• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Resources
  • Work With Us
  • Contact

traverpolis

  • North America
    • Austin
    • California
    • Chicago
    • Colorado
    • The Hamptons, NY
    • New Orleans
    • Newport, RI
    • New York City
    • Philadelphia
    • Quebec
    • Savannah
  • South America
    • Argentina
    • Brazil
    • Uruguay
  • Caribbean
    • Puerto Rico
  • Europe
    • Belgium
    • England
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • France
    • Italy
    • Netherlands
    • Spain
  • Africa
    • Mauritius
    • Morocco
    • South Africa
  • Asia
    • Cambodia
    • Thailand
    • Vietnam
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Resources
  • Work With Us
  • Contact

September 25, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Italia: Venezia

Italy

Since I had been to Italy before and my confidence in my ability to navigate foreign countries is getting stronger with experience, I had mostly planned to tour the country on our own.  However, sometimes it’s nice to take a break and let a tour company step in and do the work for you.  So, when I came across the 3-day Northern Italy tour on Viator, it was the perfect length to give up control of the reins.  For a pretty reasonable price, the tour included one night in Florence, drove us to Venice for one night with a stopover in Padua and, after visiting the city and Murano, dropped us on the train to Rome.

PADUA

After leaving Florence and traveling by bus we made a quick lunch stop in Padua, right outside of Venice.  After visiting the Basilica of Saint Anthony, we pretty much saw most of Padua.  Fortunately, it was a quick stop.

Saint Anthony's Basilica, Padua.

Saint Anthony’s Basilica, Padua.

VENICE

There is no question that Venice is beautiful – such a unique city that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime.  That being said, after I stayed there on my study abroad, I didn’t have the itch to go back, mainly because the city is hard to navigate and get around via water taxi.  But I wanted Tom to see it before it sinks, so one quick night was enough to see St. Mark’s Square and stop at a Murano glass factory.

Gondola at the Rialto Bridge, Venice

Gondola at the Rialto Bridge, Venice

The Accommodations

  • Hotel Continental – our tour company obviously picked this hotel for us, which was on the other side of the city.  Being a water taxi ride away from St. Mark’s Square, it was a little separated from the main tourist attractions.  The hotel itself was large, historic, and very pretty, but due to location alone I would recommend the hotel I had stayed in during study abroad, which was also gorgeous and a little more updated: Hotel Concordia.
Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's)

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s)

The Sites

  • St. Mark’s Basilica
  • St. Mark’s Square
  • Murano: the island known for its unique glassblowing

I wish I could have visited Burano again, the island of handmade lace, but unfortunately it didn’t fit into our packed schedule to see Venice in one day.  So, we stocked up on some Murano glass instead.

Murano, Venice

Murano, Venice

The Food

The restaurants we ended up at really weren’t planned, other than our included dinner in the hotel. However, I had one of the best calzones I’ve ever had from a quick bar near St. Mark’s and some amazing arancini (rice balls). The food is a little pricier in Venice thanks to everything being imported, but the food tastes just like other parts of Italy.

After some free time the next day, we walked the cobblestone streets to the nearby train station and were headed for Rome…

Previous Post: « Italia: Firenze and Cinque Terre
Next Post: Italia: Roma (e Tivoli e Toscana) »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Our Travel Essentials

Explore

Currency Conversion

[currency_bcc w="300" h="300" s="09044f" fc="FFFFFF" f="USD" t="EUR" type="custom"]
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Resources
  • Work With Us
  • Contact

Deprecated: Hook genesis_footer_creds_text is deprecated since version 3.1.0! Use genesis_pre_get_option_footer_text instead. This filter is no longer supported. You can now modify your footer text using the Theme Settings. in /home/cqzv3x3f6q3u/public_html/traverpolis/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5758

Copyright © 2023 · traverpolis | a publication of Travista Media