VENICE, ITALY // TRAVEL DIARY // OCTOBER 2016

My trip to Venice was a 21st birthday getaway from my other half, and even though we were only there five days, it was such a gorgeous experience and I am really hoping to return and visit for longer. Even in the middle of October, the weather was still sunny and beautiful, the flights to and from Venice Marco Polo Airport were easy and transport from the airport was simple.

We stayed on the island of Lido, an 11km long sandbar and home to the Venice Film Festival, in the Marea Hotel Petit Palais, right on the beach and took a little boat to the main island each morning. Lido is full of various shops and restaurants, and one we kept returning to was the Pizzeria Ai Do Mati which does amazing mozzarella balls as well as a fries and pepperoni pizza (the fries being a topping on the pizza alongside the pepperoni – trust me, its the best!).

Even though we weren’t in Venice long, we managed to see quite a lot just through walking everywhere (bringing up those steps!). We visited the Piazza San Marco, the main public square in Venice dating back to the 12th century and overlooked by Saint Mark’s Basilica which is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice and connected to Doge’s Palace, a Venetian Gothic palace which was home to the “Doge” or Duke of Venice. We also saw the San Marco Campanile which is the bell tower of Sant Mark’s Basilica at 323ft tall and is one of the most recognisable structures of Venice (pictured below).

We also managed to see the Grand Canal (pictured below), a major water channel with public boat transport and the Bridge of Sighs, a bridge over the Rio di Palazzo (Palace Channel) and nicknamed after prisoners sighing at their final view of Venice whilst crossing the bridge from the interrogation rooms at the Doge’s Palace to the New Prison.

Finally, we checked off Santa Maria della Salute, which is a phenomenal 16th century baroque-style Roman Catholic church and the San Zaccaria, a 15th century Gothic-Renaissance church filled with beautiful artworks (pictured below).

The main tourist attractions were pretty close together which made it so easy to visit the majority of places just by walking and only needing a short boat ride to and from the various islands.

This is one of my shortest blogs in the travel diary series as unfortunately we weren’t able to see the more further out places such as Murano, Torcello and the San Giorgio Maggiore, but that will be something to tick off next time.

– ARIA

Places Visited/Mentioned: 

• General  Information: Venice Wikipedia / Venice TripAdvisor / Things To Do In Venice TripAdvisor / Restaurants in Venice TripAdvisor
• Venice Marco Polo Airport: Venice Airport
• Lido Island Trip Advisor: Lido Trip Advisor
• The Hotel We Stayed At: Marea Petit Palais Hotel
• Restaurant in Lido with the Pizza: Ai Do Mati Restaurant
• Piazza San Marco Information: Piazza San Marco Wikipedia / Piazza San Marco TripAdvisor
• St Mark’s Basilica Information: St Mark’s Basilica Wikipedia / St Mark’s Basilica TripAdvisor
• Doge’s Palace Information: Doge’s Palace Wikipedia / Doge’s Palace TripAdvisor
• Campanile di San Marco Information: Campanile di San Marco Wikipedia / Campanile di San Marco TripAdvisor
• Grand Canal Information: Grand Canal Wikipedia / Grand Canal TripAdvisor
• Bridge of Sighs Information: Bridge of Sighs Wikipedia / Bridge of Sighs TripAdvisor
• Santa Maria della Salute Information: Santa Maria della Salute Wikipedia / Santa Maria della Salute TripAdvisor
• San Zaccaria Information: San Zaccaria Wikipedia / San Zaccaria TripAdvisor

Places On the List for Next Time: 

• Murano Information: Murano Wikipedia / Murano TripAdvisor
• Torcello Information: Torcello Wikipedia / Torcello TripAdvisor
• San Giorgio Maggiore Information: San Giorgio Maggiore Wikipedia / San Giorgio Maggiore TripAdvisor