Walking and Eating in Venice with Walks of Italy

I think that you plan a trip to Venice because you’ve seen how gorgeous it is in pictures and in films. And when you go, the canals, bridges and alleys of Venice will totally fulfill your expectations by being as enchanting as you always imagined.

But another reason to go to Venice (or indeed to Italy) is to eat, so it is no surprise that one of the highlights of our Christmas trip to Venice was a food tour with Walks of Italy.

Our lovely guide, a Venetian native, took us on a tour of history via food, which in my opinion, is the best way to approach any subject.

The fish and vegetable markets have been in the same place in Venice for centuries.

The stalls are still filled by unloading boats that pull up in the canals.

The fish market was wrapping up on the day we were there, a quiet day so soon after Christmas.

Our guide pointed out these carved pillars that surround the area.

I probably would not have noticed that they are covered with fish overlooking the market.

As we walked through some of the more quiet corners of Venice, we learned that the markings of this very old food industry are everywhere.

Even in the street and square names, you could find clues about what kind of shops used to be in the area.

Calle de L’erbarol loosely translates to Street of Herbs, so this is where you would have come a few hundred years ago to get your herbs.

Our tour was peppered with stops at local bars that serve the Venetian equivalent of Spanish tapas: cicchetti

Just when you were feeling a bit tired, or one of the kids wanted to stop walking, it was time for a little bite. Cicchetti can be a variety of bruschetta or small sandwiches, or cheese and olives, or even little plates of fresh seafood.

We loved all the stops on our tour, but All’ Arco might have been our favorite. (We returned there the very next day!)

Of course, it’s a treat to have someone walk in, choose the very best there is on offer and order it all up for everyone to pass around.

We had Prosecco and all kinds of little breads with toppings. I am a newly converted fan of Baccalà, a white fish that is cooked and whipped with olive oil. It’s creamy without being heavy. Delish!

Another highlight of our tour was a quick traghetto ride across the canal.

The traghetto is a gondola ride on the cheap, because it’s so short and the boat holds more passengers than the traditional gondolas.

I so appreciated that our guide made the tour fun for our kids. She wrapped her scarf around Simon’s neck when he was cold. (Simon never seems to be wearing enough clothes!)

And she kept pointing out fun details.

Like the most crooked door in Venice.

Or like a bricked up corner in any alley exists to deter men from using the corners as latrines.

She pointed out where we could go later to get a free rooftop view of Venice (we did this the next day as well!)

We felt like our three hours of walking and eating in Venice flew by way too fast.

We collected so many new bits of history and fun from our day of wandering Venice through its food. Also I love taking my kids on a tour where they are hearing from and being led by someone besides me or Taido. They have mastered the ability to tune us out, but when someone else is telling them new stories and old history, they are all ears!

Thank you Christina!

The sun was shining bright at the end of our tour, so Christina snapped a family photo for us before we parted ways. LOVE!

A big shout out and thank you to Walks of Italy, who hosted us on this lovely food tour of Venice. Walks of Italy is a great resource for planning your trip to Italy as they have tons of information on their website that will help you make the best of your time. I used the info on Venice every day while we were there. My recommendation is to book a tour early in your trip because you will gain insight that will enhance the rest of your visit to Venice.

You can enjoy more photos from our trip to Venice. Or maybe consider subscribing to future posts. 

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Me to Taido in October:

Oh my goodness. Direct flights to Venice from Stuttgart are less than $20 right now! What do you think? Christmas in Italy. We could surprise the kids!

Taido: Let’s do it. 

(My husband is a man of few words.)

It’s funny how many of our trips have begun with an exchange like this actually. We have entirely too many flight alerts set up on various apps and websites.

But also I see cheap tickets all the time that I don’t snap up. And sometimes when I do buy them, I get worried when I start trying to fill in all the other details that are not so cheap (transfers from the airport, places to stay and eat).

But this time around, I have to say that even though it cost almost the same amount to get from the Venice airport to Venice as it did for us to fly to Venice from Germany, I was very happy with this decision.

Because Venice at any time of the year is pretty great.

But Venice at Christmas was very special.

Also it was the worth the price of admission to see our kids faces when we said:

Pack a backpack because we are heading to Venice tomorrow. 

We arrived in Venice on Christmas Eve (just two days after Cole came to Germany!) and went straight to the market to get groceries in case things were closed on Christmas Day.

But Venice is way open for business on Christmas. Restaurants, shops and markets were all ready for us on Christmas morning.

We went to mass at St Mark’s on Christmas morning,

and then spent the rest of the day walking the streets, crossing canals and eating our way through the city. Pizza, pasta, gelato.

In fact, we spent our whole week walking and eating. Walking and eating.

We even went on a tour for walking and eating. (More to come about this!)

