Thanks for all the Italy information so far. My husband and I are planning our first trip to Venice for next May and we're so excited!
Does anyone have a "favorite" from Venice? What was your favorite memory, restaurant, hotel, place to watch the sunset, etc? I'd love to hear more of your experiences!
Thanks-
Amanda

Favorite restaurant
Cheap (for Venice): Trattoria San Toma
moderate: Da Raffaele
expensive: Da Fiori
pull out all the stops: Restaurant at the Hotel Cipriani, and you take the hotel's private launch to get there

pastime: Having an overpriced drink or gelato at Cafe Florian, outdoors on the Piazza, late afternoon. Watch the strollers and the tourists and the pigeons. Worth every penny.

Oddity: The Bovolo Staircase, in a small courtyard. Late 15th century, stone, spiral staircase, about 6 stories high. Gorgeous.

Museum: The Correr

Historic site: The Ghetto

Church: The Frari, for the Titian altar painting. The Basilica. Or any of the others.

Good tip from this forum: Go to early morning mass at the Basilica. Enjoy the chanting and the service while you sit there and admire the interior (that is, if you're not paying full attention to the mass.) Mass is over, you are already inside, ahead of the many people waiting in line.

Daytrip: Torcello, the island farthest out in the lagoon. About an 80 minute ride on the vaporetto.

Mask store: Papier Mache

Audio Guide tour at the Doges Palace. If you like history, it is terrific. They also have some Secret Passages tour that has been mentioned on the board before that I would like to try on my next trip.

Thanks for the lists. I especially love the oddity- we like to see things that aren't on the beaten path. I appreciate the help!

Just to add a few more to Elaine's fabulous list:
..A Bellini on the terrace of the Gritti Palace Hotel
...After dinner drink at Cafe Chioggia (around the corner from Quadri and Florian) expensive but well worth it ..includes jazz and the view of the Basino
...fish market early in the AM
...THE BEST ICE CREAM..Millevoglie across from the Frari Church

Enjoy yourself! I can assure you that after going every year (sometmes twice a year) for 12 years it is an incredibly special place.

Mmmmmm... Ice cream... Thanks for the tip!
That reminds me of the Rick Steves viedo on Italy. It seems like he was always eating ice cream!

Rick Steves eats GELATO when in Italy, and likewise you will too. There is a difference --- best explained in another thread,
>What exactly is gellato?<
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=1374400

My very favorite moment was lunch at Hotel Cipriani. I have heard so much about it just had to go. Three woman went for lunch. Each had a plate of fancy pasta,house wine and a fancy desert. The bill was over $200.00 but it was a once in a lifetime splurge.

Hi

I think that the best thing about the visit that my wife and I had to Venice this summer was the ?Secret Itinerary? tour at the Palazzo Ducale (Doge?s Palace). When it comes to eating there were quite a few bad places...but we had a wonderful meal at Trattoria Antica Bessetta. I have posted a "review" of the resturant on my homepage. On my homepage you can find a long trip report and quite a lot of pictures from our visit to Venice. The address to the page is http://www.gardkarlsen.com

Have a great trip

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

Hi,

In addition to the above:

Dinner at Cantinone Storico.

Venitian masks at Specchi Veneziana di Barbini Sergio, 1720 Calle del Cristi. Mr Barberini does only papier mache masks in the traditional styles and colors. Very high quality work.

Some stand out memories for me were the Rialto bridge early in he morning; the birdge of sighs, piazza san marco under a full moon. But the best had to be after we landed at the airport and made it onto the water taxi, we are flying across the water and the mist is splashign up on our faces and all of a sudden we turned a corner and wham we were facing the mouth of the grand canal and St. Mark's square, I remember having to catch my breath and thinking I'm not even 20 minutes out of the airport and if I had to leave Italy right it surpassed every expectation I ever had.

I also recommend the Bovolo Staircase and, if you like markets, the Rialto fish and vegetable markets are spectacular. I agree with Jill that the approach to Venice on the water taxi is one of the most breathtaking sights ever!

more:

favorite quiet place:
The Museo Diocesano: Leave Piazza San Marco from the Piazzetta do Leoni (the lion statues), to the left of the Basilica as you face it. Turn right immediately and find Ponte della Canonica. Across this bridge and immediately to the right is the entrance to this tiny museum which has mostly church treasures, occasional special exhibits, tapestries designed by Tintoretto and Tiepolo, and--on a glass-covered table--Pope John XXIII's red cardinal beret (he was Cardinal Roncalli of Venice before being elected Pope in 1958). What makes this museum worthwhile to me is its arched courtyard cloister with its delicate, twin marble pillars, lovely to see, and peaceful. Museum is closed Sundays I think, and open other days only until noon or 12:30.

Other quiet place
Campo San Vio, Dorsoduro
I think it is the only campo that faces the Grand Canal, and there's a bench. Also there is St. George's church, an English-speaking Anglican church; the building has been there over 400 years. They have sung Matins occasionally, and there is a window dedicated to art critic John Ruskin who lived nearby for a while.

What wonderful favorites! Thanks for all your help and sorry about the ice cream/gelato misunderstanding. I still have a lot to learn before we head over.
We're definitely putting many of your suggestions on our to-do list. Does anyone else have any restaurant recommendations?

Sitting in the open window of our room, looking at the Grand Canal with a full moonjust hanging there in the sky!

forgot to add- HAVE FUN!!!!!!

My favorite magical time - San Marco Piazza at night, listening to the ochestras and watching the musicians who play the same thing night after night who thoroughly enjoy their work, if you can call it that and watching the people enjoying the music - dancing, applauding, moving from orchestra to orchestra. Stayed 4 nights in Venice and went to San Marco Piazza late each night except for one night when it rained. Talked with a Venetian man one night at the Piazza who said he goes San Marco Piazza each night except in the winter time. No pigeons at night at the Piazza. The most beautiful Piazza I've seen so far.

Restaurants:
Quattro ai fieri (left off Campo San Barnaba)
Peoceto Risorto (near Rialto Bridge market side..look for neon sign) ask for Dario
Al Covo..expenive a bit touristy but great food
Cavatappi great for lunch fabulous wine list by the glass (unusual)
da Ignazio..wonderul garden great fried scamp!
I could go on.....
Mangia bene a Venezia!

GARD, went to your site and found nothing about trip to Venice?

Where to start!? Everything was a favorite. Sitting in St. Marks Square at sunset, enjoying a bottle of wine and the music. It felt surreal, like we were on a movie set with cardboard backdrops.

A gondola ride at sunset, kissing under the Bridge of Sighs as the bells toll.

Catching the vaporetto a few stops before the St. Marks station, and getting a front row seat before entering the grand canal. Absolutely the best view and the best way to see it.

Dinner at a little place next to the Rialto Bridge (wish I could remember the name!). It's about the only place with outdoor seating, with a red canopy and lanterns. Great food and PERFECT atmosphere.

Finding two places just past our hotel (Hotel La Calcina) on the Guidecca Canal... one was a pizza shop on the canal, west past the hotel. Best pizza I've ever had. The other was a little wine shop around the corner from the hotel, off the "main" drag. Between my broken Italian and their broken French, we managed to communicate, tasting (by the glass) and buying the most wonderful wines.

So many other favourites were accidents, like stumbling upon small cathaderals and churches while wandering. That's what I miss most.