Ciao Bella!

When we were planning our route in Italy, it was extremely overwhelming.  There are countless places that we had wanted to visit, and we just couldn't fit everything into one trip.  We thought about the Amalfi Coast, we thought about doing Portofino, we thought about Lake Como, and we even thought about spending more time in Tuscany.  Our final decision was to spend 2 days in Venice, and I'm so thrilled that we did.

Gorgeous Daniele hotel

I heard mixed reviews about Venice.  People had told me "it smelled", or that "it was boring" or that "it's not a must see", and I couldn't be more happy that we went there to form our own opinions, because I disagreed with everything negative I had heard about Venice prior to our trip and it was an excellent way to end our 9 days in Italy.

Venice was unlike any place I have ever been to in the world.  It has an adorably unique character all to it's own that can't be replicated anywhere else.  As we cruised in our fancy little water taxi (this had been prearranged for us...thank you to my wonderful husband and travel agent), I couldn't help thinking of the Tourist or the Italian Job racing through the Venice canals.  Perhaps we went at the perfect time of year, but I'd argue that New York City smells 100x worse than Venice, and Venice was as clean as can be.  As you know, my husband and I enjoy adore nautical festivity, and for us, Venice was the perfect blend of the nautical/seaside magic and Italian extravagance and luxury.

My favorite thing about Venice was that for the first time of our entire trip, we didn't have an agenda.  We weren't spending days navigating maps & we didn't have appointments or passes for any museums or churches.  We thought about doing the tourist-y things in Venice like taking the gondola ride or cruising over to the Murano glass factory, but decided to forgo all of that and agreed that our time would be better spent "getting lost" in Venice.

As our trip was winding down, we spent the last 2 days in Italy enjoying each other as a couple in arguably one of the most romantic cities in the world.  We navigated through bridges and canals, we drank wine for lunch, happy hour & dinner, we ate whenever we felt like it, we slept in (a little bit), we had 2 (sometimes 3) hour lunches, we popped into shops that looked interesting, and we of course, took in the sights.

We stayed at the Danieli Hotel which had a prime location right off the Grand Canal and backed up to St. Mark's Square.  If you are going to Venice, I'll say that the Daniele is one of the most impressive lobbies I've ever seen.  If you don't want to stay there, it's at least worth it to stop in for a cocktail.  Both mornings, we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast on the top floor of the hotel while taking one of the best views of the Grand Canal in all of Venice.

View from breakfast

Mike and I both agreed that St. Mark's Basilica was our favorite of all the churches we'd seen in Italy...and that's saying a lot after spending 5 hours at the Vatican.  We were both mystified by the gilded Byzantine mosaics that made up the interior of the church.  And for just 5 euros, we were able to climb to the top to see the gorgeous view of Piazza San Marco and of course, the Grand Canal.

Happy boy with his gnocchi

Venice was the only place in Italy where we made dinner reservations before even leaving New York.  And after 6 days of pasta, we were excited to try some of the seafood that Venice is so famous for.  Our first night in Venice, we went to L'Osteria di Santa Marina.  They had a seasonal prix fix menu that includes 7 or 8 courses of some of the best seafood in the city.  But we wanted to try different things.  At the end of our trip, Mike and I pieced together our favorite parts of every meal we had in Italy, and Santa Marina was where we had the best starters.  Mike had a wild boar sausage with burrata & pesto, and I had scallop carpaccio.  Both starters were so delicious that we refused to share with each other.

Mike's favorite thing in Venice,
the Winged Lion

We saved our fanciest dinner for the last night in Venice.  At sunset, we took a boat across the canal to Hotel Cipriani.   Before our reservation at the Fortuny Restaurant at Cipriani, we sat outside in the lounge and had martinis as we watched the sun go down.  The staff at the Hotel Cipriani was so sweet and incredibly accommodating that it made our last meal in Venice extremely romantic and memorable.  When my wine glass was close to being empty, we were swarmed by staff who refused to let me lift a finger to refill my glass.  We enjoyed one more bottle of Brunello di Montalcino and refused to think about the fact that we were approaching the end of our Italian adventure.

One of my favorite parts of the entire trip came after our dinner at Cipriani.  When we read about 'must see' things in Venice, one very wise travel writer said that Piazza San Marco is magical if you can go there when it's less crowded.  We had already seen it during the day, but when our boat took us back from Cipriani, we were hesitant to go home and end our perfect evening.  So we ventured back to St. Marks and stumbled upon quite a surprise!  There were about 20 mini orchestras situated all over the piazza playing 5-7 minutes sets for anyone who wanted to listen.  When one orchestra finished, you'd walk across the piazza to the next one.  We listened to music from the Phantom of the Opera and other beautiful pieces and admired how much more spectacular the piazza is when it's lit up at night.

The magnificent Duomo in Milan

Aggressive pours of limonchello
before going back to the US

We headed to Milan the next morning for our final day in Italy.  To say that we were devastated to see our trip come to an end would be an understatement.  Our final evening in Italy was spent recapping our favorite moments, meals, and sights over wine, pasta and, of course limonchello.  Last year, when we took our honeymoon in Bora Bora, I thought that nothing could top that trip.  It was the happiest I'd ever been in my life, followed by a week in the most tropical destination on the planet.  But Italy was like a second honeymoon.  I wouldn't change a moment from the entire trip, and I'm glad that we left with suitcases full of little trinkets to remind us every day of the incredible journey we had.  I'm so lucky to have such a great travel buddy in my husband, and someone who is on the same pace as I am when we go places.  We have been battling a bit of post-vacation blues since we've returned, but we are excited to plan our next adventure and possibly go back to Italy with our family one day.  It truly was a trip of a lifetime.