Our good friend Melissa called us eight weeks ago with a huge surprise - she's getting married - in Venice (yes, Italy) - the first weekend of October. After finding that we could get one flight on points and the other quite cheap, we of course booked it right away!
Because we had already arranged most of our vacations for 2011, we did not have a lot of time to spend in Italy, so we only made it a long weekend. We flew out on Wednesday to Venice via Philadelphia, arriving on Thursday morning and we returned on Sunday.
Accommodations: Ca' San Polo - A friend of Melissa's found this place and since it was convenient and relatively cheap for Venice standards, we booked it as well. The room was quite large and very clean and the manager at the front desk was really friendly and incredibly helpful. The hotel is within 10-15 minutes walking distance from all the major sites.
Activities:
We arrived by mid morning on Thursday and took a private water taxi to our hotel. This of course was quite expensive but we figured worth the money so that we didn't spend two hours wondering around the streets of Venice trying to find our hotel. Our room was not ready when we arrived, so we walked to Saint Mark's Square to check out the area. Along the way, we stopped several times to admire the beautiful carnival masks and glass items in the gift shops (the nearby island of Murano is famous for its glass blowing). After walking around for over an hour, we grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants near the square - we ate a pizza while soaking in the bustling activity that surrounded us. Of course, we had to also grab a scoop of gelato after lunch which unfortunately to our waist lines, became a regular ritual after all of our meals!
Saint Mark's Square
We returned to our hotel to take a nap and then we went for an early dinner. Following dinner, we met up with some of the people who were attending the wedding for drinks. Taverna Del Campiello, the bar / restaurant where we were supposed to meet, was closed (the sign on the door suggested it had been closed for a couple of days - we joked that it probably failed the health inspection) so Melissa and Sebastian chose another place across the Rialto Bridge: Al Pesador, which has a fantastic outdoor patio on the grand canal. We stood outside by the water, drinking away prosecco and meeting all of their friends (a few of which we had met on previous occasions through Melissa). After we closed the bar down, we stopped by another bar (clearly we had not had enough) for a few more drinks. Finally, at 2am, we walked home.
Apparently a long night of drinking and a bit of jet lag wiped us out and so we found ourselves sleeping until 2pm the following day! We were so embarrassed by this but found out later that another couple had done the same. We missed the walking tour that we had pre-arranged so we went to Saint Mark's Square and toured on our own. We visited the Saint Mark's Cathedral, the Bell Tower and the Doges Palace. By this point, we had enough of tourist attractions so we walked along the waterfront to a nearby park, in an attempt to get some exercise. On our way back, we stopped to have dinner at one of the restaurants along the water.
Saint Mark's Cathedral
Gondolier
On Saturday morning, we got up early (to redeem ourselves from the day before) and went on a three hour photography walking tour. It was just the two of us and the photographer. He spent the first 30 minutes telling me all of the settings that I had wrong on the camera and then we spent the next 2.5 hours walking along the alley ways and canals, shooting pictures of 'Venice street life', all while he critiqued my choice in composition. Keith joked that he if had criticized me for 3 hours straight that we would probably end up taking separate flights home! We did enjoy seeing a side of Venice that we otherwise would not have seen; however, I didn't find that the photographers instructions were all that informative. After this, we grabbed a quick slice of pizza and returned to our hotel to get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was at St George's Anglican Church, a small but really cute church about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was a traditional ceremony that thankfully was mostly in English! Melissa, of course, looked beautiful, wearing a dress that looked remarkably like the one worn by Pippa at the Royal Wedding. We joked that we should post the shot of her butt online to see if she got as many 'like' postings as Pippa did!
Melissa and Sebastian
Following the wedding, we took water taxis to the reception which was located on the waterfront in an ornate building with marble columns, paintings on the ceilings and huge chandeliers. We gathered in the main lobby for 'cocktail hour' which turned out to last for about 3 hours and included way too much food (cheeses, meats, seafood, etc). We retreated to dinner in one of the dining rooms on the second floor to find another 5 courses that were served for the evening!! The food was really good but of course, we ate way too much! We sat with the 'American' friends, most of whom we knew from previous occasions so had a great time chatting with them. Following dinner, we munched on various desserts that were available at the dessert table and then we went back downstairs for a few hours of dancing - to songs spanning four decades. We had a great time dancing and hoped that we had worked off at least a few of the courses from dinner. About 1:30 in the morning, we finally decided that we should return to our hotel since we had to get up early the following morning to get to the airport. Much to our surprise (and thankfully with our sore feat), our hotel was about a 2 minute walk from the reception.
Sunday was uneventful as we got the airport and flew home. We got through customs in Philly rather quickly so we were able to hop on an earlier flight back to Raleigh.
Restaurants: Ristorante Terrazo Sommariva - Located on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge, the restaurant was certainly touristy but the food was good and the location was great as we got to watch the gondolas floating by on the river. We shared a caprese salad and then split a pasta dish and a yummy steak in a green pepper sauce. The waiter asked if we wanted fries or salad with the steak so we ordered the fries, not realizing that it was extra money. When we got the bill, the usual 12% service was included but we found it humorous when the waiter asked if we wanted to pay the extra tip on the credit card or with cash - quite presumptuous as he didn't even ask if we wanted to tip extra!
Pensione Wildner - Located near Saint Mark's Square, the restaurant was very nice with outside seating overlooking the waterfront. We shared a shrimp appetizer dish followed by a gnocchi dish and the steak with green pepper sauce (you can tell we really liked this since we ordered it two nights in a row!).
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