Every corner of Venice is beautiful, and I think we managed to see every corner before the week was over.

In fact, I was surprised to find (because I have a device that records these sorts of things) that in spite of walking many, many trails and towns in 2016, that the last week of the year, and one of the coldest, I walked more miles than in any other week of the year.

And that’s the thing about walking in Venice,

You can always take one more step.

Turn one more corner.

Cross one more canal.

Stand on one more little bridge.

You just don’t get tired of it.

Or I guess I should say: I don’t get tired of it.

But just as the kids were starting to maybe get tired of it…

SURPRISE again! More friends!!!

Our friends Tanja, Chipper and Bailey stole a few days away from their family Christmas to walk the streets of Venice with us!

Two families in Venice = Double the fun.

Gelato at all hours!

Top of St. Mark’s!

Every bridge + canal = photo op!

Because so much beauty.

Such a fun group!

And also we rode gondolas together!

Which is cheesy and expensive, but every bit as wonderful as you think it will be.

We discovered a pastry shop that I went back to again the next day because everything in it was delightful.

We made dinner together and laughed and squeezed into little street bars and it was so good.

We LOVED our time in Venice.

It was my third time to wander through Venice, and over the trips I have compiled a good little list of favorites for the next time I spy $20 tickets.

I’m so thankful we did it!

We flew home (over the Alps!) on New Year’s Eve to cold and snowy Germany and spent the next week being cozy and watching movies and going for snowy hikes. So much treasured time.

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I am sharing photos of Venice for Instagram Travel Thursday this week! All of these images were taken from the front seat of Vaporetto #1, which is a water bus that runs along The Grand Canal.

I’m not sure any place gets the kind of reaction that Venice does on Instagram. Instantly recognizable, the floating city of color just begs to be photographed!

I’ve been to Venice twice, and both times I had to fight the urge to take a picture of every single bridge, gondola or doorway. The doorways and windows alone are like something carved out of a fairytale.

My first time to Venice was almost ten years ago. Taido and I arrived by train, and per the advice of our guide book we made sure to get a front seat on Vaporetto #1 from the train station. These “water buses” are much less expensive than a water taxi (or a gondola, of course) but if you ride in the front, you have the same views of the canals as you would in one of the other boats. The Vaporetto #1 goes all the way from the train station to St. Mark’s Square, and the #2 goes back the opposite direction. The #1 and #2 make all the stops, so you can enjoy the longest possible ride on The Grand Canal if you take one of these numbers.

Last year, I could not wait for Mary Polly to see Venice when we went on our Mother-Daughter trip to Europe. On our second morning, we got on the Vaporetto #1 as early as possible. It was almost empty, so we sat right in front and rode all the way to St. Mark’s Square, and though I had ridden in this same spot once before, I was again overwhelmed by what has to be one of the most magnificent experiences you can have in Europe.

Riding down The Grand Canal of Venice is one of those life dreams you can look forward to for many years and then in reality, it does not disappoint.

The colors of the buildings in Venice are crazy wonderful, and many of the boats are brightly painted too.

I am absolutely that silly girl who cannot stop smiling on a trip, and if I go to Venice twenty more times, I would not get tired of riding the water buses through the canals.

This photo of the Rialto Bridge was one of my most loved Instagrams of all time! (Fun Fact: it won me a new camera in the Capture the Color contest!)

Vaporetto #1 drops you off right by all the gondolas at the edge of St Mark’s Square. As soon as you step off the boat, you are right in the middle of everything! Pigeons, street vendors, gondoliers and tourists are flooding the square with the noises of Venice.

If you go, be sure and sit for a while in the square for the some of the best people-watching in Europe, but when you get weary of all that activity, you only have to wander for a minute before you are lost in the smaller streets and squares of the city.

When you find a little bridge or a brightly colored building with arched windows, be sure and send me a photo!

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Visiting The Campanile in Venice, Italy

When you’re walking in dream-like Venice, there is not a single moment in which you do not want to snap a photo.  Every doorway and window.  Each little bridge or canal.

Venice is breathtaking at every turn.

You have to force yourself out from behind your camera to take it in a little deeper.

I don’t think you can mess up a trip to this city.  All you need to do to be struck by its beauty is to show up.

That being said, on my first magical visit to Venice, I did not ascend the bell tower in St. Mark’s square, The Campanile, from which, I believe, you can see the Best View In Venice.

On my second visit with my sweet daughter, Mary Polly, we arrived at the tower by boat early in the morning.  (The next best view of Venice might have to be from the front of a boat.)

The tower opened at 9am, at which time there was no line to ride the elevator to the top and take in the 360 degree views of Venice.

And Wow. Just WOW.

