Easter Weekend in Venice

On Easter weekend we had a full 4 days off and instead of shoving in a lot of travel (a la my spring break) we wanted to have a lot of time in one place with lots of down time. Two of my roommates (Leanne and Juhea) and I decided that Venice would be the perfect destination- plus none of us had been there yet. Break came at the perfect moment because the past week some of my high school friends and a bunch of Colgate people visit were in Florence. It was so nice to see everybody but I was definitely in need of relaxation and sleep.

Lido!

Sooo Friday morning I was off on the 8:30 am train to Venice. Upon arrival we did a little walking around the train station before heading to our first of many AMAZING meals (this was definitely a food oriented weekend thanks to the careful research of my roommate Leanne). We had a nice loooong lunch and then tried to get back to the train station. At this point we discovered that Venice is an absolute maze. We were lost in no time but if you have to be lost somewhere, Venice isn't the worst place in the world. Eventually we found our way to the Grand Canal and we got on the water bus to make our way to the island called Lido right off of Venice where our Bed & Breakfast was located. Lido was very resort-ish and felt like we were on a beach vacation which was nice. Our B&B ended up being an adorable little grandma-ish place where we were given "The Pink Room". The quaint-ness of the place was entertainingly offset by the owner who was a very jock-ish looking guy in his late 20s. After taking a little rest in our room we boarded the water bus back into Venice to see some of the sights.

Our adorable pink room

Doge's Palace

First stop was the Doge's Palace- where all the Dukes of Venice lived throughout history. The architecture was beautiful and inside the rooms were decadently decorated with lots of guilding and woodwork (think a Venice version of Versaille), plus one of the largest rooms in Europe is there. There was also a prison complex in the basement which was interesting/creepy to see-- it made me think of the Three Musketeers or the Count of Monte Cristo.

prisons

The Palace-Museum exited into Piazza San Marco which was chock full of people- Venice is definitely a popular Easter vacation spot. The piazza has the palace, a bell tower and the Basilica of San Marco. We couldn't go inside the Basilica because there was a mass going on but the facade was beautiful. After taking in the Piazza we did some more walking around the area. The canals in Venice are really amazing and unique thing (very different from the canals in Amsterdam). We had a great time looking at the gondolas going through and crossing over bridges and through narrow passageways.

San Marco Basilica

Next stop was dinner at an AMAZING restaurant called Da Mamo's. The service in Venice is so great considering how tourist-y it is and how crowded it was for Easter weekend. We had reservations and ordered sea food dishes. Not only did they give us delicious bread but we also got free mini appetizers, after dinner digestive shots, and chocolates. So different from the restaurants in Florence right now, which are definitely taking advantage of tourist season. After dinner we head back to Lido and I was in bed asleep by 11. Amazing.

yum

Our plan for Saturday was to take advantage of our 3-day water bus pass and explore the other islands around Venice. We had breakfast at the hotel which was delicious but a little awkward because it was three couples and then the three of us. After croissants and coffee we head out to catch the bus. The two islands on our list were Murano and Burano (confusing, I know). Murano is where all the famous glassblowing occurs in Venice. Apparently the industry was moved over to the island from Venice after a bunch of fires broke out in Venice.

glass birds on Murano

 Literally every store on the main canal of Murano either produces or sells glass. We went into a couple of the bigger stores and wanted to find a glassblowing show but we couldn't fine one going on. Some of the glass things were pretty touristy but others were really adorable and some were really really really expensive. My roommate had bought me a glass wine-stopper when she was in Venice earlier in the semester so I didn't make any purchases.

cute little glass orchestra

Next stop: Burano. There really isn't anything to do in Burano itself and it's pretty far from Venice, but I would recommend it to everybody who goes to Venice (ahem, hint for my family). Almost every single house along the canals on the island is painted a different bright color. Pink, green, blue, yellow- it looks like a made-up Disney town (another theme from my semester apparently). It was also absolutely perfect for Easter weekend. We wandered around for a little taking tons of pictures. I even found a Mountain Lakes colored house!

Leanne and I on Burano

Mountain Lakes!

We head back to Lido for another little rest (so niceee to have time for that) and then into Venice for yet another awesome dinner. This place had incredible food and after dinner we went for gelato. This is the one negative thing I have to say about Venice- the gelato isn't really all that great. Oh well... we survived. Once again we went back to Lido after dinner and it was lights out by 11ish.

Sunday morning we had plans to meet up with two of my Colgate friends, Carolyn and Mandi. They made an appearance earlier in this blog: they're the girls I met up with in Amsterdam. My roommates and I met them at the Accademia Gallery around noon to go see the works inside. It was a little disappointing because we wanted to see the Vetruvian Man by Da Vinci but they only display it every 7 years! So misleading because there are posters and t-shirts of it everywhere in Venice. There was a ton of Venetian art from the late middle ages through the Renaissance to see though. My studies have mostly been on Florentine Art so it was kind of interesting to see some different stuff but honestly I will be happy if I don't see another painting of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus for another 10 years. OD-ing a little bit on Renaissance art.

Our next museum visit was 12432342353 times better than the first. We went to the Guggenheim which was located in Peggy Guggenheim's old house along the Grand Canal. It had THE MOST amazing collection of modern art. I actually really disliked modern art before taking a course on it last semester at Colgate. Now I really enjoy it though and this collection literally had half of the works I had studied in class. I'm really glad that my roommate Juhea had suggested we go there because otherwise I would have completely missed out (sorry I'm not sorry for being so art-dorky). 

Mandi, Me, and Carolyn at the Guggenheim Sculpture Garden

Since we had so many days in Venice and there really isn't THAT many tourist spots to see we had a ton of downtime Sunday afternoon. The five of us went to get ice cream (healthy eating yeahhh) and sat by the water for a little. Then we did a little walking around and ended up sitting by a canal chatting for a while.

It was a really relaxing afternoon but by 6:15 we were ready for dinner. Unfortunately, our reservation wasn't until 7:30. We head towards the restaurant just in case they could take us early and luckily they sat us by 6:45. Not to sound too repetitive but this restaurant was soooooo goooooood.  It was definitely the nicest of all the restaurants we went to (and cost the most $$$... but it was Easter Sunday dinner after all).  Our food came with endless bread, free bruschetta, free bellinis, dessert wine, and digestive lemon alcohol. I tried swordfish for the first time which was delicious and then the five of us split these huge and AMAZING tiramisus which ended up costing 12 euro (oookay).  With all the courses and chatting the dinner lasted us until after 9 and we were absolutely stuffed by the end (in a good way).  I said goodbye to Carolyn and Mandi until summer (sad) and then Leanne, Juhea, and I went back to Lido and surprise surprise, I was asleep by 11:30.

hanging out by the water

Monday we didn't have any specific plans so after breakfast and checking out we took the number 1 water bus which goes all the way down the Grand Canal. We'd seen most of it throughout the weekend but it was nice to get seats at the front of the water bus and take a long ride down the entire thing. We got off at the train stop and were on our way home to Florence by 1:15. Our weekend in Venice ended up being exactly what we needed at this point and we got to see everything we wanted AND have a super relaxing weekend (not to mention all the delicious food). I was really sad to not be home for Easter = [ but this was definitely the next best choice and we had a great time!

Piazza San Marco from the water