I must admit – Venice was not my favorite city… I came to visit many times, with many friends (since I used to live in italy and everyone who came to visit had to see venice …) It was always for a day and we walked from the train station to san marco and back, YES, it was beautiful But it was always full of people… the shops where so touristic And the food was bad.

But this time I took Melly for her birthday and my moms friend gave me her apartment in the middle of venice and came to show us the city on the first day… it was a whole new world. I fell in love with venice as we met for the first time.

The Gondola 

Probably one of the biggest and oldest  symbols of the city. it’s very famous world wide.

Taking a ride with a gondola it’s a dream come true for many people and for venetians it’s basically a taxi 🙂

My favorite part of the gondola ( beside taking many photos of them ) was the iron piece in the front of the gondola, it’s just a beautiful part and very important for the stability of the gondola.

Where to walk and what to see in venice

As I said, I used to walk from the train station to San marco the main square and back… it was also because I didnt have a google map ( a must in order to not get lost ) But this time I had Carla with me and a Google map.

Rialto Bridge

On the way to the Rialto bridge we walked through the Mercato Ittico di Rialto full of fresh fish and vegetables and near the market Carla told us there are many small bars to have tapas and A Spritz typical from Venice, now very trendy in the world.

The fondaco dei tedeschi by DFS

Just next to the Rialto Bridge on your left side ( if you are walking from the station) you will find The fondaco dei tedeschi, now a very nice shopping store. What you should know about this place is that it was built in 1228 and used to be the headquarter for the German merchants.

In the 20th century the it became Venice post headquarter building and in 2012 was bought by the Benton group that renovated it to the beautiful designed place it is today.

The most important part – don’t miss out on the view from the rooftop.

Piazza San Marco

We continued to walk to the most important spot in venice – Piazza San Marco, for me it was the biggest memory of venice with all the pigeons flying around and full of tourists. ( just as I remembered )

In the piazza you can find many museums. we went to the correr museum  and got some more historical information about venice.

Caffè Florian

When you are in San Marco there are many roads to take, We wend to sit in Caffè Florian.

This place is truly an historic cafe and entering it feels like going back in time, it was opened in the year 1720.

Don’t forget to have a coffee and a delicious patisserie and feel the atmosphere as it was 100 years ago.

Near San Marco you can also find Harry’s Bar Cipriani, also very famous with the Venetians.

Carla showed us her favorite places ( the ones we managed in a day )

One of them was the Doge’s Palace museum – we went in a day after and were very lucky to find a beautiful diamond exhibition.

Doge’s Palace museum

Accademia Bridge

From San Marco we headed to the Accademia Bridge, a beautiful wooden bridge that has a great view on the grand canal, on the other side you have the Accademia Gallery. The walk was nice and I took some window photos.

Ca’ Rezzonico

Carla’s favorite palace in Venice. it was build in the middle of 17th century, after many owners was eventually  bought by the city of Venice, more history you can find here .
We walked in this beautiful palace – right on the grand canal and saw the fantastic decors.

Just next to the palace you can find Ca’ Macana  a very known carnaval mask shop.

What and where to eat in Venice

My answer to people that asked me where to eat in venice was always – there is no where good to eat in venice. But this time it changed and I have some recommendations.

osteria al squero &  squero di San Trovaso

A very small and crowded place But has the best tapas, yes, tapas in venice for 1 euro each and they are just delicious that you can’t stop eating them. take 5 with a glass of wine and go sit outside in front of the gondola traditional boatyard (squero di San Trovaso). yes, here they fix and build gondolas, such a great view.

On the same street you can also find another great and famous “tapas and wine” place

Cantine del Vino già Schiavi

Ristoteca Oniga

If you love seafood dishes Oniga is the place for you, don’t forget to book in advance it tends to be full.

Pasticceria Tonolo

Coffee is good in most of the places in Italy, in venice we found a very good patiserie with great Bombolone ( my favorite one- a must try if you are in italy). it was the time of the panatone (famous cake for christmas)  and they were making hundreds of them a day.

In my google map you can find all the places I mentioned + more restaurant friends told me about and I didnt get to visit.

Please tell me what you thought about the post and if you have more recommendations.

until next time 

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