The lagoon, the Grand Canal, the gondolas, the square below and the city stretched out before us until we could even see our cruise ship parked at the distant edge.

People, it was AMAZING!

It had rained the night before and the square was filling up with water.  We watched from above as little worker bees set out the planks for people to walk through the square.

I also absolutely loved seeing San Marco’s domes (St. Mark’s Cathedral) from above.

There are five bells, and one still rings on the hour, but the days events, such as lunch or quitting time used to be marked by certain bell chimes.  I love the idea of a day marked by the ringing of ancient bells.  Not school buzzer bells, but great, deep musical sounds that call you to the next part of your day.

The tower is up Oh-So-High, so I was glad for these little bars over the windows, which would make it less scary to take a little one to the top, but they were plenty open enough for your camera, which is handy since you want a shot from every possibly angle.

After a while we made our way back down to the bottom and wandered on the planks in St. Mark’s Square (Piazza San Marco).  Everyone was going somewhere, but Mary Polly and I just stood around watching people make their way around and through the flooding.

An elevated line was gathering on the planks outside San Marco, and just as many people were just looking for a dry spot from which to take a photo.

The water seemed to keep the usual venders from braving the square, which made for a wonderfully empty space.

Eventually, you come to the end of the planks though, so we pulled off our shoes and waded through the water to our next stop.

On our second day in Venice, Mary Polly and I mostly wandered.

And wandered.

In and out of churches and gelato stands.

But our favorite part of the day was this fun morning at the top of The Companile, finished by wading through the square.  Such sweet memories!

In the fall of 2012, I took a Mediterranean Cruise with my daughter! It was the trip of a lifetime! We called it #Eurocruisazy! Read about more of our adventures here!

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A Visit to The Doge’s Palace in Venice, Italy

This post is part of a continuing series about a Mediterranean Cruise I took with my thirteen year old daughter in the fall of 2012.  After wandering the city of Venice for several hours, we visited The Doge’s Palace.

Overlooking the Grand Canal, Doge’s Palace was the seat of the government of Venice until it came under Napoleonic rule in 1797 and then in 1866, a part of Italy.  Before then, the palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice.

Today the palace is a museum and you can walk through the Doge’s apartments; stand in the large rooms where court was held, decisions were made and foreign dignitaries hosted; and tour the dark dungeon-like prison which you reach by crossing the famous Bridge of Sighs.

On a previous visit to Venice, I had not toured the palace, so I was excited to go inside.  It was around 3:30 in the afternoon when we went, and there was no entry line at all.  Also, it was relatively empty on the inside, a great relief from the crowds in the square.

We spent a long time just in the courtyard, walking around the grand staircases and looking at the facades.  These wells are from the 16th century.  I love how San Marco (St Mark’s Cathedral) is rising behind the palace wall.  The Doge had direct access to the cathedral, which was his personal chapel when it was first built.

You can take photographs in the courtyard and through the open windows of the palace, but not of the interior, so all our pictures are outside.

The light from the open windows made me want to take a picture out of each one.  So many beautiful views from the palace.

I loved seeing the city from a different point of view.

The outer walkways were floored with these beautiful mosaics.

In so many of our walks through ports in Italy, we found ourselves completely enamored with the smaller architectural details, like floors, windows and doorways.  Each one is a work of art in and of itself.

The courtyard columns fell into this category as well.  Rolling pink and white marble make the whole building look kind of like a peppermint candy.

Mary Polly and I never got tired of seeing brides and grooms getting their pictures made on our cruise.  This courtyard was one of many dreamy settings for bridal portraits that we saw on our trip.

The rooms inside the palace were as ornate as the outside facades, filled with paintings and frescoes, some by Tintoretto, including Tintoretto’s Paradise, which is reputed to be the largest painting ever done on canvas.

I mentioned that on my first trip to Venice, I didn’t see the interior of the Doge’s Palace.  I had lists of art I wanted to see in Venice on that trip, so we spent most of our time touring various churches that housed scores of the paintings by Titian and Tintoretto, two famous Renaissance Venetians.  I missed out on seeing Tintoretto’s palace paintings on that trip, so it was fun to get to include them on this visit.

In the armory, Mary Polly and I talked about how much the boys would have loved seeing the rooms full of old guns and swords, a history of weaponry of sorts.

From the armory, you walk through the tunnel that is the Bridge of Sighs.

When you cross the Bridge of Sighs to the prison, you can peek out at the canal and imagine a prisoner, sentenced to go to the dungeon, taking his last look at beautiful Venice.

All the people on the bridge below are photographing the Bridge of Sighs while you photograph them from the slots in the carved bridge.

After we finished our tour of the Doge’s Palace, we went around to the other side to get the opposite view of the Bridge of Sighs. From this direction, it seems like you could hardly see out of the windows.

