pdm68

My wife and I are going to Venice and Rome for our 5 year anniversary. We are arriving May 15 and then travel to Rome on the 18.What are some of the best things for a 1st time visitor to Venice be? Also, I "hopefully" have my reservation set at Da Fiore for the last night of our stay ( I faxed them in a month agao ) But,what are "other " good "Non-tourist resturants with very good food in venice ? Also, I was considering taking a guided tour with a group our first day so we can see things and get our bearings together on some sort of directions. My vacations usually start on a bad foot ( my fault ) because of directions and I want this vacation and all future vacations to be fun ! Any recommendations for tour guides,resturants,things to do would be greatly appreciated. Also, I LOVE Murano Glass ...But,I have read the ride to Murano is long and you see very little of glass blowers and your then given the huge sales pitch.What would anyones suggestion be aboutgoing to Murano Island or purchasing Glass in Venice itself ? Last but not least what about a sunset ride on a gondola and what are the best places to find the boats and how long are the rides?

jdraper

pdm68: Congratulations on your 5th anniversary. DH and I will celebrate our 30th in Italy this year as well in Naples, Florence and Rome.

I have been to Venice two times and I will say that the food there is not awe inspiring so I am going to let others give you ideas of good places to eat. If you do a search on this forum this subject has been covered many times so you will find many recommendations. Read some of the trip reports as well and you will find many suggestions for places to eat as well as sites to see.

As for things to do, Doges Palace, St. Marks Square and cathedral, Salute, Aresenal, go to the top of the campanile, etc. etc. Also going to the outlying islands of Murano, Burano and St. Michele (the cemetary island) are great fun. We spent one day on the lido and rented a pedal surrey and toured the area and that was a lot of fun. The very best thing to do in Venice is to just wander around and take in the atmosphere. Stop and enjoy a cappucino or a glass of wine whenever the spirit moves you and just watch the world go by. You can get lost but you quickly recover as you will hit water, it is an island after all, and then you just trun around. I have never taken a guided tour in Venice as I am not a big fan of tours and enjoy discovering sites on my own. Research in advance generally gives me all of the information I am looking for prior to leaving. Get a good guide book and you will find more than enough to fill your time in Venice.

I personally would not take one of the "tours" offered to Murano. If you do they will take you to their particular glass making factory and push very hard to get you to purchase something. I did go to Murano but we went on our own taking the vaporetti over and returning on our own. We visited the various factories, looked for glass and quickly left when the hard sale started in. We did end up buying some wine glasses in Murano but we found prices on other items right in Venice that were just as good, and some even better, than the prices that we saw on Murano.

The gondolas are everywhere and you will have no trouble finding one for hire all over Venice. The rides usually last about 30 or 40 minutes. Make sure you agree on both the price and the length of the ride before choosing to hire a particular gondalier. Seeing the sunset from a gondola is probably not the best way to see the sunset as there are buildings along the edges of the canal and you can't get a good view over the lagoon to see the sunset. You would probably do better to hire a water taxi to take you into the lagoon if it is the sunset you are looking for.

Since this is an anniversay trip I would highly recommend sitting in St. Marks Square one evening and enjoing a glass of wine while listening to the dueling orchestras. It is so romantic and such a typically Venice sort of thing to do. I will always remember the small jewelry box DH gave me in St. Marks along with the kiss and the waltz we enjoyed in the square. Even without the amex card it was priceless. Yes, smarmy but us girls do like those things and don't forget them.

I wish I could help with Rome but no such luck as this May will be our first trip to that city. Enjoy your trip. J

pdm68

Thank you for your reply and congratulations to you too !! I will rephrase the question on the Gondola Ride than ....When is the Best time to take a gondola ride ?

Thanks Again

goddesstogo

I haven't read any of the responses so I'm probably repeating something others have said. We did take the Murano tour and found the demonstrations interesting but enjoyed the walk through the glass displays even more -- it was like a beautiful glass museum. We had no sales pressure at all and they pretty much left us alone after the first inquiry. Maybe we don't look like big spenders.

We really enjoyed Burano -- it's quite beautiful with the canals and brightly coloured houses. I've heard that the ladies who make lace give demonstrations but we didn't see any of that. There are some nice restaurants and lovely shops for browsing and shopping.

cybertraveler

Congratulations on your anniversary! (and to jdraper, too) What a great way to celebrate it. We celebrated our 30th in Paris, Venice & Florence three years ago.

I like the gondola rides in the evening before sunset. One tip: stick to the Grand Canal ride, they may offer an option to go into the small canals. We thought this would be more romantic, but it wasn't! It smelled terrible. That was the only time I noticed an odor from the canals.

You will enjoy just strolling around the streets, and I totally agree that you should spend at least one night in the Piazza San Marco. It is unbelievably beautiful to sit and listen to the music when all the day crowds have left.

We're going back again this summer, and I can't wait! It will be my fourth trip there.

anna_roz

First, congratulations on your 5th Anniversary!

