus back to Venice and grabbing a (very generously scooped) small cup of peach gelato while we waited for the train to arrive. From the train went straight back to our hotel room. Since it’s our last day in Venice, we had to pack up and get as clean as possible for a long travel day. Having had such a late lunch, we ended up eating dinner at 10pm at a place across the street from our hotel called Tiramisu. Their food was very reasonably priced and I ordered a massive seafood spaghetti for only €10.

The perfect peach gelato.

We returned to the hotel room to finish packing and talk to my dad before going to bed. It's been a fine time.

8/4/15 Venice, Italy/Travel Day

Our last morning in Venice was borderline hectic. After checking our hotel room one more time for any straggling belongings, we checked out of the hotel and hopped on the shuttle to the airport. We had a feeling our bags were overweight (“had a feeling” more like “my suitcase had more control over which direction we were heading than I had over it”) so it was a good thing we had a backup plan when we were told all our bags were overweight. Remember the purses we bought yesterday? Those came in handy sooner than we expected. Having stuffed our bags with the heaviest (non-liquid) things we could find, we went back to the counter and proceeded without a hitch. From there, everything was easy. There was a little hiccup with the seating arrangement but it wasn’t our problem and worked out in our favor anyway. We were, however, on an AirCanada Rouge flight and they don’t have screens on the seats. You have to download the app in order to enjoy their in-flight entertainment. This wouldn’t normally be an issue but none of my devices have enough memory to update the apps I currently have let alone download a new one. I used those nine hours to Toronto alternating between sleeping and reading. The cookies they gave as a snack were delicious, though. When we got to Toronto, we had to go through customs there, which might be a new thing but that was my first time flying into the States from Canada so I’m not sure how that process works. They did use a lot of technology in their customs process so that was different. Other than a killer playlist, there wasn’t anything spectacular about the airport from what I could tell, but then again I only saw a small portion of it. At that point I was just ready to be home and to get some proper sleep. Airplane sleep is the lowliest of sleeps. For the flight to Seattle, the plane did have screens so I started watching The DUFF as soon as possible so I wouldn’t have to converse with the lady next to me. By the time The DUFF, Get Hard, and some naps were over, we were in Seattle – ready to head home and end a 24-hour travel day.

That concludes our Travelogs for the time being but if you've caught the travel bug, I've got some great news for you. I'll get to that in a bit. Thank you for sticking with my long-winded journal entries that can only be called "blog posts" because I put them online for the world to see. I trust that at least three people (my mom included) have read and enjoyed these Travelogs and I know I'll be coming back to these posts in the future. I'm glad I've cataloged this trip and, honestly, writing about my travels was one of the main reasons why I started xo, Yvette. If I'm not held accountable for something, I'll laze around like a sack of potatoes until everybody else has forgotten about it and I can get on with my life. Thank you again for reading and, indirectly, getting me to actually write about my trip.

I know I was promoting Allison's study abroad blog last Travelog (which you should still check out!) but she isn't the only one of my friends studying abroad this year. Steph just started her study abroad blog It's Raining Cats and Mochi! You know Steph from Sparkle and Sprinkle and her Etsy shop Yellow Raspberry Jewelry as well as her presence on my own blog. A true Renaissance lady. It's going to be a lonely autumn for me but I'm going to do my best to live vicariously through my lovely, adventurous friends and I hope you do the same!


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette