Venetian Dreams

A dream 30 years in the making

I have been wanting to visit Venice since I read a Nancy Drew novel set in Venice when I was about 12. 

I decided early on that it was where I wanted to begin out Italian adventure.  When researching I found an expensive option for getting from the airport into Venice proper and I loved the sound of it, so I made it fit into the budget.  We caught a boat, not a water bus, but a sleek and glamorous boat, the kind you'd expect to see Sofia Loren on with scarf blowing behind her in there breeze.

We were not disappointed!  If you can afford it, do it!  Otherwise you can catch a train.  

Here is the clip of our arrival in Venice via vapporetto.

Arriving in Venice was an eye opener... I hadn't thought about the fact that there would be lots of bridges which often equals steps... The streets are cobblestone...  And you have to ask EVERYWHERE!

None of which is very conducive to suitcases!  Especially as my handle had broken somewhere between Perth (Western Australia) and Venice... And we are over packers.  Lance and I both had big suitcases (in my case, heavy too) and the kids (6 and 11) both had smaller suitcases.  From where the vaporetto dropped us off we had to find our way to the location to pick up our keys.  I'm usually pretty good at directions, but Venice defeated me to start with.  We got slightly lost, it took us a good 20 mins of looking, asking (and getting a 'I don't know') shrug in response (the Venetians were generally really lovely about it, I was shy about asking for help and some poor man took pity on me and helped without me having to ask) before we finally worked out we had crossed one too many bridges.

Finally, with keys in hand, we had to brave the water bus.  Tempers were a little frayed (it's a 24+ hour transit from Australia, and no-one rests well on a plane), but we managed to buy tickets (again, lovely Venetian people helped us out) for what I had been lead to believe was going to be a 1hr ride on a water bus.  We met a lovely American man who lived in Venice who told us no, it was only going to be about 20 mins and we all heaved a massive sigh of relief.

Water Bus - most common form of transport in Venice.

We got off the bus feeling much more positive, now to follow the map with directions on how to get to our apartment... Luckily there way no bridge between our bus stop and our apartment so we didn't have to lug the suitcases up and down anymore steps!  We found the little alleyway between two shops and made our way to the end, turned left and kept on going and found ourselves in a lovely square, kids playing, people chatting, it was just perfect, except the alleys leading off did not match what I had on my map... and the names didn't match what I had on my map... So we tried first one, then another and finally another and worked out that this was the correct one!  We found ourselves next to a canal, which we followed for a while (remember, the handle on my suitcase no longer pulls out, I've resorted to using my scarf as a handle of sorts to drag it along, it's also summer and 2pm Venetian time so 10pm Perth time and the streets are all cobbled... We were not having fun) before finally finding the correct street to turn right and found our apartment at the end of the alley.

I was so nervous, I always am when I've booked accommodation online and all you've got to go on are the reviews of strangers... Is it really going to be as nice as it looked?  Is there going to be something horrible about it?  Are the reviews really accurate?  With a sigh of relief I can confirm, it was perfect!  A really good size and a beautiful view (canal view was a must for me).

Our kitchen, dining area, and the kids had a large sofa bed to the right.

View of the canal out the kitchen window

A short clip out the main bedroom window, it was so peaceful and beautiful!

This is the apartment we stayed in Charming Castello Apartments... I don't think it's an affiliate link yet, but I'm hoping to make it one soon!

We did all have a little lie down for a few minutes to recover, but we were also excited to go out and explore, we were hungry and my cousin and his family had come all the way from the UK to meet us, they'd been waiting for us for a couple of hours already.  So we planned a meeting place and managed to get there!  I think the square we were in was Campo Santa Maria Formosa, but I can't tell you which restaurant we ate at, it's all a bit of a blur.  By this time it was 1am Perth time and the kids were shattered, they both fell asleep at the table waiting for their meals and I managed my first Aperol Spritz.

It wasn't as mind blowing as I'd hoped/expected, but was tasty.

Then it was time for bed, ready to wake refreshed and ready to go on our first full day in Venice!