Venice, part 1

We took an early morning flight the next day out of London's Gatwick airport to Venice, Italy. The 2 ½ hour flight on a British Airways flight was smooth, and towards the end of the flight we were rewarded with magnificent views of the Alps outside of the plane window. I haven’t been to the Alps in 20 years and I forgot how majestically the snow-covered mountains soar above the clouds. All of the white caps below are snow-covered mountains! Photo credit: John Wilson.

Once we landed and went through the relaxed Italian immigration process (they barely looked at the passports!), our experience travelling from the Venice airport via water bus to the San Marco square area was anything but smooth. I am so glad that I don’t have photos to remember how miserable this was for all of us! I had done so much research in advance about the best way to get from the airport to the main islands, and most of the feedback was positive about the public water bus - a private water taxi was almost $150 one way (!), whereas the water bus was less than half that cost. However, our experience was hot, muggy, and dreadfully slow, made more miserable by the fact that we were tired from getting up so early and genuinely shocked by the 90 degree temperatures and humidity in Venice after arriving from a much-cooler London climate. Scott and I liked the public water buses when we were in Venice the last time, but what we underestimated was the time of travel for 10+ stops for the trip from the airport versus 1-2 stops for a “normal” distance trip around the islands.

But once we arrived in the San Marco square area near our hotel, we were greeted with this delightful view! The view is great on its own and we were so glad to be on land and out of the stuffy, hot boat!

It was fun to see how the kids immediately reacted to how different Venice was, with its canals and noticable lack of cars. And Scott and I were shocked by how CROWDED Venice was. The tourist population was much, much larger than when we were in Venice 5 years ago in April (a less touristy month) of 2011.

After checking into our fabulous family-run hotel, we ventured out for our first Italian pizza experience. I didn’t take any photos, but we loved our lunch and felt much better after refueling and cooling off in the air conditioning. That last sentence actually pretty much sums up much of our experience in Venice (and Italy). We ventured out in the brutal heat for a couple of hours, then escaped to air conditioning to refresh, then back out in the heat for a few hours, then back to cool off, on repeat all day and night long!

Check out John below watching the gondola/delivery boat captains delivering goods to the stores in Venice through the canals.

After lunch we took the public water bus for a one-stop journey across the large canal south of San Marco square to the bell tower at San Giorgio Maggiore. Scott and I visited this place when we were in Venice the last time and we wanted to share the amazing view from the top of the tower with the kids. The view from this tower provides a great experience because (1) the tower is way less crowded than the tower in San Marco square, so we didn’t experience a wait for the elevator and the tower was not crowded, and (2), your view is across the canal towards the infamous San Marco square instead of away from it. The first photo below is looking towards San Marco square.

Around the islands...

Gorgeous views! I believe one of the best ways to really experience the island/canal/architectural feel of Venice is to view the city from above so that you can see the intricate way the canals are organized and gain an understanding of the relationship between the water and land.

After much-needed showers and time spent in the air conditioning at our hotel, we ventured back out for a delicious dinner. I wasn’t good about documenting our meals on camera this day, but as is the case with most of our experiences in Italy, the food was delicious and we all were satisfied at the end of the evening.