Saturday, October 28, 2017

[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 BarcelonaSagrada 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





3 comments:

  1. This blog is so informative. Please visit Europe Tour Packages just to see if you want to explore Europe with us and get a nice experience with low fare packages

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very Nice blog and get the best Deals on Europe packages and keep share more information
    https://vimianostravel.com/world-tours/europe-tour-packages/

    ReplyDelete