Weekend in Venice

So my roommates and I were trying to plan a weekend away in Florence, but there are no inexpensive flights to Florence, so we were planning to go to Milan, and then take a train to Venice. We had the plan pretty set, but as we booked flights, it turned out that it was just Kaylen, Jill and I. Trains from Milan to Florence were very expensive, so instead planned a weekend away in Venice, which was less expensive to get to than Florence. Great decision! After an interesting, to say the least, first night in Milan, we were ready for a better day in Venice, and that was exactly what we got. We had our hostel all set, and it had gotten good reviews online, so we were excited about that. We had talked to a few people who have been to Venice about what we had to do/see while we were there, since we were only there for a limited time. Our hostel turned out to be a somewhat bed and breakfast, it was great.

Venice is a small(ish) town in Italy, and legitimately EVERYONE spoke English, which was convenient since the only Italian we knew were the few words we looked up on my blackberry on the way to Milan. Venice is more of a tourist destination than I had expected, which would explain why everyone knew English. The food was amazing! Even though our waiter at the restaurant we had lunch at laughed at us and knew we were from the United States because we ordered spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna, thinking it was a typical Italian meal. Apparently a real Italian meal consists of fish, which I guess makes sense, but I wasn't trying to have fish in Italy... so I stuck to the pasta/pizza/red wine diet. Yes...red wine, which I hated up until this weekend.
The shopping was great. There were SO many little stores, many of which were selling masks since they are popular in the town for Carnival in the Spring. Many stores were also selling fine leather handbags, shoes, gloves and coats. I wanted so bad to buy everything, but as to be expected, everything was very expensive. There were also a ton of murano glass products since the original murano glass blowing factory is in Venice.

Murano glass bead necklaces

Venice is a city built on water, so every corner you turn, you see another bridge. There are no cars in the city, only boats. It is a nice change, to see everyone walking everywhere. The pace is much slower than here in Madrid. We definitely felt like we were on vacation. There are gondolas everywhere, and the men who row the gondolas in the striped shirts and hats are always offering their "special price" of 60 euro just for us! What a coincidence. We took a gondola tour, it was really pretty. Check that off the list of things to do while in Europe!

The buildings in Venice are absolutely beautiful. The reflections in the water make for a perfect picture. We saw the two spots to see, the San Marco Square (from the gondola), where the Basilica church is, and the Rialto bridge. I got some pretty amazing pictures if I may say so myself.


We had an amazing weekend and I would definitely go back again, there was so much more I felt like we could have seen, but we just didn't have the time to!