Trip Report Prague and Venice (Dec/Jan)
 

We had wonderful trips to Prague and Venice (four days each) on either side of visiting family for Christmas in England.

FLIGHTS: As ever Lufthansa came through with good service and quick connections. I just love the 2-5-2 seat configurations and changed our transatlantic reservations to ensure we could get the two window/aisle seats. For me this makes the flight so much easier.

WEATHER: It was around freezing and dipped a little below at night. We has a couple of sunny days and then cloudy days thankfully without rain. The weather wasn't too bad at all and I think it's a great time to visit the city without too many other tourists. Frankly I think Prague might be inbearable crowded in the summer months.

PRAGUE HOTEL: In Prague we stayed at the Riverside Hotel where they upgrades us from a Junior to a full suite. It was spectacular, beautifully stylish and modern but with comfortable and warm furnishings...the bathroom was incredible I wished I could have brought it home, underfloor heating, freestanding bowl sinks, tiny tiles and strips of mirrors throughout. With windows on two sides the suite had a view out over the river to the Dancing building and on the National Theater, while up to the left we had a tiny glimpse of the castle.
Upside...very luxurious, very helpful staff and an extraordinary breakfast.
Downside...location..because it was fairly cold (I'm used to the Bay Area!) after a few days I began to notice the fact that we were constantly crossing the river or walking to a different neighborhood for a restaurant. I think this would have been less noticable in better weather.

PRAGUE SITES We enjoyed all of the popular sites...the Charles bridge, the castle, Lesser Town and the Old Town. The market place in the Old Town square was bustling before Christmas with both foriegners and Czechs.It really was gorgeous...a fairytale square.

We particularly enjoyed the Municipal House and highly recommend a tour. The tour was over and hour and took us from Smetana hall through a series of smaller but incredible Art Nouveau concert halls and other smaller rooms. It has been restored so beautifully and the Muncha room is not to be missed. It is without doubt the most beautiful Art Nouveau building I have ever see.

The Jewish synagogues where fascinating we visited four including the opulent Spanish synagogue a Moorish fantasty. The Old New Synangogue dating to the 13th Century was tiny and now below street level. It was a fascinating place to visit as it's one of the few active places of worship for Jews in prague today. Several have been converted into museums incuding one with the names of Holoucaust victims painted on the wall with an upstairs display of the art children produced in the Terezin concentration camp. The images of death and escape are impossible to forget.

We enjoyed visiting innumerable churches many of which are no longer used for services but serve as concert halls. We went to the ballet at the National Theater and to Tosca at the baroque State Opera. Both were lovely to visit but we enjoyed the intimacy of the cylindrical national theater were we has a box. Tickets for both were less than $40.

We particularly enjoyed a museum of gothic religious art...I can't remember the name...which is housed in a convent past the Jewish quarter. Since the flood the art has been rehoused in a building next to the cloisters, it's wonderfully displayed and a fascinating and extensive collection.

All in all we greatly enjoyed Prague and with four nights we had bearly enough time to scratch the surface of the city.

TRIP REPORT PART TWO --- VENICE

Although I have visited Italy a number of times I had never visited Venice. I think I was worried that in season it would be horribly busy and perhaps have the Disneyland character of Assissi which my husband enjoyed in the 1980's but seemed eclisped by tourism when we visited a few years ago.

I was wrong. Venice in January was spectacular. The days were cold and clear and the city was so much more than the main tourist areas. I never really inderstood the consequence of a city without roads...the wonderful quiet when you remove the automobile. The sheer stillness at night, the beauty of just the silence.

HOTEL: We stayed at the Ca'Pisani which is wonderfully located behind the Accademia. We found it easy to take the Alialuguna (10 euros) from the Airport to the stop at Zattere (A little less than an hour and a half)From the Zattere stop we walked past La Calcina which was almost right next to the stop and turned up a small roadway for about 250 yrds.

