After a relatively whack night’s sleep in our cheap Slovenian hostel (which involved being locked out of our shared bathroom and having to go for a wazz in the shower cubicle), we arose at 6am and made our way to the train station to make our way to Venice! So far, we’d hit Croatia, Budapest, Vienna and Ljubljana, and now it was time to revisit my favourite city in the whole entire world; Venice…
We pulled into Venezia Santa Lucia at about quarter past two in the afternoon, and found our first hotel quickly. I’d booked a hella good deal using the Hostelworld app (not sponsored (plz sponsor me, Hostelworld!)), and we bagged a double ensuite room in the Hotel Minerva, 5 minutes from the station, in an amazing location, for £38 each per night. We checked in, chucked our bags down, and headed out to explore a little bit. I’m lucky enough to have visited Venice last year with my mum, so I kinda know my way around. We walked to Piazza San Marco, then back to the Rialto bridge where we drank a tinny and watched the boats to by for a while. We found a restaurant really close to our hotel, so just decided to eat there on our first evening because we were pooped. I had a carbonara (the first of five on this four-day stay) and Chris had a calzone.
We got up on the second day and went to buy our Vaporetto tickets for the day. The vaporetto pricing system was created entirely by Satan himself, and is the most hideously expensive thing we bought on this trip. A One-Day Travel Card costs €20, and is valid for 24hrs after you validate it. Just FYI: a Two-Day Card is €30 and a Three-Day Card is €40. Tis nothing but a SCANDAL. Anyway, we swallowed our pride and paid for our One-Day ticket, and got the vaporetto to Lido, a nearby island, for an Aperol Spritz and a pizza to share for lunch. Then we had to get back to Venice for our guided tour of the Basilica di San Marco, the beautiful, ornate building in the Piazza San Marco.
Bit of a weird one, but Chris and I were obviously dressed as scantily as possible because it was about 35 degrees, and we knew we had to cover up to enter the basilica, so we ran back to our hotel to change clothes. But when we asked the guy at the desk of our hotel how covered we’d need to be, he replied with “you shouldn’t go”. We thought he was inferring that it was a bit of a ripoff or a tourist trap, but he then launched into a tirade about tourists not respecting the fact that the body of a saint lies there, and people who aren’t religious and who don’t respect holy places shouldn’t go at all. It was all a bit weird but we just sort of agreed and went upstairs to change. Despite the random outburst of our desk-guy, the tour was pretty cool. I’m a staunch atheist and am sort of of the opinion that if you’ve seen one church, you’ve seen ‘em all, but this place was pretty spectacular. These Venetians were so extra back in the day; the whole inside of the basilica is covered with mosaic and gold leaf, and it really is beautiful. After that, it was dinner time. And by dinner time, I mean carbonara-time for me, and calzone-time for Chris. Then we had a quick drink, then went back to our hotel and packed our bags ready to check into our second hotel in Venice.
As you might have seen, I went to Venice with my mum last year to celebrate my 22nd birthday. Mum’s been to Venice looooads of times, and really loves it there. My mum doesn’t really believe in doing things by halves, so when she learned we were only able to afford two nights in Venice, she booked us an extra night in the Palazzo Venart, a 5 star luxury hotel. We were too early to check in, so we left our filthy backpacks on the velvet baggage trolley (looool sorry RIP ur expensive burgundy velvet) and headed back out. I really wanted to try the takeaway pasta in a pot I’d seen while we’d been walking around, so we grabbed carbonara number three and sat by the canal to watch the world go by a bit more. We also went to the Scala Contarini del Bovolo, the highest and finest example of a spiral staircase in Venice. The view from the top was soooo pretty.
Then we went back to the Palazzo Venart to get let into our room, freshen up a bit and get ready for dinner. This room, and the hotel in general, to be honest, has to be seen to be believed. It is the most expensive-looking, most luxurious and boujie place I’ve ever set foot in. There was complimentary bubbles and fruits on our table, a huge bed, a chandelier, a massive bath tub, embroidered bathrobes, a velvet couch, etc etc etc. It was unbelievable. Seriously, google some more pictures of it. It’s a restored 16th century building surrounded by beautiful gardens and a canal-entrance. I was 100% too poor to be there, but it was a fantastic treat.
Later that evening, after reclining on the bed for a couple of hours, we went to indulge in a three-course dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Venezia (thanks again mum!). It was the most food Chris and I had eaten since we’d left the UK, and after the chicken wings starter and the gargantuan burger main course, we struggled on our chocolate brownies. Seriously, if anyone could polish off that whole meal, there’s something wrong with you.
On our final day in Venice, we got to enjoy the five star breakfast in the restaurant at the Palazzo Venart hotel. Chris and I went down, looking pretty scruffy, honestly, and were greeted with smiles, coffees, fresh apple, pear and melon juice, and a lovely breakfast. Just so ya know, if you want to just walk-in and have breakfast, it costs €45. Was it a €45 breakfast in my opinion? It was lovely but forty-five euros is ridiculous. We then asked the hotel to hold our bags while we went out for the day. Our train wasn’t leaving Venice Santa Lucia until 10:30pm, so we walked around the city a final time, stumbling across a weird art gallery, getting another carbonara and aperol spritzes, exploring narrow streets and visiting a Leonardo Da Vinci museum.
My final carbonara came in pot-form again (those takeaway pasta shops are great; €5 for freshly cooked pasta dishes, check them out if you're ever there on a budget!) and we sat alongside the canal and talked about our highs and lows of the trip so-far until the sun set. After that, we went back to the hotel, grabbed our backpacks, and went to catch our first train on our journey to Prague…
Keep a look out for the next post about our month-long eurotrip!
Next stop: Prague, Czech Republic!
Great post - I loved Venice!
ReplyDeleteBy the way... really random but you look like Lindsay Lohan :O!
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