Venice - and a bit of neighboring Murano and Burano

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Venice is built on 126 islands and connected by 472 bridges.  There are no surviving historical records of when Venice was founded or how it was built. Between Autumn and early Spring Venice is often flooded by tides of the Adriatic pushing in. Venice hosts up to 60,000 tourists per day! Venice continues its ongoing fight to ban large cruise ships.

Venice is magical. It's everything I imagined and more.  One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. After our long road trip we were starting to get travel fatigue and Venice was exactly what we needed. However, the first thing we learned was that there are no cars in/on Venice.  I don't know why we didn't consider that, but we were ending our road trip in Venice anyway, so we turned the car in early.  We also didn't account for how far we'd have to walk, and how many different sets of steps we'd have to take just to get from the boat to the hotel. With luggage (we both had a suitcase and backpack.). If possible, take the private water taxi, rather than the bus.   We learned from our mistake and took one back to the airport. The streets are windy and confusing, but the beauty of the architecture and the charm of the shops made getting lost not matter at all.  The local wines were great, the prosecco was delish, the pastries were outstanding, but nothing beat the panna cotta topped with pureed fresh strawberries. There's beauty everywhere. There are Italian music and Italian men.  There are gondoliers. Like I said, magical. Oh and I didn't sell anything bad coming from the canals as I was told to expect.

Venice is a city built on water, so boats are everywhere.  Here are a few things you can do on them:

1. Obviously we start with a gondola ride on the Grand Canal.

2. Take a Carnival mask workshop.

3. Take a street food tasting tour.

4. Take a guided tour of St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace.

5. Visit Murano by water taxi and take a tour of the Murano Glass factory.

6.  Indulge in a pastry and espresso break. 

7. Take a cantamaran jazz cruise.

8. Participate in a wine tasting tour.

9. Learn to cook like a Venetian homemaker.

10.  Spend a half day on Burano, a neighboring island with a small, local population.  VIsit the lace making shops and have a nice seafood lunch at a locally owned restaurant.

CHECK OUT MORE VENICE ATTRACTIONS & TOURS AND GET DISCOUNTED TICKETS THROUGH MY PARTNERSHIPS WITH:

GET YOUR GUIDE: https://www.getyourguide.com/venice-l35/?partner_id=9B7YGSE&utm_medium=online_publisher&cmp=Venice

VIATOR: https://www.viator.com/Venice/d522-ttd?pid=P00174325&mcid=42383&medium=link&campaign=Venice

You can also hop over to my Attractions & Tours Ticket page for discounted tickets from TIQETS.

I can't miss sending a shoutout to our amazing concierge at the Riva Del Vin Boutique hotel.  She upgraded us to a spectacular room, arranged a private tour of the Murano factory (on Murano) and on our last night when we were too tired to leave the room, she went out and picked up a pizza for us.  The hotel is beautiful, right on the Grand Canal, and the service was incomparable.