The hotels is gorgeous. It's unusual for Venice as a hip "Design Hotel" but unlike some that are too starkly modern with a cold feel and snooty staff the Ca Piani is a winner. The staff gave us excellent recommendations for dinner and were generally helpful. The room (a junior suite) was beautiful with an incredible sparkling brown granite bathroom complete with jacuzzi. It was wonderfully quiet. Although the rooms do not look out over a canal we didn't miss a view. There was a steam room upstairs and a roof deack for warmer weather.

I loved the neighborhood because you can walk to St Marks in less than 10 minutes but you are "far from the madding crowds"! It is very conveniant to be close to the Accademia bridge.

Sights: we enjoyed lots of the museums and churches and with four night we didn't have enough time to see all that we would have liked. After this trip I think Venice deserve to be a destination on it's own, rather than a couple of nights on a longer trip.
The close view of the mosaics in St Marks and across the square from the small museum you climb up to on the right as you go into the church were spectacular. We also enjoyed the Museo Mocenigo which was one of the few places that gave one a sense of how people lived.

FOOD: was a highlight of the trip. We ate at La Rivista in our hotel on one evening. The food is very modern,with a small be interestiong menu that will definately appeal to foodies. Very reasonable 36 Euros for a three course menu. To finish I had a wonderful plate of artisinal cheeses which were pared with a ginger jelly and other conserves.

Our favorite meal was at La Columbina (Campiello del Pergolotto, Cannaregio)which was so charming. We thought it was very reasonable 40 Euros for the meat degustation and 50 Euros for seafood, 6 courses including dessert, they also had a vegetarian option. The atmosphere was very friendly and it seemed to be one of the few places that was busy late...we ate at 9:30. The brought a complimentary glass of Prosecco which was lovely and then the food which we enjoyed enormously. I loved the raw fish appetizer and my husband loved his plate of fabulously moist mixed house salami and ham...the subtle flavourings of the smoked meats were wonderful.The entire meal with a nice bottle of local wine was 130 euros

Another night we ate at Osteria ai quatro Feri on Calle Lunga San Barnaba. It was a completely different experience...very busy filled with Italian and foriegn tourists as well as a crowd of locals who obviously knew the owners. As with each of the places we ate this was somewhere you needed a reservation, they were turing away people all night. If you're in a party of two expect to be placed at a shared table or to have people join you half way through your meal if they seat two of you at a small table for four!

We drank the house wine out of a hugh barrel sitting on the bar and ate a mixed seafood antipasta and sharded a hugh plate of spaghetti with large (canocchie)Mantis prawns. The food was wonderful, the place bustling and loud and with two quartos of the house wine the bill was 40 Euros.

We also ate at Antica Trattoria la Furtola also on Calle Lunga San Barnaba in Dorsoduro. which was also very good for seafood and full of locals. The were very friendly, suggested an excellent local wine and brought us digestives on the house. The menu was entirely fish based and we had had rather alot of seafood by this time. My husband had a gorgeous place of frito misto including soft shalled crabs. It was about 25 euros for a main course and 12 Euros for a pasta.

All in all I loved Venice and can't think why we didn't visit years ago.I think what made the trip so enjoyeable for us was visiting off season and staying away from the touristy area around St Marks. What we enjoyed most of all was walking across the city at night, it was often deserted by 9 pm. St Marks Square and the canals in the moonlight is something I will never forget.

Hi Well,

Thanks for sharing your lovely trip report.

Thanks for your report, welltravel. I miss Venezia terribly myself.

Bless you...reading your Venice report has made my long and busy work week seem so much better. You transformed me back to the little back canals far from the maddening crowds. THANK YOU.

Glad you enjoyed the trip report...

I forgot to mention and recommend Maureen Fant's Trattorias of Rome, Florence and Venice (2001 Ecco Press)which we used for this trip and which I've previously used with great sucess in Rome. It has wonderful sections on regional menus as well as a glossary in addition to the restaurant recommendations.

Thanks for so much information on Venice restaurants. I leave for Venice (first time) in 4 months and I have been collecting suggestions from the boards. Your restaurant reviews are a tremendous help.

You'll have a great time in Venice. I must admit I was rather surprised by the quality of the food. I didn't think Venice would match the rest of Italy. We found the seafood wonderful and I highly recommend doing some research and having the hotel make the reservations even if only a day or a few hours in advance.