But only if you are ready for at least

15’000 steps a day

Venice is an absolutely magical city. Beautiful old buildings, cultural highlights around every corner, the huge Grand Canal winding through it like a big fat snake, framed with majestic palaces, the overly richly decorated Palazzo Ducale, the Markus square, gondola floating through quiet little waterways, basilica and towers (most of them tilting slightly) around every bend of the canal, and be prepared… tons of tourists ! There are great little restaurants away from the main tourist hub, with sensational pastas and seafood dishes and for the shopping queens there are shops everywhere selling anything from Dolce&Cabana, Prada and Chanel to second hand, there’s something for every girls heart ! And if you are a photographer like we are, this city is simply heaven !

DAY 1:

Our hotel Riva del Vin is in the San Polo part, right on the Grand Canal, maybe 100m from the famous Rialto bridge, I picked it for the location and because it looked really good on their website. The entrance is a little hard to find in one of these narrow little alleys and just a very ordinary door, but once inside we get a warm welcome and a lovely room with no view. Not that we had expected any, these streets are so narrow you almost always look onto the next wall, unless of course you pay a fortune to look at the Grand Canal. Who cares, we are only there to sleep. 

We have some light left, and a very lousy weather forecast, so we quickly head to the San Marco part of town, to the southern end of the Grand Canal to get some photos of the beautiful Basilica San Maria del Giglio and possibly a sunset. There are gondolieri at almost every bridge we pass, hoping to get some customers. In not so brilliant weather they are not doing too well. 

Unfortunately there is a lot of building and renovation going on at the moment, scaffolding everywhere, and this basilica is one of them, so a bit of a different photo than we had expected, but still a lovely experience. The light is fading fast, so after that some night shots in another little alley near the Hotel San Moise, before heading back to our hotel to meet the rest of the gang which are arriving from Amsterdam. We had a sensational dinner at the nearby restaurant San Silvestro, run by three brothers, which was so good we booked again for the next night, before heading to the Piazza San Marco with our tripods for more night shots. 

Day 2:

The forecast said rain from 17:00, on the contrary…. it rained all day, with some dry intervals. But we made the most of it and went for coffee or lunch when it really poured. We started off with our 3 day Vaporetto ticket and got the first trip all wrong. The stop is right across from our hotel, just cross the bridge and get on the boat, but pick the right one ! We know now, that if there are 2 stations beside each other: the left one (facing the water) goes right, the right one goes left. So instead of directly heading to the Markus square we took the long way there heading towards the Statione Ferrovia, which really does sound much nicer than railway station.

No worries, we took some great shots along the “one hour sightseeing” trip. We went under the Ponte degli Scalzi, the least scenic bridge, and passed the cruise ship terminal, to finally, via the Passage Canale della Giudecca, reach the Markus square.

We got some nice shots of gondola with the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore in the background, saw the bridge of sighs: the Ponte dei Sospiri, where the prisoners crossed from the Palazzo Ducale to the prison (sure reason for lots of sighs), then got lost in the maze of alleys and ended up at the next bridge the Ponte dell’Academia from where we took the vaporetto home to have a late breakfast. 

You can’t really get lost, it is an island so no way out, and there are always signs towards the major touristic spots, San Marco-Rialto-Academia, so just follow those and you will get to a spot from where you can take a Vaporetto home. 

Discovered a new Vaporetto stop: San Sivestre, it is just before our hotel and on our side of the canal, so we don’t have to climb the bridge all the time ! Boy, we walk a lot, that’s already 8’000 steps before breakfast, and still counting ! 

The afternoon we spend discovering more of San Polo, we hide for the rain to have a sandwich lunch, walk more, then give up and take the Vaporetto to the basilica and from there to Markus square and  Sospiri. We take the Vaporetto home and have another great dinner at San Silvestre.

Day 3:

After an early breakfast we walk the Cannaregio part of Venice to the north side of the Venice island to Fondamente Nove where we get the Vaporetto Nr. 12 to Murano and Burano. To Murano it is 15min, to Burano another 30min more. The latter is our main point of interest for today, they say it has these wonderful colored houses. 

That was the understatement of the year. Even a colorblind person would blink twice here. This little island is amazing. No great cultural highlights, no fancy buildings, no basilica, and just one very crooked tower, but each house has a different color. I go crazy here, this place is so photogenic I can’t stop exclaiming: look here, did you see this, how cool, how colorful, look at these combinations. I simply love it. 

