We are just back from Venice (last night) and I wanted to do a trip report while all is still fresh.... next time I vow to keep a journal, and some of it is a blur. How much I miss her already!!

Observations:
As much as I had read, I was unprepared for the beauty and mystical magic that is Venice. I was unprepared even still for how quickly she stole our hearts.

Where we stayed:
We rented an apartment through Venitian Apartments and were very pleased. Link is below.
http://www.venice-rentals.com/
Given the prices of hotels in Venice, we found our apartment to be very reasonable. We had a 2 BR in Santa Croce, a location that was perfect. Vaporetto was a 5 minute walk.

The apartment was on a little Calle which was steps outside the Campo, were there were several bars and restaurants, children playing nightly, a green grocer, a wine store, a Coop market, a bank, a bakery and several other stores. We liked that it was very local in feel and felt like a true Venitian "home".

The apartment was very airy and LIGHT - windows everywhere - top floor - on a side canal, with 3 decks - one large one off the LR, a little one for breakfast off the BR, and another high roof deck with views of St. Marks.

The owner met us at the Vaporetto stop, and showed us around. She could not have been more gracious.

Where we ate:
La Piscina at La Calcina hotel - lunch and dinner - we really like this place - loved the Zattere - good food, very reasonable. I would stay at this hotel also - looked very nice and location was great.

Le Refolo - Our favorite. We ate here 3 nights we liked it so much. Right around the corner from our apartment in a little Campanille on a side canal. Excellent wait staff that spoke very good English, excellent, very reasonable food (same owners also own the pricey Da Fiore), casual, but great ambience - tables outside overlooking the canal. They also make the best Sgroppino in the city.

Due Colonne - stopped here for lunch after Rialto market. Was OK. Pizza and Spaghetti.

La Zucce - Very good, although we had a hard time finding it. Asked directions after getting lost 3 times, and an Italian man actually left his place of work and walked us around trying to find it (he couldn't either - how gracious, though!). Finally we did find it, and they accommodated us with no reservations. Very good food, very reasonable.

Trattoria Pizzeria Do Mori on Giudecca. Lovely spot right on the Zaterre. Very good food, fairly reasonable. I tried to order in Italian, and the waiter seemed put off and said "I speak English". Not as friendly as the write-up suggested, but I would return.

Riviera - On Zaterre in Dorsoduro. Despite the bad reviews, we did eat here. My husband wanted to eat on the water, and we happened on this and liked the location. The setting outside was beautiful, and initially, the service was very nice. The food was excellent - asparagus with egg, risotto with shrimp, and Pasta Primavera. As the night wore on there were some minor annoyances. I had asked for tap water, not bottled water, and was given that, but when the bill came, we had been charged 3E. I found that outrageous, but my husband said to let it go. Right after we were seated, a large party of about 30 people came, and service definitely deteriorated. We waited about 1/2 hour for a dessert menu, and had to ask several times. We also felt like they kept pushing us to purchase - not a relaxing experience. At the end of the night, my husband paid with credit card, and left a substantial tip in cash. The waiter (who had not been our primary waiter), came and took the bill, slid it across the table, quickly took the cash, and put it in his pocket. I wanted to say something, thinking they would think we did not leave a tip, and my husband said forget it, perhaps they pool the tips. Who knows. Probably wouldn't go back.

Antico Molina - Cannaregio - on a quiet side canal - outdoor dining. Very good food. Very inexpensive. Met a French couple who shared a table with us. They could not speak Italian and I speak minimal French, but we got by.

Croissant and Cappuccino on the Grand Canal and at St. Mark's square - outrageous price - 20E - but we paid for the experience.

We did not want to eat at dressy places, nor pay a fortune for food. Other than Riviera, no meal came to more than 32E with water, wine, first course, dessert and after dinner drink - all with very good food.

What we saw:
We were there for 8 days total - 2 travel days since we were coming from the States, and 6 full days. Everyone said that was alot, and we should take day trips outside Venice, but we felt we could have been there longer and still not seen everything.

We took one Sestiere each day and really explored it. Saw:
Santa Maria Della Salute, Customs House, Piazza San Marco, Bascilica San Marco, Campanille, Doges Palace, Rialto Market(s), Murano, Burano, Torcello, San Michele (Cemetary Island), all the campos you see in the tour books (San Stefano, Santa Margherita, San Moise, etc.), San Giorgio Maggiore, Jewish Ghetto (went on the tour - fascinating), almost all the churches - can't remember them all now there were so many - beautiful...

