The Magic of Venice - April 2022

Ah, Venice. Everyone says how charming and romantic it is, but I sure didn't believe them. 'It seems like such a tourist trap,' I thought. And boy, was I wrong.

For our sabbatical, we decided to do a tour of Italy, with Rome being the main event, since I studied ancient Rome at university. During the pandemic, we became fond of watching Rick Steves videos on YouTube, as a window to the outside world that we couldn't then access. So we decided to book a Rick Steves tour, complete with trusted local tour guides, that would take us from Venice to Florence, ending in Rome.

Because Jacob had a medical appointment that couldn't be moved, his family and I flew out to Venice first, with Jacob meeting us there a little after midnight. The day got off to a hilarious start, with a bizarro Dave sighting on the metro. Our flight was, of course, slightly delayed, which meant we got to race through the Zurich airport to make our connection. Once in Venice, we tracked down the airport ferry boat for a nice sunset cruise, and promptly got lost after deboarding.

After consulting the hotel receptionist for directions and surviving the slowest elevator of all time, we were checked in and settled. Next up: dinner. We found a place that sold cheap pizza slices and found an area next to a bridge to relax and chow down. Here was our first clue that Venice lives up to the hype - the sound of the water was soothing, the bridge was adorable, and the slowly decaying building was beautiful in an ethereal way. After dinner, we got lost amongst the many bridges and side streets, eventually tracking down some of the best gelato I've ever had by a statue of Vasco de Gama (our initial effort to find Gelato fantasy ended in inevitable failure).

Fast forward a few hours later, and we met Jacob at the ferry stop. We took him on a brief tour, pointing out our favorite glassware and carnival masks as we went. He quickly understood the magic of Venice as well.

We had almost the entire next day to putz around before the tour started, and that is just what we did. The day included many beautiful dead ends, a bakery competition (the pistachio biscotti won), more tasty pizza, and a stop for apertifs at Piazza San Marco where our waiters had to protect us from greedy seagulls with - get this - nerf water guns.

Come 4PM, it was time for the tour to start. We met our lovely guide, Tina, along with the rest of the crew we would be hanging out with for the following week and a half. After a brief orientation, we went out for a quick tour of the town. We stopped by a beautiful terrace in a mall that used by the German merchant quarters back in the 1500s. The view of the grand canal was breathtaking. We capped off the day with a traditional Venitian dinner, including fish, veggies, and a sweet cream dessert.

Tour, day 2. We split into groups for a walking tour through old town Venice, hearing stories about both the history of the city and all of the unique problems that they've had to solve due to their unusual geography. They have boats for everything - buses, garbage, construction, Amazon... you name it!

Upon finishing the formal tour, we decided to take a quick sprtiz break by the water before our reservation for the San Marco basilica. The basilica is magnificent, with a lovely terrace and a set of horse sculptures that date back thousands of years and were once stolen by Napoleon.

Later on, we tracked down an Italian restaurant for lunch - after a ton of antipasti and pasta, plus a free dessert and "super alcohol", we were stuffed with enough carbs to run several marathons. Instead, we tracked down a glass blowing lab and were treated to a demonstration of the classic art of blowing beads. It was mesmerizing, and of course we had to buy some jewelry to remember it by.

There's nothing better than getting lost in Venice, which is what we did for the rest of the afternoon. While we didn't convince John to visit Captain Candy, we all know that it's his fave store in all of Italy. After a certain point, we declared it to be "Dave o'clock" and took the scenic route back to the hotel. That evening, we were still too full for proper dinner, but there's always room for some gelato, especially when paired with a discussion of how everything eventually evolved into a crab (apparently?).

Tour, day 3. We kicked off the day with a lovely tour of Accademia. It was lovely to go through the museum with a guide who could point out why certain works of art are important and what they can show us about how our understanding and depiction of the human form has changed over time.

After the tour, we boarded a boat for a tour of the lagoon. We skipped the more industrial, glass-blowing island of Morano in favor of what I like to call "Instagram Island" - Burrano. This places is so stinking cute, it's crazy. All the buildings are brightly painted and the shops of lace are adorable, making it super picturesque. Based on a recommendation from our tour guide, we stopped for some Fritto Misto, a plate of fried seafood and veggies. We spent the rest of our time there walking around, snapping pics, finding souvenires. Our next stop was Torcello, with the Catherdral of Santa Maria Assunta, home to a bunch of Byzantine mosaics.

What's the best way to spend your last evening in Venice? On a gondola ride, of course! As a bonus, an accordion player and singer were on the boat ahead of us. They were quite good, which really bumped the ambience up a notch (and caused crowds to gather on all of the bridges!).

That night, Jacob and I decided to do a "victory lap" to celebrate our final night in Venice. We met the rest of the crew at Vasco de Gama for some gelato before circling back to our favorite haunts for a last batch of pics.

Venice far exceeded our expectations and ended up being my favorite stop on our Italy tour. Despite the whole sinking problem, all the old buildings were stately and gorgeous. Around every corner, there's a cute little bridge with a beautiful canal view. Plus, the lack of cars and abundance of boats makes it incredibly nice to walk around. There's really no escaping the magic of Venice.

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