Travel: Venice

I had dreamed of visiting Venice for such a long time so after a stressful few months I decided that we deserved a little treat and booked a long bank holiday weekend as an early birthday present for the hubby! As we had a BA companion voucher that we hadn't had a chance to use (and my weekly Friday 7pm conference call prevented us from flying in the evening) we ended up taking the earliest Saturday morning flight from City airport so we could have 2 full days in Venice before returning on Monday afternoon.

 

(The bridge of Sighs.. looks nothing like the bridge I walked over every day in Cambridge!)

 

I found a lovely apartment on airbnb that was owned by a local architect (you can check it out here).

It was really quirky and modern with innovative use of space; just perfect for our needs. I would definitely recommend this option as it is much more affordable than local hotels and gave us more privacy. We took full advantage of all the amenities in the kitchen... as well as the pull up bar after all those carbs!

There is so much to see in Venice so we spent our first day walking around Piazza San Marco, exploring the Basilica, Doge's Palace, the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge, while finding lots of hidden gems!

 Inside St Mark's

 We had the best time exploring through all the lovely little streets. There is something to see around every corner!

On the second day we took a boat around a couple of the nearby islands. We explored Murano and learned all about the traditional glass making techniques. 

In the evening I had booked us a lovely table at Alle Corone, a wonderful restaurant near the Grand Canal. The food was amazing and the service made it even more special! We decided to take a boat back to our apartment. There is definitely nothing more romantic than seeing Venice at night!

 Rialto Bridge

 The Casino

We had such a wonderful time and I would love to return and explore some more soon!