On Thursday, December 16th we had an 8:15 train from Milano Centrale to Venice San Lucia, but as I mentioned in my last post, there was a bit of suspense about whether it would really happen due to the planned general strike. After waking up extra early in case we had to walk to the train station, we walked down to find at least 4 taxis lined up in front of the hotel.
Breakfast options in Italy are often something sweet, and neither of us wanted that, so we opted for the exotic train station breakfast location of McDonalds. After an egg McMuffin, we headed to look at the departure board again and our train was still scheduled to leave at 8:15. While we saw a few cancellations on the board, it seemed like most things were running.
Our train left on time (and we had drink service on board despite being told the night before that we wouldn't) and pulled into the Venice station at about 10:45 a.m. After dropping our bags at the hotel (more on that later), we headed to San Marco and St. Mark's Basilica.
We had to walk from essentially the train station to St. Mark's and for whatever reason Google maps didn't send to a bridge where we could cross the Grand Canal, but took us to a spot where we had to take a Vaporetto (water bus) across instead...literally just across the canal! And why didn't it just have us take the Vaporetto from the hotel to St. Mark's in the first place? I had so many questions for Google, but honestly if you aren't wondering around feeling like a rat in a maze, are you really even experiencing Venice?
I thought I had noon tickets for entry, but the entire website where I purchased them was in Italian, so I was only about 75% certain. Turns out I bought the right tickets! We were a little late, but there was hardly anyone there, so it didn't matter.
St. Mark's Basilica is so unique and a must see if you are in Venice. Rick Steves describes it best writing, "Among Europe's churches, St. Mark's is peerless. From the outside, it's a riot of domes, columns, and statues, completely unlike the towering Gothic churches of northern Europe or heavy Baroque of much of the rest of Italy. Inside is a decor of mosaics, colored marbles, and oriental treasures that's rarely seen elsewhere. The Christian symbolism is unfamiliar to Western eyes, done in the style of Byzantine icons and even Islamic designs. Older than most of Europe's churches, it feels like a remnant of a lost world."
You're never going to believe this, but that was the only ticket and planned activity we had in Venice. Mom wasn't very opinionated about the trip, and making a decision is about her least favorite thing to do, but I pinned her down on Venice and made her choose her adventure so to speak.
Option 1) we see St. Mark's, Doge's Palace, and maybe a museum, or
Option 2) We see St. Mark's and then wonder around Venice some, but spend a few hours going out to Burano.
We settled on Option 2, so once we had toured St. Mark's we headed out to walk to the Vaparetto stop that took us to Burano. It was across the island, but we got to see lots of Venice on the way. There is the Bridge of Sighs in the distance...
On our walk we got to see some of "normal life" on Venice. We saw a lumber yard and a boat headed home carrying lumber (their equivalent of a trip to Home Depot), but what really fascinated us was the water ambulances and hospital. I don't know why I didn't take any pics, but here is a pic from Google Maps. Those boats lined up there with the yellow are ambulances! One was open as we walked by so we could look inside. It looked like a very compact ambulance. The other thing that was interesting on the other side of the hospital was the Emergency Entrance. You know how our ER's have the place where you can drive up right next to the doors? Well this had a covered spot where you would pull up in your boat if you brought someone to the ER. It's just such a different and interesting way of life.
Here is another google map for reference. Where most of my pins are is San Marco, Venice. Burano is over on the right side with the Red pin in the blue dot. So it's a bit of a trek. It takes about 45 minutes on the vaporetto, so it is a time commitment.
But it is oh so worth it!
I just adore this sleepy little fishing village...
It's instagram famous now, and depending on when you go, it might not be that sleepy, but it was delightfully so when we visited.
I hadn't really researched restaurants in advance because I wasn't sure whether we would eat over on Burano, but I used the time on the Vaporetto to do a little research and found a couple of options. Thankfully, we settled on Trattoria al Gatto Nero, and we just got in at the end of their lunch service (3:00). It's a Micheline rated restaurant and man, oh man, is it a must if you find yourself hungry on Burano.
We split the caprese salad.
It was like no caprese I've ever had. Oh. My. Gosh!
For our lunch, luckily we both agreed on what to order, because it required 2 people to order it. It was a Pappardelle with a Scampi and roasted ricotta. There was a little bit of Risotto in there too. Again, I say... Oh. My. Gosh!
For dessert we had the house-made Tiramisu. I think we stopped ourselves from licking the bowl, but at this point, my memory is hazy...
A couple of nights later I was watching CNN international in the hotel and I saw Richard Quest's show about travel. He was in Venice and one segment was on Burano and the restaurant we went to and the man who runs it (who seated us and came to talk to us to make sure everything was good). Here's the link if you want to check it out.
After lunch we walked around a little more and then headed back to the Vaporetto stop to catch the boat back to San Marco. While we waited, I enjoyed the view of the snowy Dolomites over Torcello.
As we headed into the sunset, I capture a quick video...
Back on San Marco, we took in the sights as the sun set...
I've either been lucky, or Venice always has some of the best sunsets!
We made our way over to Harry's bar...
...for the obligatory Bellini
We wandered around St. Mark's Square and took in the Christmas tree, but this christmas market must have been cancelled as well...
The Bridge of Sighs
We walked over to the Rialto Bridge area and saw Poppy's Italian cousin!
We thought we'd try a Trattoria/Pizzeria I had read a recommendation about, but it was closed, so instead we decided to just have Gelato for dinner! I have no photographic evidence of it, but we had our first really good gelato of the trip from Gelatoteca Suso.
We took in Rialto Bridge and the area before taking the Vaporetto from Rialto to the Bus Stop (the stop right by our hotel)...
We stayed at the AC Hotel Venezia. When I was there in January 2017, I stayed at a hotel on San Marco, but my take away from that experience is (1) getting to San Marco with your luggage is a pain in the rear end, and (2) hotel rooms on San Marco are tiny and not that great for a lot of money.
I looked at several really nice and expensive hotels on San Marco for this trip as well, but then would read comments like "the bathroom is smaller than one you find on a cruise ship". So given that we were only there for one day and one night, I decided that staying close to the train station would be the best option. We could drop our bags and head into San Marco for the day, then the next morning, we would be close to the train station and not have to depend on a taxi, vaporetto, etc.
AC Hotel Venezia was newly refurbished and much better than my previous San Marco hotel. The outside of the hotel is pretty nondescript and I didn't get a pic of the lobby area, so I borrowed this one...
We had already thrown some of our things on the bed when I remembered to take some pics, but you can get the idea...
It was very close to the train station, but you do have to cross one bridge. The bridge also has about 30 steps up and then it's flat and then 30 or so steps down. Last week, as I was reading the New York Times, I ran across an article about the Slippery Bridge. I'm happy to report we crossed it twice with no broken bones!
That's a wrap on Venice. Stay tuned for Florence!
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