“Venice is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.”

– Erica Jong

HIGHLIGHTS

Destination: Venice

Getting There: ItaliaRail

LOS: 3 days, 2 nights

Lodging: Venice Times Hotel

Highlights: Basilica di San Marco; Gondola ride; Murano

Best Times to Visit: Shoulder Season – March/April; Sept/Oct

I can understand why writers and creatives flock to Venice for inspiration. It’s a city unlike any other. Waterways instead of roads, boats instead of cars, floating homes and palaces, winding alleyways, bridges, and gondolas sluicing through the green canal waters.

I won’t attempt to detail every attraction you should visit when in Venice, it’s of course impossible to hit all the stops in so few days (especially when traveling with kids). But I’ll provide you with our favorites and the inevitable “oh dang, we didn’t have time, but wished we made it there” list.

GOOGLE MAP

I’ve included a link to my Google map with the restaurants and points of interest that we either a) found to be the best OR b) wanted to see, but didn’t have time to. A great way of using this map, if you’re an iPhone user is to create a guide in your Apple map and download the map so you can use it offline, and sort by distance to hit the closest spots as you meander through the city.

Everybody’s Fave! The Gondola ride – We saved this for last, and on the morning before our departure, we stopped at one of the many Gondola ‘Taxi-Stands’ and got our guide. These are easy to spot, you’ll usually see the gondolas docked in the water and the gondoliers milling around, waiting in their striped uniforms and hats for customers.

The skill with which they maneuvered through the canals was impressive. We learned a lot about the waterways, the bridges, and the way of life for the locals. My favorite part about traveling is usually chatting with the service providers and trying to learn more about their everyday lives. While tourism is essential (especially in places like Venice), they are just people like you and me, trying to survive, while making an honest living, and enjoying the place they call home.

Palaces and Piazzas Oh My! The Basilica di San Marco is massive and impressive. What was interesting to learn is that these monuments were not only built as a religious relic, but they are a tribute to the politics and the people. These structures are very much symbolic of the region’s wealth and power and a gathering place for the people. To simply sit and observe the facade of the Doge Palace and the Basilica is enough to fill your culture-cup for the day.

Murano – The island of glass-blown treasures. Everywhere in Venice you’ll find trinkets and treasures boasting to be authentic Murano glass. While we got there late and couldn’t make it to see the process of creating these masterpieces, we were able to walk about and view magnificent works of art that started as a grain of sand. There were chandeliers that stood taller than a basketball player, with all levels of precise and precious details! Of course, when I got home I tapped into Netflix’s show: Blown Away and was even more mezmerized by the process and craftsmanship that goes into these pieces.

What we missed – We chose not to visit the famed Bridge of Sighs, and Ponte di Rialto, I’m sure they are beautiful and worth seeing, but once in Venice I prefered to take is slow and meander at leisure and just take in the very different landscape and way of life.

I really wanted to visit the island of Burano, but time did not permit. Burano is a picturesque island known for their lacemaking and their colorful, quaint houses.

Let me know if you’ve been, and if I indeed need to visit again to get it all in.