What we did:
Gondola ride - glad we did this. Paid 70E for 45 min. Talked with a few people, and found someone we liked right next to Accademia. Took us on the side canals rather than Grand Canal, and pointed out things we had not seen (Woody Allen's house), and told us stories we did not know (the haunted house). Very low key guy, very nice.

Grand Canal Ride on #1 Vaporetto at sunset, up and down the canal - one of our favorite experiences.

Piazza San Marco at night to hear the orchestras playing. Magical.

Monks' chants at San Giorgio Maggiore - haunting.

Shops:
Early on, I tried to find some shops that I had noted from guidebooks. I found, though, that I spent more time looking at the map as we walked around rather than enjoying the area, so decided to bag that idea, and just poke in anyplace that looked interesting.

Bought a bag at Rialto, some glassware at Murano, a Venice picture book at the Info center in San Marco, a cute "cat" tile somewhere in a little shop in San Polo, my husband got some very nice ties at Rialto (7.75E), and a framed print at a lovely gallery in Dorsoduro called BAS. We found the gallery our first day and I wanted to buy a print, but my husband wanted to check other places. We quickly learned if you find something you like somewhere buy it, as you may never find the place again, so we went back and made our purchase. We also got some lovely note cards at the same store. Dorsoduro was our favorite shopping area.

Tickets:
We purchased a 7-day Vaporetto ticket (yes they do have them), which included the bus from the airport, and unlimited Vaporetto use. We didn't know, or had forgotten, about the stamping of the ticket, so stamped it each time at the yellow machine until an ACTV worker finally told us "No more stamp" - is only stamp once, so they know when your time is up.

We tried to get into the Secret Itinerary tour, and it was sold out for the whole week. Very disappointing.

We purchased a "Chorus" ticket to see the churches, after a woman at a church told us it was 3E each for one church or 9E each with the Chorus for 15 churches.

Favorites:
Santa Maria Della Salute, Gondola Ride, Vaporetto #1 Canal Ride, the Campanille Bells Ringing, the Gondolier calls as they rounded corners, the quiet at night and early morning, the lack of cars, the friendliness of the people, the Venetian cats (2 of which came to our doorstep daily which we fed - made us miss our cat less), the architecture, the small Calles, walking, walking everywhere, Dorsoduro, The Zaterre, hearing the water lap against the canals at night, and the quiet splash of the gondolier's oars, the windows of venice.

Surprises:
That the Italians actually understood my horrible Italian, and responded in Italian. Sometimes they responded in English, which at first I didn't understand why, but thought later maybe it was a display of courtesy for me trying to speak their language. More likely it was their way of saying "Stop speaking that horrible Italian!"

The graffiti - what a shame - all over Venice. It's too bad such beautiful buildings are defaced like this.

The efficiency of the Vaporetto system - how unlike our subways system in Boston - we ought to take lessons.

The number of tourists this time of year. Very crowded - especially in the major tourist areas - San Marco and Rialto.

The heat of the sun between 12N and 5pm at this time of year. We got up early and toured, then came back to the apartment, sat on the deck with a drink when it was hot, made dinner plans, then went back out a little later. Gave us some time to rest and relax.

The it stayed light until 8:45pm!

That we were able to leave the windows open all night - no bugs!

Misc.:
We failed to make reservations for dinner some nights, which was a mistake. Even on Mon, Tues nights, places were full. Good lesson learned.

We initially thought we would walk everywhere and not use the Vaporetto much, but we used it alot. To and from our apartment to the sestiere which we were in for the day. Fairly easy to figure out, and when we weren't sure, just asked the ACTV person before boarding if it was going where we wanted to go, and they were very helpful.

We ended up hiring a water taxi at Rialto to take us to the airport. The bus in had been a wait and fairly slow, and we were worried since we had an early flight. 75E. We were met by porters, who we also used - my husband at first declined, but good thing we did, as we would not have easily found our way - long way also with bags.

We used multiple maps - Magnetic map - very detailed, but very large, so we brought this along with Map Easy map since it was smaller. We also like - alot - the Knoff pop-up book. Separated into sections that make sense geographically, and each section has written text on shops, restaurants, then you pull the page open and it has a map for that section, with the sights listed around the edge with pictures and text, and stars on the map where the sights are. We used this alot. Then went to the detailed map when we needed it.

We ordered International calling on our cell phone (Cingular) before we left, and used this throughout our trip. It was more expensive than other options (buying a local SIM, etc.) but we opted for convenience.

