Katie & Justin

Venice initially didn’t make the cut for our itinerary. It’s going to be too expensive and too touristy, I thought. My mind changed at some point because, well, it is our honeymoon after all. How could we go to Italy and not stop in romantic Venezia?!

Turns out it was expensive, and it was filled with tourists. But it’s also one of the most magical cities in the world.

VENICE

By the time we hit the road for Venice, Justin was already driving like a true Italian. (“Do they not have speed limits here?”) Our only hiccup in the car came when I steered him away from the VIP parking garage (“We’re not VIP!”), which more likely stood for Venice Inter-Parking and not Very Important People. Oops, haha.

After parking, I was then determined to avoid the expensive water taxis and instead go the public transit route (also via boats) to get to our hotel, insisting to Justin that I knew what I was doing. At one point, however, our boat abruptly turned around and went back to the train station where we started from. The next one we took went around the lagoon in the opposite direction and then also started to turn around before our stop. Nearly two hours passed, and we weren’t getting anywhere!

It turns out that we arrived in Venice the same weekend as the “regatta” — a huge festival and boat race on the water. The main canal had been closed off to boats at the time we were trying to get through.

None of the workers on the boat spoke English so I had to give my rusty Italian a try and luckily understood just enough of the directions to get us there using a different stop. We also got lucky that we made it to our hotel when we did because there was a small window of time open to go for a gondola ride — otherwise there weren’t any more available the rest of the weekend (due to the fest).

So right away we hopped in the gondola, which pulled right up to our hotel’s entrance on the water. During our ride, we got to see one of the races come through the Grand Canal. I’m not sure what it’s actually called, but there were a number of people rowing together in a long, skinny boat. The canal was also lined with balloons and cheering spectators. We soaked it all in with a nice bottle of prosecco that the gondolier had for us.

After the gondola ride, we relaxed for a bit on the little rooftop patio at our hotel and enjoyed what might have been my favorite meal from our entire trip. At least one of my favorites! The funny part is that we had dinner reservations somewhere else later that night, so we just ordered a simple appetizer — a caprese salad — but it was so incredibly tasty. They gave us a big plate piled high with chunks of fresh mozzarella and cherry tomatoes with olive oil drizzled (OK, more like poured) on top. Plus some bread on the side. Mmmm, I want some more of that right now!

Dinner that night did not disappoint either. We both tried some soup — Justin had cream of mushroom while I tried cream of asparagus — and they were both amazing. Followed by steak for Justin and pasta for me. We definitely indulged and had so much great food there.

We ended up finding a small local bar that was by the restaurant and near our hotel so we hung out outside there for the rest of the night. This particular area was away from some of the bigger, more popular parts of town so it was nice to see a different side to Venice.

Our hotel, by the way, made us feel like movie stars! It was so ornate and over the top with red walls, a red comforter and a fancy chandelier — nothing I’d ever choose in real life, but it seemed so very Venetian! They also had a huge breakfast menu where you could check off anything you wanted and it was all included. You better believe we had some more caprese salad in the morning. :)

The next day we figured we should check out some of the hot spots like St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge, but wow was it crowded! I think the crowds were magnified from the festival because by the time we finally found the bridge, we were jammed in should-to-shoulder with people trying to cross. It was a madhouse.

We got lost a little more, wandering through all the curvy, zig-zagging roads and then hopped on a boat back to the parking garage. The trip was short but oh so sweet.

NEXT STOP: Treia

To be continued…

Click here for Honeymoon Part 2: Verona

Click here for Honeymoon Part 1: Lake Como

To see all of our pictures from Italy, click here for our photo albums and then click on “honeymoon.” The location will show up when you click on each picture.