Adventures of a Navy Wife in Italy: First Full Day in Venezia

Gondolas

Since our tour book was outdated and we didn’t have the whole weekend planned, we decided we would “get lost” in Venezia since many different people suggested it! We traveled during the “low season” but there were still TONS of people everywhere, except during riposo (between 2-4). We decided we would wander around the city and see all the different things. There were a few things we wanted to see: The Wake House (Casa Astrom), Piazza San Marco, Murano, and the Rialto Bridge. We also wanted to ride on the canal. Matt wanted to see the fish markets (stinky smelly fish markets J) and we wanted to see all the different carnival masks. So we loaded the baby in the ERGO and put on real shoes (no flip flops), and took all the warm clothing we had, and just started walking. We headed towards the Rialto Bridge (which was around the corner from our hotel).

Rialto Bridge

View from the Rialto Bridge

After we hung out on the bridge and took some pictures, we had to make a choice of left or right!! We chose to go to the left. The next goal was to find breakfast or something similar! There are not a lot of “breakfast” places and we ended up finding an awesome coffee shop with mini quiches and wonderful breakfast pastries, and cappuccino! One thing that is very different than American coffee shops is that everyone stands at the bar and drinks the coffee quickly. It is not as hot as American coffee and you can’t get a Venti!! After our breakfast we continued our walk. While we strolled through Venezia, we saw a variety of interesting things. I saw a random man carrying an arm (mannequin arm but still weird). There were lots of dogs throughout the city which I thought was odd because of all the water! The dogs were wearing coats! We saw an Irish Pub (Matt was super excited) run by Chinese people. There were very few garbage cans throughout the city.!We found lots little piazzas in the middle of buildings. One of the little piazzas had an awesome market with delicious cheeses so we bought a block. In this same piazza, there was an ice skating rink. It seemed so out of place. Probably the coolest part of the ice skating rink was the penguin helpers! The little kids held onto the penguins to help them learn to ice skate. We left the piazza and we found a Coop, local grocery store. The stores are very small and jammed packed! We bought some meat, clementines, and bread to go with our cheese. And some water because water cost $0.35 for a 2 liter but on the street it cost 2 euro! We walked until we got to the end of the city! We ended up at a point that was the perfect location for a picnic. So we sat and ate our bread, cheese, meat, and clementines while looking at the Grand Canal. The only thing missing was a bottle of wine!!

Our Lunch View

After lunch, we had to back track a little since we reached the “end.” We decided we would have a direction in mind this time and headed to see Peggy Guggenheim’s collection (which coincidentally was located near the Wake house which I wanted to see!). We went to the museum and saw lots of neat artwork: Picasso, Polluck, Dali, Kadinsky. The baby LOvED looking at the artwork, especially all the colorful works.

Sculptures at the Guggenheim...can't take pictures inside!

When we left the museum we decided to look for the Wake house. Wake Forest has a house on the Grand Canal for students who want to study abroad. Unfortunately with my major, you had to study abroad first semester sophomore year (who is ready to leave all the wonderful new friends and freedom of college)or second semester senior year (who is ready to leave all the old friends and carefree last semester of college??. All I knew about the location of the house is that it is on the Grand Canal and near the Guggenheim….little did I know it was right next door to the Guggenheim! We walked out and started to actually look for the house and it was literally right there! The visiting hours were only Wednesdays (it was a Saturday) and the rule follower in me was very disappointed. Luckily, my husband knocked on the door anyway! We were given a tour of the house and a little taste of what it would have been like to study abroad!

The Courtyard of the Wake House!

After the Wake house, we decided to head back towards the hotel. We found a little restaurant for dinner, which had fantastic calamari. As we got closer to the hotel, I convinced Matt that we needed to have a banana and chocolate crepe! And it was delicious! First day of Venezia was wonderful!