Tschüss Germany and ciao Italy!
We flew from Berlin to Venice, to begin two weeks in Italy.
I’ll be boring you with a few posts about Italy, starting with my favourite bits of Venice.
Venice views – Venice is picture-postcard-perfect at every turn but we did particularly enjoy the views from the St. Mark’s Campanile and the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi rooftop terrace (visits to the terrace are free but best to book in advance).
Venice Food Tour with Walks of Italy – what’s the best way to see a city? Eat as you go. Our guide took us through various market squares (yes, including the fish market), made multiple cicchetti stops (the favourite was All’Arco), and we finished with squid-ink pasta for lunch.
Gondola ride – So touristy but it would be a crime to visit Venice and not ride in a gondola (it’s also fun, particularly when you spot things like canal traffic lights!). Our gondola ride was enhanced by learning about the history of the boats and the significance of the design from our food tour guide the day before.
Singing. #Venice pic.twitter.com/YWzNOVRvoM
— candococonut (@kateinkew) December 27, 2018
Lasagna radicchio e gorgonzola – it might seem over-the-top to name a lasagne as a Venetian highlight but the dish I had at the tiny restaurant, Osteria Al Diavolo E L’acquasanta, was probably one of the best things I ate on the whole trip (we saw radicchio everywhere – must have been the season).
And other things that made me happy in Venice: Bellinis at Harry’s; seeing the boardwalks set up (but we left before high tide); Aperol Spritz with every meal; the view from my hotel room; and glamorous wooden speed boats.
Bookshop mention! The famous Libreria Acqua Alta, where all of the books are kept safe from floods by being housed in bathtubs, gondolas, and waterproof bins. Disorder is the order of the day – if ever a bookshop required hours of browsing, this is it.
Another lovely post, Kate. I still remember my first glimpse of Venice which is decades ago now. I also remember that fish market. We had a tiny apartment which my partner stank out with his fishy meal, although I can’t remember what he cooked. Looking forward to the next installment!
The fish market, which I would class as a Venetian institution, is under threat (and tourists are to blame!) – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/06/historic-venice-fish-market-fights-survival-local-shoppers-replaced/ There were lots of signs up about saving the market when we were there.
Next instalment is Florence and Tuscany…
I’m sorry to hear that and to have been part of the problem, although we did buysome fish, but not entirely surprised. I was lucky enough to visit the Barcelona market before it was gentrified and the gorgeous Leadenhall market in the City which is now choc-full of upmarket boutiques.
I understand it’s a combination of a few things – tourists (and most have no capacity to cook fish!), fewer permanent residents in Venice, and pressure from developers to buy that piece of land/ rent for another more lucrative purpose.
Fabulous! I am verde con envy!
🙂
The sunlight on those pink facades makes a magical place seem even more magical… How were the crowds?
We didn’t have any crowds (by Venetian standards!). We were there between Christmas and New Year so most of the tourists were Italians, on school holidays. Our tour guide for the food tour said that in summer, 20,000 more people crowd the island – it would be unbearable in those narrow little streets!
the sheer number of people visiting has put me off visiting Venice – the city is thinking about putting restrictions on the number of cruise ships that can enter on a given day.
I can highly recommend visiting in winter – no cruise ships! Since returning from our trip, I happened to see a news report about Venice and tourists – they are apparently working on a tourist tax (goodness knows how it will be administered) and a way to cap the number of visitors. Our food tour guide, born and bred in Venice, no longer lives on the island because it has become too expensive.
It’s a similar problem in a few other European cities – Dubrovnik and Barcelona.
Great post, Kate. I’ve been to Venice four times now and just love getting lost in its alley ways, finding little bars and sitting with a drink watching the world go by. We spent Christmas there in 2015 and it was truly magical: the city was practically empty of tourists and there was a low-lying mist that stayed for several days; everything felt so atmospheric and mysterious! Despite all those trips, I still haven’t gone on a gondola though! A traghetto crossing (standing up!) put me off entirely.