The prison was another part of the tour we felt the boys would have enjoyed.  There have been so many scenes in books and movies that feature palace prisons like these.  It was just as you might imagine.

Dark, dank and cramped.

Very uninviting.

We were glad to emerge from the prison, with all its maze-like tunnels, and get back to the wide open palace courtyard.

We stopped one more time at this lovely staircase before we exited the palace. On the landing at the top of staircase, the doges in days past were crowned at the beginning of their rule over Venice.

Back in the square, we wandered under these columns and to the Grand Canal.

We sat on some steps by the canal to rest for a while and watch the boats and the people.

After a bit, the skies grew cloudy and a light rainfall drove us back under the columns of the square.  We watched the rain for a while on the square as the museums and shops were closing before we made our way back to our boat.

By the time we got back to the Carnival Breeze that night it was dark and the boat was all lit up welcoming us back for the evening, a magical end to our day in Venice.

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This post is part of a continuing series about a Mediterranean Cruise I took with my thirteen year old daughter in the fall of 2012.  Today I am talking about Venice!

You’ve seen Venice in movies, pictures and books all of your life, but still, there is nothing quite like stepping onto a boat in the Grand Canal and taking in the magical beauty of this place.

It is no wonder that Venice is such a well-loved destination.  The floating city lives up to all its hype.  You cannot help but take one million pictures, but you can also just sit and take it all in for hours without getting tired of watching the windows, arches and boats pass by.

The Carnival Breeze ports overnight in Venice, so we got to spend two days wandering the streets and canals. I think Venice is about the best place on earth to let yourself get completely lost for a day.

I’m just sharing a few photos today, because I have about a thousand.  These are some of our first impressions of Venice.  I loved watching Mary Polly see the city for herself.  I told her to wander on and I would follow her wherever.  It seems that all roads eventually lead you to San Marco (St. Marks Square), so we just moved slowly here and there for our first few hours in the city.

We stopped to take pictures of gondolas, windows, bridges and loads of cute little corners in the alleys.  Venice is busting with color and life and we were taking it all in.

We looked into shop windows at Murano glass and elaborate Carnival masks.  We sat on bridges when we got tired and watched people.

We were completely enchanted.

Next up: When we finally wandered into San Marco, we took a spin around the square and then decided to visit The Doge’s Palace. 

The Details, If You Go

The Carnival Cruise Port is near the bus and train stations at the edge of Venice.  There are several ways to get to the main sights of Venice from the cruise port.  There are water taxis and cruise excursions leaving directly from the port, which are the more expensive options.

We opted instead (on both days) to get on the People Mover that is just outside the cruise port.  It is 1 euro to ride it, and from there we walked easily into the city.  Walking quickly, it took us about 20 minutes to reach San Marco, but we were wandering through lovely streets the whole way there.  On our second day we caught the Vapretto #1 (like a bus on the water) at the station just after taking the People Mover.  Both ways were fun and we saw completely different sights each way, so we were glad we did both.

I think I would only take a cruise excursion if I were trying to see some of the other other islands near Venice.  Since Mary Polly had never been to Venice, we wanted to spend our two days there.  (More info about Carnival excursions on and about excursions in general can be found at the end of this Tuscany post and this post on Rome.)

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Venice was our last stop on our anniversary trip to Italy in 2004.  It’s one of those places you see pictures of all your life, but you cannot even believe it is real when you get there.

It is decadent and glorious and everything you could imagine.  Even in December.

December 9, 2004

Venice Italy

Where do I even begin?

Venice is absolutely breathtaking.  The whole city is just oozing elegance.  From the very first moments on Vaporetto #1, I have been in awe.

Like a great maze, there is a treasure around every corner, a beautiful church, shops full of every possible color of glass and marbled paper, bright and elaborate masks, bridges, market stalls and gondolas.  I have waked around in a dazed dream-like state.

Yesterday we just walked and walked and walked.  We had the most wonderful sandwiches and cicchetti (Italian tapas) which we ate on a bridge.  We went to San Marco and just stood there in the square.

We went back today to tour the cathedral and we took our time because I was enamored with every detail.  The whole inside of the building was covered in mosaics and the pieces are tiny!  When I got up close to them I could not believe all the tiny little quarter inch tiles.

My favorite mosaic was the one of Jesus sitting on the throne ruling His kingdom.  Our guidebook said that Jesus was commonly pictured like this (instead of on a cross) in Byzantine cultures.  I bought a postcard of this mosaic to remember Jesus this way–Sovereign over all, his hands stretched out in front of him, welcoming.  Not to worry.  He’s handling all things.

At the moment, Mary Polly and I are traveling Europe by Mediterranean Cruise.  You can keep up with us while we are gone on twitter, instagram and facebook!  

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