We walk around for ages trying to get the perfect angle, discovering new colorful alleys, squares and rows of houses on yet another little canal. When our stomachs start to rumble it is a bit hard finding a spot where we can have lunch, most places are closed on a Monday. We get a sensational Spaghetti Carbonara at the Campiello del Principe, and even sit outside in the sun for lunch.  There is light so we run around all over again, in the light the colors of the houses shine even brighter, this is amazing.

We take the Vaporetto back to Murano and stroll around. It is rather boring after the colors of Burano. We go see a Glass factory and witness a glass blowing demonstration, that is totally fascinating, incredible how they make such beautiful things from almost scratch ! We take the Vaporetto home and do an unexpected stop at a cool bridge until it gets too dark. No tripods with us so we will have to come back later. Back home in the pouring rain.

A very average and soggy pizza at the Pomodororosso, which is the most famous pizza place around. Very disappointing, a total tourist trap. So to make up for that, a nightcap to lift our spirits, at the foot of our Rialto bridge, Aperol Spritz what else. It was good and gigantic, well it must be for 11 Euros.

Day 4: 

Our last full day here and again an early start to beat the rains. The Vaporetto to Academia Bridge, then we walk. To the (very hard to find) Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, the tower is like the inside of a spiraled shell. From there to San Marco, the Basilica, we do gondola photos (or traghetto as they are called here), find gorgeous little channels, visit the famous bookshop, then it is time for a cappuccino and we really do need to warm up again. It is maybe 3 degrees and raining.

It is by now pouring with rain so we head back to the hotel to relax. Have a nice lunch then visit the Palazzo Ducale, at least we will be under a roof and dry. The art inside here, all these amazing sculptures, murals, ceiling paintings and staircases are jaw dropping. And imagine, they built that hundreds of years ago ! 

We cross the Sospiri bridge, to the prison part. Shit, I don’t ever want to be a prisoner here, and definitely not in winter ! Dinner in another hidden little place called Cantina Do Spade. Very nice but it can’t beat our Silvestro (which is unfortunately closed for holidays now, otherwise we would have taken all our dinners there)

Day 5:

We have to leave for the airport by noon but the morning is ours. After getting some shots around „our bridge“, finally in relatively good light, we head for the Markus square again.

After the heavy rains last night there are puddles everywhere, we get some creative shots of the Basilica di San Marco  reflecting in the puddles. Then it is time for the girls to board the gondola. The guys position themselves on the bridges we pass under to get some cool shots of gondola, bridges and us ! Tough luck for them our gondolieri changes the route so they miss us on the way back. They run, we have fun ! 

A last cappuccino and then the ride with Ali Laguna back to the airport. So sad to leave.

Venice is great !!!

For our favorite photos: Go to gallery

 

Copyright photos and text: Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch

 

Arrival Information: 

Getting there is easy.

Most European cities have train connections to Venice, or flights to Venices Marco Polo Airport. Once at the airport you are still 10km outside of Venice.

Either take the bus or a taxi.

It takes about 25-30 min either way. A taxi ride costs 40 Euro the bus about 10 per person. Buy a bus ticket in the arrivals hall or head straight for the taxi stand. Your aim is the Piazzale Roma, the big square on the west side of Venice. From here on there are no cars, just gondola, or water taxi, (private ones which are rather expensive but fast), or the vaporetti, something like taking the bus back home to reach your hotel. The vaporetti cost 10 Euro pro person pro ride. They also have 1, 3 or 7 day tickets for 25, 45 or 65 Euro. Tickets can be bought almost anywhere, at the major sightings/stops there are people to help you, but the  ticket machines have many different languages to choose from, so you’ll be okay anyway.  Vaporetti line 1 stops everywhere, line 2 is like the intercity and does only major stops. To Murano take line 4.1 or 4.2, to Burano line 12.

Or go in Venice style, and go by boat from the airport. 

For this really nice way to start your trip, go one floor up and take the trolley ways, which take about 10min, to the waterfront, just follow the signs. There are 3 choices, the private water taxi, for 1-6 pax at 130 Euro for the boat, (can be booked in advance), the same shared boat for 35 Euro per person, which takes about 20min, or the yellow Ali Laguna boats (check where your hotel is and take the blue or orange line) which leave at a set time every 30min and takes about 1 hour, costs 15 Euro per person. Tickets for Ali Laguna can be bought in the arrivals hall at the bag carousel, and all tickets are available at the waterfront just before embarking, there is also a little restaurant there if you have some time to spare.