Second, if I had only three days in Venice, I would not spend my time visiting the islands, i.e., Murano, Burano, Torcello.. Save these for a second, or a third, trip. In all honesty, Burano is nice but so what? Venice is spectacular!

I have a five-day itinerary, including museums, palazzi, restaurants, and shopping opportunities, which itinerary we followed while visiting Venice last fall. If you would like a copy, please e-mail me at [email protected], and I will attach it for you.

Anna Roz

arcoiris

So much to see, so little time...Read a tour guide book, get a map...if lost someone will direct you back to the grand canal. Above all congratulations..just meander around and if you look in churches you will find art, might hear a concert rehearsal, and will make your own personal memories. You can buy the glass in venice, most factories have shops.
The vaporetti ticket will allow you a birds eye view of the islands. Have a drink---at Harry's bar-we sat at the bar savoring their famous drink( more for past history) they have a restaurant, I think on Torcello, had a good lunch there, and stopped another time at one island and had lunch at a small place--a yatch anchored closeby for lunch they knew the place. I would not recommend your being programmed around on a trip. Same for Rome, find an area or neighborhood and explore, this is the time to make your tracks, read menus, you won't go wrong, as yo have already made your reservation for a grand meal. Enjoy.

Midnightsun

Congratulations on your anniversary. Venice is a wonderful place in which to explore, get lost, and discover great little neighborhoods. It's small enough so that you really don't need a guided tour (walk a few minutes and you'll see signs to the train station, Rialto Bridge, or San Marco), and it's therefore not a bad place to be a bit directionless. Before you go, try to read a Donna Leon mystery (all set in Venice) to get a sense of the layout; it may make you feel a bit more at home. I know some say that Da Fire is not as great as it was in the past, but we ate there two years ago and loved it. Not far from Da Fiore in Santa Croce is La Zucca, which is a great place for creative soups and vegetable dishes (although not a vegetarian restaurant). Also just off Campo San Giacomo dell' Orio you'll find Ae Oche pizzeria, great pizza, quite inexpensive and casual. The islands are fun to explore, but you can certainly do so by taking a vaporetto there yourself rather than a guided tour. We liked Burano better than Murano because the lace curtains and all the multicolored houses made for great photographs, and the pace of life there was quite relaxed. However, you will have to spend close to an hour each way getting to Burano; Murano isn't as long a boat ride. When we were on Murano, we had the opportunity to see a gondola race. There are several such events during the year, so you may want to check in advance to see if your visit coincides with one. We were there for a week and never did take a gondola ride, but I'd guess that near sunset would be a good time to do so. If you are early risers, you might want to wander through San Marco shortly after sunrise; it will be almost deserted, and it's quite an experience (after having been through the crowds) to have such a private audience for a very public place. Another early morning treat is to take the short boat ride (from San Marco) across to San Giorgio Maggiore, where you can hear Gregorian chants several days of the week (at 7:00 A.M. I believe...check a schedule). I could go on, but you'll only be there three days. Enjoy!

annhig

Hi pdm,

we just got back from Venice and I'm still doing my trip report - just click on my name.

i agree about not needing a guide - one of the best parts about venice is getting lost and then finding oneself again. and taking things at your own pace, not the guide's.

just get a vaporetto pass for the time you're there, then you can hop aon and off when you like.

regards, ann

gramzy1

If you google "finally our 19 day glorious", you will find a great Italy trip report, which contains several days in Venice.

GoAway

I'd like to offer a differing opinion on when to take the gondola ride.

We went in the evening, and we did go through some of the smaller canals. I don't remember it being smelly - maybe due to the time of year? (We were there in early May). We did some of the tour on the Grand Canal, but I found the back 'streets'absolutely fascinating and so atmospheric. Our gondolier didn't sing - much - and didn't talk much and none of us said anything on the small canals. Making noise would have just seemed wrong.

I also think that a trip to the Murano and Burano is a good thing - take the vaporetto and enjoy the ride. I preferred Burano to Murano - it seemed a little less touristy once you got past the first glass blowers.

One hint on restaurants - if the menu is is English and includes pictures of the dishes, you might want to look elsewhere.

nini

We did the Murano trip by vaporetto and made a few purchases. Not sure if it was worth the time away from Venice because we went on a Saturday and had to wait a very long time for the vaporetto for the return trip. Apparently they run less frequently on Saturdays. Have a great trip!

has250

I agree with the other things that were said but about the sales pitches: so what. it is that way with leather in florence and ceramics in sorrento/amalfi coast.
from recent bad experience: be forewarned that there is NO consumer protection from your Visa card while in overseas(just found out the hard way). another very cool thing to do, even if you are not Jewish, is to tour the old Jewish area--the original GHETTO(which mean foundry in Italian/Venetian). The tour was very interesting. Food in Venice is fair but the light and the art and the whole ambience is very cool. OH, do the Peggy Guggenheim Musuem: her personal villa on the 'other' side of the Grand Canal. Extremely interesting and lots of pre-splot Jackson Pollacks as she was his 'patron'.
enjoy!!