From Our Visit to Venezia by Laura & Drew

As any traveler who’s been there knows, there’s simply no place in the world like Venice! From its romantic canals to its echoing halls of art, this timeless city has an unparallelled allure. Laura & Drew, Realtravelers from Virginia, found out that even the most touristy of activities are magical in Venice:

“Our first stop on day 2 was St Mark’s Square, where we were really touristy and fed the pigeons. It was so worth it though, and it was a lot of fun! At first I was terrified to have birds landing on me, but I conquered my fears and fed them a few times, and really enjoyed it! The best was Tatum, though, because she has a fear of birds but decided to try it anyway. We got some really great pictures with her looking away in disgust as the bird lands on her hand!

After St Mark’s square, we went to the Doge’s palace, the Ducal Palace where the rulers of Venice lived. It was amazing! The place was absolutely gigantic and very ornate in its decoration. There was a grand staircase with gold decoration all over the ceiling, and every room was covered in artwork and very fancy decorations, such as Venetian glass chandeliers. After going through the rooms of the palace, we walked over the famous Bridge of Sighs into the prison …apparently, this Bridge is called the Bridge of Sighs because as the prisoners walked over, the looked out the window and sighed, because after crossing the bridge they were stuck in the prison forever. The prison was neat too, though very different from the palace – there was really old graffiti that prisoners had written on the walls of their cells, and that was pretty neat. After passing through the prison we went back over the Bridge of Sighs and into the former armory, where they had display after display of all the fantastic old weapons. Some of them looked pretty intense!”

As Laura & Drew said in their blog, no trip to Venice is complete without a Gondola ride:

“After dinner we walked over to the Rialto bridge (where my trusty travel book had ensured me I would find the best Gondola routes). We found our gondolier and hopped into the very fancy gondola. He rowed us under the famous and beautiful Rialto bridge, and then we went into the small side canals that were very scenic and pretty much deserted, making for a very calm and private gondola ride. To be even more classy on our Gondola ride, we bought some prosecco (Italian champagne) to drink along the ride.” (more…)

Venice is enchanting at any time of the year, so begin your trip planning now!

Useful links:

Venice Travel Guide
Venice Images
Italy Travel Guide
Italy Travel Map