My 3 days travel experience in Venice, Italy

Finally here is my story on Venice, which I traveled to during my Europe tour a year ago. 🙂 One of the city that I love most in Italy is definitely Venice. Venice is an island compo consisting of 118 small islands separating each other by canals. It is sited along Adriatic Sea in Northeast Italy. Not unexpectedly, it is also the most valuable island in Italy, as researches has revealed that Venice is sinking by 5mm each year and by the Year 2050, most parts of Venice would be underwater! In fact, many parts of the city are already sunken into water and long been vacant. When I was there last summer, St. Marco Square, the most tourists frequented landmarks in Venice, was partly flooded in the morning during high tide.

After our trip to Amsterdam, we took the budget Transavia flight to Treviso Airport near Venice. From there, one of the many coaches waiting in front of the airport took us to the Venice Island. We arrived at Piazzale Roma, the only bus station on the island and also the last stop for all road vehicles. After which the whole island is pedestrians only.

How should I describe Venice? Being one of the UNESCO World Heritage city, I was stunned and amazed by the beautiful scenic view of the city when I first visited the island. The whole city is surrounded by sea and splitted by canals. It is a pedestrian only city with the main mean of transportation being all by water way. It is also an old city with most of the great architectures being constructed centuries ago!

We then walked for 15 minutes through the alleys from Santa Croce to the Campo San Polo to meet our hotel agent, and from there she brought us to the apartment I booked in San Polo district. Of course, travelers can also catch a vaporetti (water bus) at the station next to the bus stand and travel by canal to Rialto Bridge water station then walk to the Campo San Polo, which costs €6.50 per trip.

After checking in and settled down, we started our tour around the island, visited the 5 places to visit in Venice. Tourist attractions are mainly concentrated along the main waterway, Grand Canal of Venice.

We first flocked to Rialto Bridge, then to St. Marco Square, San Marco Basilica and Bridge of Sigh in San Marco district. Make sure you bring enough memory SD cards and snap, snap and snap as many photos as you can in Venice. The sky is so blue and clear, the sunlight is so bright and beautiful and your photos would all turn out fantastic and wall paper alike! Though the sun was hot, I could always cool me down by eating Gelato after Gelato!! Each scoop of gelato costs only €1!

We had coffee at outdoor seating of the famous “Florian coffee bar” in the square, listening to live violin music and witnessing the sunset lighting in front of the historical St. Marco Basilica is a real enchanting experience.

At the same time, pigeons were gathering in the square and pigeon feeding is another fun activities going on there.

At night, we had our pizza dinner at one of the restaurant before we hit the road again at night for some fascinating night photo shots.

On the next morning, we decided to walk off the beaten track and explore the residential area of Venice in Cannaregio district. From Rialto Bridge, we walked towards the Santa Lucia train station, admiring the other significant canal of Venice, the Cannaregio Canal.

But I like to explore further into the local lifestyle, by walking further in, away from the tourists spots without the worry of getting lost. There are always signboard showing me the direction back to Rialto Bridge or St. Marco square. Drinking coffee and eating home made pizza with Venetians in any of the local cafe definitely exciting and rewarding.

From the station, we walked back to Santa Croce and San Polo, with another purpose. We clocked the time needed to walk from station to our apartment, so we could assume the same time as needed for us to walk to the train station on next morning to catch our Trenitalia train to Florence!

At night, we cooked ourselves a simple but authentic Italian pizza and pasta which bought frozen from the nearby minimarket. 🙂

Click to view full resolution travel photos that I took in Venice via Flickr.

Travel tips1: Venice island is a small but complicated city in layout. Make sure you buy a copy of the beautifully printed map from the Tourism Info Centre for €2 to tour around the island without getting lost in the way.

Travel tips2: Venice island is made up of uneven, not always leveled cobble stoned alleys and bridges, which are slippery when raining. Be extra careful when walking around to avoid accidents happened. You should consider buying a travel insurance, such as the InsureandGo travel insurance so you can travel with total peace of mind.

I love the romantic setting all over Venice especially the Gondola ride along the Grand Canal which definitely will make your stay in Venice a memorable honeymoon trip! The environment there will make you fall in love with whoever travel partner you brought along! So, be careful who your are going to Venice with! 🙂

Whoever been there before would definitely go back for more. I’m certainly one of them… 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel guide to Europe

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.