We found the mornings and nights cool and pleasant. I was glad that I brought a sweater along for nights. Our aparment had air conditioning, but we never used it.

Charming, haunting, seductive, proud Venice. You are an emotion, a living, breathing soul, not merely a city. We did not want to go, but we shall return - soon......

Hi W,

Thanks for an interesting and informative report.

>...left a substantial tip in cash.

May I suggest that for your future visits you leave a substantial tip only if the service has been particularly good.

A 15% service charge is included in your bill.

Considering your report on Riviera, the tip should have been no more than 5E.

Hi Wanderer,

Thank you so much for posting right away! Those of us that will not be able to depart for several months have been soaking up all these late spring/early summer trip reports.

Venice sounds completely enchanting and we cannot wait. I enjoyed your report very much, great insight!

I am so happy your and your husband had such a lovely time. Did I mention we cannot wait, (ha).

Now you can look forward to our trip report eight months from now to 'bring you back to her'.

Thank you again, very much, Tiff =D>

Thanks for the report, Wanderer. Lots of great tips - taking notes. The apartment looks beautiful.

Sounds like a beautiful trip! We learned that lesson about buying something you like right then and there too. I wanted a sketch in Florence and DH said to wait til our last night. Of course we never saw the man again. So in Venice DH felt bad and kept telling me to buy things if I commented on them, lol! Even he caved and bought a print at a store that he liked.

This is the actual apartment that we rented, although they have many that are lovely. I would recommend the apartment and agency without hesitation.
http://www.venice-rentals.com/venice/v143.html

Do you remember the cost of the 7-day vaporetto pass?

Just wondering: did you have to pay the entire rental fee in advance and by what means? I've been dealing with a rental for which they seem to be requesting the entire rental amount BY BANK TRANSFER a month before arrival. That is giving me enough pause to consider changing places...but maybe it is typical for Italy. (We did use a CC to pay for a place in advance in England last year...)

Victoria, no not typical. We paid a deposit up front (1/2), and the balance 2 months prior to arrival. It was done by credit card so we had recourse should anything happen.

kcsqueeze - don't remember the cost of the Vaporetto pass, but it was very, very reasonable. We probably used the vaporettos 4-5 times per day. It was well worth it not to have to worry about tickets each time. Just come and go. I had read there were tickets at landings for purchase, but those are very few, and only at the big ones like San Marco.

with reference to vaporetto passes. When I was in Venice last May, I am almost certain they cost about 50 euros for the 7 day pass.

I seem to remember there was a more expensive Blue? pass which combined the vaporetto pass with entrance to various museums and churches.

http://www.venicecard.com/default_eng.jsp

50E sounds about right for the 7-day Vaporetto pass.

We just received our luggage with our print from Venice that we purchased at the Gallery in Dorsoduro (another story) - it is BAC Art Studio, not BAS
http://www.bacart.com/UK/FRM.html

http://www.bacart.com/

Sorry, here is the correct link to the gallery.

I love Il Refolo... they are only open in the warm months so I couldn't eat there when I was in Venice in March. I was bummed.

But I think you will have to go back and do a great deal of research before you call their Sgroppino "best in the city!" Il Refolo's is good, but...

wanderer,

I'm jealous. I was in Venice 2 years ago and fell absolutely in love, and plan on going back next year and do pretty much what you did.

The apartment sound great, but it seemed very large for just the two of you. If I saw the correct apt on their website, it had 2 bedrooms?

All the terraces...wow...I want to be there now!

wanderer -- Welcome back! I know you have planned this trip for over a year, and it sounds like it was lovely.

Amy

Hello wanderer, good for you to take advantage of the time you had in Venice instead of trying to squeeze in other places. I so enjoyed your report. I felt like I was back in beautiful Venice. Wish I were going this year instead of waiting until 2006, sigh.

lyb -
the apartment was not large at all - comfortable - I would describe it as "intimate". It has a master BR with a very small balcony, which we never used, but we it had windows and a door to the balcony which we would leave open at night to hear the gondolier's calls.

There was one other main room with 2 windows overlooking the canal and a door to the largest main balcony - was combo kitchen and LR.

There was a full bath, and then a second small room with a murphy pull-down bed, which we used to store luggage and stuff from shopping.

It was quite comfortable for 2 - never felt too large, and the location was perfect.

What a wonderful informative trip report. I am so glad you had a great time and you really have done us a service with these details.

thanks for the details

for search purposes, I'm just adding the correct name of one of the restaurants, La Zucca