Travel to: Venice, Italy | Island Hopping

A photo diary of our half day spent in Venizia, Italia.

I always joke to him that he's such a naturally hip guy. He just sat down on the steps to wait while I snapped some photos. I mean that hand placement - that cool-guy stance. I have major heart-eyes for this guy.

No trip to Italy would be complete without a visit to Venice. Many a people speak of the inevitable fact that Venice island is sinking - in the last century Venice has sunk about 9 inches. During the later Fall months and Winter Venice is known to flood, a phenomenon called acqua alta. While my boyfriend and I were here it did rain, and the city did in fact flood. Piazzas were flooded, wood planks were brought out, and stores were shut down due to flooding. We saw many a people taking off their shoes, rolling up their pants, and wading through the flooded squares. We contemplated on doing so to get onto the other side of the city, but finally decided against it (the bf was willing to walk through and carry me across so I didn't have to get my feet wet - such a gentleman). Hopefully we'll get another chance to visit to be able to explore more of this city, sans all the flooded piazzas.

We stayed in Venice at an AirBnb and took a bus into Venice Island (the main islands and tourist spots you always see in photos and hear about), which only took about 10 minutes. I would recommend this over staying in hotels on Venice Island, as those are significantly more costly and further to get to from the airport.  We had given ourselves a night and a half day (around 10 hours) in Venice to explore. We had a tightly packed schedule for our time in Italy, quickly hopping from city to city. Unfortunately it stormed (I'm talkin' lightning and thunder) both the night we arrived and the morning of our half-day in Venice. We woke up and waited until lunch time for the weather to calm down before heading out - and this cut into a lot of our exploring hours. The sun did end up coming out and we were able to explore the island for a few short hours. Unfortunately this did cut our plans of visiting Burano and Murano (which are the most adorable colorful islands), so I would hope to go back to be able to visit these places. A lot of my friends had commented that Venice had a particular funky smell to it, but fortunately for us the rain helped to wash down the sidewalks and the "smell." 

Walking through Venice was something out of the movies (Just Married in particular popped into my head, oh the good old days with young Ashton Kutcher). I loved how small the city was and how maze-like the place felt. With the help of TripAdvisor we were able to access a cached map to navigate our way through. I was busy snapping away at all the doors, bricks, and buildings I could while my boyfriend helped guide me and avoid me from stepping in any unwanted poop (yes - poop). We opted for a simple meal, with two pizzas and a drink for 5 euros, and our first scoop of gelato (of many!) in Italy. 

Have you ever visited Venice? What were some of your favorite things to do or see here?