Twilight, Travel, and Treats

Now that you've read about my London trip here's



One small note before I start - I managed to have internet access almost the whole time I was away. How? Mr. TC downloaded a program into his phone that allowed him to make his phone a Wifi hotspot with any SIM card. All we did was hunt down a SIM card in Italy and we were set. Even managed to use our laptops off it. So lucky to have a computer guy husband!

Flight

We took a taxi from our hotel to the Victoria tube Station and then took the express train to Gatwick Airport. Remember you can buy tickets on the train if you're in a rush.

walkway to British Airways gate - like those things you drop pennies into We boarded a shuttle that took us to another terminal and flew British Airways to Marco Polo Airport in Venice.

my Dad would love this conveyor belt

For those of you who haven't been to Venice before it's definitely unique.
Assuming you are staying in the heart of touristy Venice imagine that you are stay on a huge island shaped like a fish.
That island is actually made up of many smaller islands connected by foot bridges and the bigger gaps/canals are connected by a few big bridges. The network of waterways surrounding all these mini islands becomes your road network on the island of Venice and thus you travel by boat and there are no cars.
You can of course walk all over Venice and get blissfully lost. Our tour guide reminded me, the type A person, not to worry about getting lost in Venice as "you're on an island, how far could you actually go?"

Getting from Marco Polo Airport to the heart of Venice

We decided to take a boat from the dock near the airport to the touristy island of Venice.
The tourist information desk at the Venice airport is very helpful and I headed straight there after customs. You can buy tickets for the Alilaguna boat which is the cheapest way to get to Venice by boat so you get the awesome approach by water. She told us which route to take and which stop to get off at and how long the walk would be to the hotel.
Note we did not take a private water taxi - super expensive but direct.
It is really an easy 5 minute walk to the dock.

quite comfortable inside, not seasick at all

The boat stopped along the way at Murano so it was good to have a peek at the outside of the famous glass factories.
The locals on the boat did not like to be sprayed with water and after seeing the amount of debris in the Canal I felt the same way.

Hotel

Let me preface things by saying almost all our hotels in Italy were found (but not booked) through this awesome site called Mr. and Mrs. Smith.


They go undercover around the world discovering luxury boutique hotels and I thought for our 10th anniversary trip it would be nice to splurge and book some of their favourites.

We stayed at a hotel in the Dorsoduro section of Venice which is south of the main touristy area and connected by the Accademia footbridge to the tourist spots.



As directed by the tourist information desk at the airport we got off at the Zattere stop and easily walked about 10 minutes to our hotel. Once again thank god for good wheels on my luggage. The Venice map was misleading and things were a lot closer together than I thought they would be - nice surprise for those of us with short legs.

Our hotel - Charming House DD724

Tucked away in a small alley
Boutique hotel with a B&B feel
Front desk was helpful especially Irina
They do have a staff only elevator but the front desk guy carried my luggage up the three flights.
Air-conditioned of course.
Equipped with mosquito repellent devices in the room because your room overlooks a canal (not needed on our trip)
Modern room and washroom
Free Wi-fi

tea in the room - love the heart shaped sugar packets

Oddly the toilet paper was "probiotic" and actually supposed to be good for our skin

my arm is holding the camera out the window - hate heights!

the restaurant in this pic Le Gondoliere is supposed to be good

Breakfast

Daily breakfast was included and very good.
Hot scrambled eggs and bacon
Muesli, assorted cereals, yoghurt
My favourite every morning was having apricot juice

The sweet lady who did the breakfast didn't speak English but managed to remember everyday that my husband likes cappuccino and I like tea.

Breakfast dining room

yum yum

common room - library and TV

Food

For dinner our first night we headed towards Zattere again as it is beautiful to stroll along.


We ended up at a nice but expensive (this is a given in Venice anyways) restaurant called Linea Dombra

It is set over the water and beautiful at night

those prices are in Euros just for starters!

We both had a traditional spritz drink to start.
Total Twi-moment - anyone read the epic and awesome fanfic Emancipation Proclamation by kharizzmatik? Bella plays a modern day slave to this italian mafia family and has to learn to make this drink for Carlisle; Edward is a mafia prince and a son in the family Bella ends up enslaved into. If you haven't read the story dedicate a weekend and get out the kleenex and enjoy the angst.

traditional spritz aperitiv

spider crab salad on a phyllo pastry - so good

Once of my favourite dishes the whole italy trip was homemade pasta:

Homemade tonnarelli in clam sauce - one of my favourite dishes

Next day my husband headed out to the supermarket (8 minute walk) and came back with a feast for brunch in our room

buffalo mozzarella in a tub in Italy still beats anything from Canada

That night for dinner we headed to a more touristy restaurant recommended by our tour guide called Al Casin dei Nobili.

yummy risotto - sorry for the dark picture

next door is famous Gelato Nico - supposedly the best gelato in Venice

Our last night we had dinner literally right next to the hotel - Cantinone Storico - very good

you have to have sardines and onions in Venice - really tasty, watch the bones

very light gnocchi - nice reminder that they are supposed to be light as clouds

fish stew

Mr. TC loved having this dessert - so simple, cherries and melon on ice

Sightseeing



I talked Mr. TC into a tour of Venice. He was adamantly against paying 80 euros for a 45 minute gondola ride so I found a tour that included a gondola ride - yeah!

Our hotel concierge helped us organize a tour through Artviva Tours - they have excellent reviews on tripadvisor. They do tours in Florence and Rome as well.

I convinced Mr. TC to just do the whole tour - 6 hours worth!

First up - The Original Gondola Tour

We met our tour guide Ziggy (super awesome lady in her 70's who was fitter than us!) at 2pm and started a gondola tour. Finally got our gondola ride but without the serenade. Frankly I'm glad that we didn't pay for the private one and I don't think it would have been as romantic as I had hoped.

The gondola ride portion lasted 35 minutes and then there is a walking portion for 40 minutes.

the front fero - S shape imitates winding canal, top is a Doges cap and the six spokes represent the different areas of Venice

I love the golden seahorse on our gondola

don't fall in!

How NOT to get/out of gondolas

By the way we learned a lot about gondoliers. It costs almost a million USD for a gondola license but apparently they are able to make it back in 10 years. I understand now why the rides are usually 80 euros each!

Things I learned

- Venice is famous for having the first Italian woman graduate from university.
- everything in Venice is done off the island - even the laundry from the hotel is shipped off onto the mainland to get done - no wonder it's so pricey
- the tiny 119 islands that make up Venice are all on a foundation of logs/piles driven in the ground. Crazy when you're walking around looking at giant palaces imagining that you're held up by logs.

all the Japanese tours seem to get serenades - it's lovely

this is seriously the water side entrance to a clothing store

green door on left - where Mozart stayed while enjoying Carnivale here

don't ask because i don't know