[Europe] Gondola Ride, a Mandatory When in Venice

Venice, as a romantic city, they offer some attractions which you can do with your partner. One of them is gondola. Visiting Venice won’t be complete without taking a gondola ride. Even some people say, "Don't leave Venice without taking the gondola."

Gondola is a small boat, which can be fit up to 6 peoples. Gondola is a mandatory for tourist, because when you take this ride, you can feel the authenticity of Venice. Sitting down at the gondola, relaxing, and enjoy the view of this floating city when the wind blowing, what could be better??

Aurelia was very happy to take a gondola ride

For taking a gondola, it costs €80 for 30 minutes, and after 7pm it will climbs up to €100 for 40 minutes. Because at night, the ambience will be different. It's so quite, and make your gondola trip with partner more romantic. However, some gondolier will charge more for the ride. So make sure you talk about exact price and the duration before you hop in to the gondola.

Gondola Ride Price in Venice

The Gondolier Wears a Stripes T-shirt

During this 30 minutes ride, the gondolier will take you down the canal, and while you spoil you eyes with the authentic view of Venice,  you will hear his voice, singing in Italian. Perfect things to do with yor couple!

Flag with The Lion of St Mark - Venice

Spotted!! Ambulance in Venice

The gondola ride not only have 1 route. You can choose whether you want to ride it at the small canal, or at the big canal (Grand Canal) in front of Piazza San Marco.  If you want to put yourself at the Grand Canal, take a gondola at San Marco. It might be will charge more, but you’ll get a different experience.

[Europe] Budget Friendly Food in Venice

As i was saying at the previous post, Venice is an expensive city. Of course it also happenned with the food. While in Venice, i didn’t have a lunch or dinner at the restaurant. Because mostly, cafe or restaurant in Venice will give an extra charge for dine in, around €2 - €4 per person. Especially if it’s located at the popular attractions such as Rialto Bridge or Piazza San Marco. A good ambience, with a great view and high class service, make those restaurant become pricey. So we chose to just buy a food to go, because it’s affordable yet tasty.

Well at this post, i’ll write about some places that i visited, and they’re selling a budget friendly food with a good taste.

1. Dal Moro’s Fresh Pasta to Go
    I knew about this place before i arrived in Venice. When i was planning for my Europe Trip, i found out about cheap food around Piazza San Marco. Most people talked about Dal Moro’s and it has a lot of good reviews. The best seller is pesto, which i ordered. No wonder they got a lot of good reviews.  A fresh pasta in a box, with a delicious Italian sauce, who can reject it?? And it also comes with affordable price. €5 - €7 for 1 box of pasta, in Venice. It’s a very good deal.

Dal Moro's Menu

Pesto

Address : Calle Casseleria, 5324, 30122, Venezia VE Italy . Opening hours : Mon - Sat 12 PM - 08.30 PM. Website : http://www.dalmorosfreshpastatogo.com/

2. La Maison de La Crêpe
Unlike Dal Moro’s, i just found this creperie all sudden. I was strolling around Rialto Bridge at night, and saw a long queue in front of it. My curiousity brought my hubby and i to join the line and ordered a chocolate and banana crepe.

Sweet Crepes Menu

They not just sell a sweet crepes, but they also have savoury crepes as well. They also sell the ice cream only with some delicious flavour options.

Savoury Crepes Menu

Ice Cream on Cone / Cup

The choice of Ice Cream's Flavor

Crepes on the Process

 Honestly, i'm not a person who likes to eat crepes. But this crepe was really tasty. It's soft and have a good filling in it.

Address : Sestiere Cannaregio, 5781, 30121 Venezia VE, Italy . Opening hours : Mon - Sun 10.15 AM - 11.30 PM


So that's all what i ate because we only have 1 day in Venice . Do you have another budget friendly food recommendation in Venice? Feel free to write it on the comment box below..

[Europe] Explore Venice, a Romantic City in 1 Day

Italy, always identic with romance. Many people choose Italy as a honeymoon destination. One of the romantic city in Italy is Venice. Venice is a city which located above the sea, between 118 small islands. Because of its location, which surrounded by water, they don't have any road. Instead, they only have canals and bridges. That’s why, to explore this city we only can ride the water-ways transportation such as water bus (or usually called vaporetto), gondola, or you can just walking while enjoy the ambience here.

Vaporetto (Water Bus in Venice)

Venice is a small yet beautiful city. They only have a few attractions on the city center which can be visited in 1 day. We're going to Venice after visited Milan, by taking Frecciabianca train and it stops at Venezia Santa Lucia station. It costs around €20 pp, if you buy it earlier by online here.

At Frecciabianca Train From Milan to Venice

Venezia Santa Lucia Station

The living cost in Venice is really expensive compared to other European city. Starts from accommodation, transportation, even the food!! For our accommodation, we're looking for a hotel which located around Venezia Santa Lucia station, because we'd arrive and depart from this station. It's really important to choose an accommodation near the station, especially in Venice. As i was saying, you only can take a vaporetto to explore Venice. Can you imagine how hard could it be to bring your luggages and take the (always-crowded) vaporetto??? You might take a private water taxi. But it cost really expensive. So i found Hotel Florida, which cost only €85 per night for a double room (€120 for triple room), and that rates including breakfast. It's quite affordable and the reviews are also good. Beside that, this hotel really close with Venezia Santa Lucia station, only 2 minutes walking (around 170m).

