Four Days In Venice

I returned to Italy a week ago, and this time hit up Venice. I absolutely love Italy, from the atmosphere, to the rustic feel to the glorious, glorious food. Michael and I got on our easyjet plane on Monday and arrived in cloudy Venice a couple of hours later.

We stayed in Hotel Altieri which was a lovely little hotel in Mestre, which meant we were a 15 minute bus ride away from central Venice. Staying in a residential area has its pros and cons. Pros: we're literally off the beaten track, everything is cheaper and we had access to a supermarket. Cons: not being in the hustle and bustle!

I do recommend the hotel though, we had a lovely and clean room. The staff were all lovely and breakfast was nom.

Day One

As we arrived late afternoon to Mestre, we decided to stay in the local area and we had pizza at a local restaurant called Al Capolinea, which Michael found good reviews for. Let me just tell you now, the pizza I had there was the best pizza I have ever had in my entire life. Yep.

Day Two

Tuesday was about doing all the tourist things in St Mark's Square. We headed out the hotel and was greeted by absolutely horrendous rain, my poxy H&M umbrella served me no use. I had a mini tantrum, complained about by pretty dress being ruined by the rain, and stormed back to the hotel to change. I bought a massive umbrella from a local store (another pro of being in a residential area). And headed back out in more suitable attire and wet shoes.

A terrible panorama shot of St Mark's Sqaure, but hey, I tried. There are lots of men selling selfie sticks around Venice, and one literally walked up to me during me taking a photo and ruined the shot, irony, much?

St Mark's Bascilica. It took a while to get here as Venice don't seem to like putting up road signs or directions...but we got there in the end. As my shoes were soaking wet, I ran around trying to find somewhere that sold cheap shoes as I could not bare walking around in wet shoes. I found a little store, spent €20 on a pair of glittery loafers... but I was dry and happy. So off we went, getting a gelato on the way and headed into St Mark's Bascilica as our first official stop. I would also like to mention that before we headed in, Michael got slapped in the face by a pigeon, hehe. (The pigeons are fearless there!)

Next stop was Doge's Palace! I do love me a palace. It was very beautiful inside and it was so full of history, so Michael the history nerd was happy. The last two photos are of the Bridge of Sighs, this is the last view prisoners would see of Venice before they are locked away. Eery.

Then we crossed the square (no pigeon incidents this time, phew) and headed into Museo Correr, which I fell in love with. The first two photos are of the ballroom which I want as both my bedroom and where I get married okay thanks. The last photo is where the fancies had weekday lunch. Same.

Next stop was Campinle di San Marco aka the awesome tower which when at the top, you get the most breathtaking views of Venice. I'll be honest here, I was dreading going up this because I didn't want to walk up stairs...hehe. But I went in like a trooper, I wasn't going to let my soreness stop me from enjoying Venice. And much to my relief, behold, a lift (and only a lift)! We headed to the top and stayed there for quite a while just taking in these beautiful sights. We were very lucky as the weather had improved too.

To end the day we had pasta by the canal where another pigeon tried to start a fight with me.

Day Three

Yay, beautiful weather! Pretty dress, take two. This was before I was set loose in Sephora and spent way more than I expected hehe. 

Day three was one of my favourites, as we got to go on a private boat trip! We went with a lovely British man named Nick who has lived in Venice for 12 years, so he knew his stuff. He took us around the Grand Canal and little canals for over an hour and a half. The reason why we chose to go with him instead of gondola, is because gondolas are stupidly expensive and we are but mere soon to be graduates, we got a lot more time on the boat, and we had free prosecco.

Doge's Palace and the tower 

Bridge of Sighs

I drank quite a bit of prosecco and got slightly tipsy and tired, cheers. We also got stopped by the popo which was hilarious because I felt like I was in GTA. Oh don't worry, no fault of ours! Nick went down a one way canal, oops. But all was well, and my GTA dream was short lived.

We ended our day in Venice with the most glorious pizza at a gorgeous little restaurant. Michael claims his pizza to be the best he has ever had, whereas mine comes in second place. But I must admit, if I had the spinach and ricotta I feel like that would have come first place, but alas, I had spinach and ricotta on Monday, and it would be rude if I didn't broaden my pizza horizons.

Day Four 

Day four was a bit of a weird one. We checked out of our hotel at 10.30am and our flight home wasn't until 10pm so we kind of just loafed around Mestre for a while wondering what to do. We went to the local supermarket and stocked up on food to bring home, okay I did, Michael bought Milka biscuits... So we decided to back into central Venice one last time, lugging our luggage with us and just chill. We had gelato, sat by the canal and read for a couple of hours, got coffee, ate and then headed back to the airport. A very lovely and chill end to the holiday.

Venice was a dream, and I would 100% go back there. It's a beautiful, clean, friendly and culturally rich place to visit. Although we had a rainy start to the holiday, got attacked by pigeons, annoyed by selfie sticks and I almost lost a flip flop in the canal, it was one of the best holidays I've ever had. Well done to Michael for coming up with the idea of Venice while making me tea one morning. You did good.

(All photos were taken with my humble iPhone 6s, for more photos check out my Instagram).

-Kiran xo