Weddingbee Blog

We wandered north from Tuscany to visit Venice for roughly 24 hours. Though we spent the least amount of time in this city, it deserves its own post because it’s one of the strangest places I’ve ever been.

The two-hour train ride from Florence reminded me a lot of the Central Valley in California. Much of the country reminded me of the Golden State, due to acres of cultivated agriculture and vine-dotted rolling hills between major cities. Venice’s well-documented, high-quality foodstuffs makes perfect sense, knowing that this stuff surrounds it.

The (Italian!) leather-bound journal with our names and wedding date was a wedding present. We wrote in it every day, especially when we were in transit, taking notes in a museum, or annoyed. All personal photos.

A native Florentine working at one of the wineries (more on those here) made a couple funny statements about Venice that now seem spot-on:

1. The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas looks very much like Venice, Italy.
2. Venice isn’t exactly Italy. It’s just Venice.

Now, having been there, I’d describe the city as somehow historic, cheesy, romantic, touristy, and beautiful at the same time. It did look very much like the Venetian and many other theme-park-like places. And, short of the magnets and conversation between few-and-far-between locals, I also kept forgetting it was Italy.

High-end glassblowers and local shops capitalizing on Venetian Carnival take space next to numerous gondoliers. Tiny, tiny waterway streets and footpaths are everywhere, and they smelled familiarly of Monterey Bay or Pier 39 in San Francisco. It is so easy to get lost here, with a map, even when direction-averse me wasn’t navigating. The most harrowing search for a flattened penny (the only one in the city) happened here. But the twisty, turning walk, which brought us to a play group of local moms and kids, was a good way to see the city. The city’s own Accademia was worth visiting, despite many pieces being ill-preserved. Piazza San Marco was perfect for people-watching and marveling at the pigeons-to-humans ratio.

Our hotel (Hotel Bernardi) is on the right.

Murano glass up the wazoo.

I’m intrigued by the faux-city/state/region phenomenon in theme parks and other huge tourist draws, a la Disneyland and Las Vegas. Venice totally started it.

Ponte di Rialto

In addition to inspiring the waterwayed look - word up, Venice Beach, CA - they say Venice also started the eat-local thing. The city’s access to high-quality seafood is no joke. Since we only had one dinner, we wanted something very local: ciccetti, or Venetian tapas. When we asked for a menu, our Quasimodo-like waiter pointed at himself and said he was the menu. He recommended a homemade beer, tasty seafood platter, and a local white wine we hadn’t heard of, so we just went for it. Though I was too timid (as Quasimodo teased me) to eat the blue-tinged, raw langostino lobsters, the in-shell scallops, mussels, and swordfish carpaccio covered in olive oil were out of this world.

A major port city in the region, it hosts the most colorful, bountiful farmer’s market this Bay Area gal has seen. It being a historic port city, it was also a center for commerce. Modern banking started here, hence The Merchant of Venice, one of my favorites.

I have a soft spot for feather accessories (scroll through my wedding recaps to spot them), so I bought one of many Carnival masks for sale. You can’t take pictures of these, and the photo of me with the one I bought is far too creepy to put online.

We were conflicted about the gondola ride. You can ride something less-sexy but functionally similar called a traghetto for half the cost. Did we want to do one that much? But, cost, shmost. At what cost, you ask? 100 euros for 30 minutes. The gondolier said we could “make love” on this nighttime ride and he wouldn’t look. (We didn’t, but thanks). We went past Marco Polo’s old digs and resisted the urge to go “Marco…POLO!” Even though I kind of hate water games because of the swimming thing.

The blurry view from a moving boat.

All in all, a fun place to visit, but, for me, not for more than a few days. We flew from Venice Marco Polo Airport to Athens, Greece next. We saw dentists and autobody shops on the bus to the airport, so I wondered, as we left, if this is where Venetians live. With that, we took off to country numero dos—a new one for both of us—on this trip.

Catch up with the rest of the Ancient Civilizations tour here:

• Florence and Tuscany

Taco who?

• Before we honeymooned, of course, we got married. My last wedding recap has all the links to our 2010 San Francisco wedding.