Hotel Florida

Private Water Taxi

We started our day by taking vaporetto to Rialto Bridge, one of the most popular attractions in Venice. Basically, vaporetto is like another public transportation, such as “metro” train in Paris. Vaporetto is operated by ACTV. They have a fixed routes  and also have terminal to stop. The difference is just it’s on the water, and it’s a boat. For taking vaporetto, you need to buy the ticket which cost €7, and it can be used up to 75 minutes. Yeah, it’s pricey. You can’t finish exploring 1 place in 75 minutes. And that means you need to buy another ticket for continue your journey. But our next destination is Piazza San Marco, which can be reached by 10 minutes walking  from Rialto Bridge.

Ticket Station at Ferrovia 

Ferrovia Terminal Across Santa Lucia Train Station

Venice is beautiful city. I'm agree with that. During our ways with vaporetto to Rialto Bridge, we could see the rows of small Italian styled buildings, separated by the bridges and canals. It's something that i never see before, and i think it's amazing.

Arrived at Rialto Bridge, we were greeted by the crowd of tourists. I knew it's summer, which means a peak season in Europe. But i never thought the crowd gonna be like this. We just walked for a while around the Rialto Bridge, and buy some souvenirs. The heat of the summer, with the crowd at the bridge, made us get dizzy and looking for a place which more quite and of course an indoor place. The weather reach 4o degrees celcius and it's really killing me.

The Crowd at Rialto Bridge

Murano Glass Jewelry

Unique Shaped Pasta

So we're following the path from Google Maps to reach Piazza San Marco. Suddenly we found a church, and it's open for public (with no fee). It's called Church of St Salvador (Chiesa di San Salvador). At the first time we only wanted to go in to cover our body from the sun. But when we're inside, we had a different feeling with it. It's the first church that we visited in Italy. With some paint on the wall and some sculpture as a decoration, it looks old yet beautiful. It has different style with the majestic church that we visited at Barcelona, Sagrada Familia. I never thought that we'd see a church at this floating city, but i love it!!!

From this church, we continued our journey to Piazza San Marco, another popular attraction in Venice. Even i could say it’s the most popular attractions. Some people only see the Rialto Bridge from the vaporetto when they passing through. But at Piazza San Marco, they will step off from the vaporetto,  and explore every corner of this wonderful place. That's what we also did to enjoy this city. Walking down a small alley, crossing the bridge, it's a new experience that i won't get anywhere.

Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) is a public square which always be favorite destination for tourists. You can see most of Venice's landmark here. No wonder it's always full of tourist. You can see the beautiful European buildings here. My tour in Piazza San Marco started from Basilica di San Marco (St. Mark's Basilica). This iconic cathedral really popular among tourist because of it's beautiful design. However we didn't get in because there's a long queue at the entrance and we only have limited time. If you want to skip the line, you can buy the ticket buy online here.

In Front Of Basilica di San Marco

From the Basilica, we're walking towards the Grand Canal. From this place i could get the best spot to take pictures of Campanile di San Marco (St. Mark's Campanile). Campanile di San Marco is a cathedral tower, which become the most popular landmark in Venice. Beside that, we also found a Doge's Palace, a gothic style palace and museum.  It's really nice to walk at this area. It's not too crowded like at Rialto Bridge. Perhaps it's because they have a big space and also it's really close with the Grand Canal which make this place become windy. There's also some fancy cafe and restaurant at this area which offer a great view. Don't ask the about the price. Tourist spot, with a great view, this restaurant will charge you with a high price.

Doge's Palace

Wefie with Hubby in front of Campanile di San Marco

A Restaurant with a Great View at Piazza San Marco

Music Performance at The Restaurant

Colonne di San Marco e San Todaro

After a couple of hours walking to explore Venice, we decided to take a gondola ride. It would be nice to resting our feet, and enjoy the view of Venice at the same time. It's a must things to do in Venice. Actually we wanted to take a gondola ride at night, because the ambience will be much better. But i just found out it costs more expensive at night.

At the Gondola

Pirate Ship at Grand Canal Venice

Sunset in Venice

It was the only night for me in Venice, and i didn’t want to waste my time, sleeping at the hotel. I went back to Piazza San Marco, and wanted to see how’s the nightlife in Venice. However, since Venice is a small city, i found nothing special here. No crowd, just some couple have a romantic dinner at the restaurant around Rialto Bridge. Yeah, Venice is a perfect for honeymooners, spend romantic days with couple.

Chiesa di San Simeone Piccolo (San Simeone Piccolo Church)

Rialto Bridge at Night

Street Artist at Rialto Bridge

Trattoria by the Canal

Found This Cute Dress by Moschino

Piazza San Marco at Night