I had to head out to Montebelluna for two days of meetings, arriving on the Monday and home late Wednesday so Suzanne and I decided to visit Venice over the May Bank Holiday Weekend. We flew out on Friday morning and Suzanne flew back on Monday night whilst I was picked up at the airport. We looked at prices and decided, against our better judgment, to fly with Easyjet from Gatwick. It was £150 cheaper than flying with British Airways from Heathrow and we thought that this would cover at least a couple of dinners in Venice. The thing we forgot of course was that it was flying out of Gatwick which is harder for us to travel to than Heathrow and that it was Easyjet. The best thing about Eastjet is that it is not Ryanair and the best thing about Gatwick is that it is not Stanstead!

We had planned to travel by train to Gatwick catching an early train at 06:18 but of course at the last minute there was to be a planned rail strike on the Monday so we had to book into the car park at Gatwick. As it was last minute, it then cost us £140.00 and that was half of our saving gone. Travelling home from Venice, my flight was late and then we were put into a stack at Gatwick, a plane landing ahead of us dumped some hydraulic fluid on the runway and we then had to divert to Stanstead for more fuel. We eventually landed two hours late to be greeted with “I am sorry for the late arrival which may have caused some of you some inconvenience”. What about the rest who did not suffer any inconvenience? Who were they? Of course, had we been on time we would have landed ahead of the aircraft dropping the hydraulic fluid on the runway.

So to Venice, we landed on time and took the direct bus to Venice. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Garden Hotel which is a good spot to pick as it is on the direct airport bus route which goes every ten or fifteen minutes to and from Venice and Marco Polo Airport throughout the day. Coming home it is two stops out of the Venice Bus Station. Being out of the city in Mestre it is a bit bigger than the city hotels and gives you a bit more space in your room to move around in. It is a mid-sized, modern hotel, clean and well run. Breakfast is good, cooked and cold options and then out and onto the bus to Venice.

We went online to buy all our tickets in advance; we bought a pass for the Vaporettos, the waterbus, for a few museums and for the WC’s. From all accounts Venice has very expensive public toilets so we took the website’s advice and bought tickets for these in advance as well. We never needed to use these tickets but we did have them if we needed to go, next time I’ll save my money and rely on the fact that we also stop somewhere for coffee or lunch and can use the loos there. The Vaporetto ticket was great as it covered the bus to and from the Airport and our hotel and the water buses, so good value. It is the way all the locals get around too, so join in the queue and jump on and off the vaporetto to get around the city and islands.

So Venice itself; how do you say something new about Venice? It’s everything you think it will be. It’s both overwhelming and underwhelming, brand new and falling down, steeped in history and a big tourist trap. It’s everything you expect it to be yet never fails to deliver, as it is just so different. The big thing I cannot get over is the lack of streets in the city, yes I know it’s on water but until I saw it, it did not sound different but it is. When you head off from the bus to the Vaporetto stop you begin to realize this, the buses all run on the water, canals, and open water to the islands and back. Any big journey you do it on a waterbus, which takes a bit of adjusting to.

First order of the day was to take a Vaporetto down the Grand Canal to St Mark’s Square. St Mark’s Square IS Venice and you need to try to avoid it at it’s most crowded, which we did. Don’t buy any food or drink round the square itself, as you will pay a ridiculous amount for a tea, coffee or gelato. We then spent the rest of the day dodging around the alleys and back alleys finding our way round before deciding that it was time to eat as we had not eaten since breakfast.

Dinner on our first night was at the Hard Rock Café, we wanted something quick and easy and this fitted the bill going for the “Local Legendary Burger” which was yummy. We sat at the edge of the upstairs balcony watching the gondolas come and go which is quite a bizarre sight as you eat All American and a complete contrast to the karaoke going on down below us.

Venice is great for walking and just looking at the buildings, the scenery, and wandering around gazing in shop windows. We wandered through the maze of alleyways to find somewhere to enjoy a glass of prosecco and found ourselves at Le Chat Qui Riz. We ate at Rosa Rossa located in a nearby back alley, which was delicious: soup, streak in a pepper sauce, gelato along with a nice bottle of local red wine. You eat a lot of gelato in Venice, as it is available on almost every corner, you are in Italy so go with the local food, no?

After dinner on our way home we were crossing a bridge over a canal and found a gondola dropping off it’s passengers and decided on impulse to take trip. Going on a gondola in Venice is such a cliché but you must do it. It is so quiet and peaceful and just the sound of the oar or another gondola passing. Our gondolier gave us a guided trip through the back alleys/back streets of Venice, he pointed out the sights, where to look what to see and finished the trip down the canal under the Bridge of Sighs into the gondola station at St Mark’s Square.

Awesome.

Day three was the first sunny day and we planned a bit more island hopping before finishing again at St Mark’s Square to wander off into the alleys to find a nice restaurant to eat in. We took the vaporetto to San Giorgio Maggiore then hopped over to La Giudecca along to the Hilton Milano Stuccky before heading back to the main island at Zattere.  I’d like to tell you how good the service was at the 5 Star Hilton Venice Stucky but after being ignored for ten minutes we decided to go elsewhere for our glass of prosecco.

It is definitely worth getting the vaporetto out to some of the islands. Each one seems to be different. Burano is famous for its brightly coloured facades and lace making, whereas Murano is famous for its glass making. Both are easy to get to on the vaporetto. We spent the day just island hopping and wandering around taking photographs.

The other thing worth doing in Venice is visiting some of the museums. The Museo Correr is well worth a visit and probably a bit quieter than some of the other major attractions, it certainly was when we were there. We spent a good couple of hours in there enjoying the sculptures, art and history of the place.

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