Last updated: 17th July, 2021
Spending 3 days in Venice this Summer was a spontaneous decision.
Like anyone else with even a slight interest in travelling, Venice has been comfortably sat at the top of our travel wish-list for a while.
We’d actually booked to go back in April – when we heard that parts of the city flooded, fear-of-missing-out finally triumphed and we finally took the plunge (sorry).
Of course, lockdown put an abrupt end to those plans.
3 months later as restrictions started to lift, we started to hear rumours.
“Venice is as quiet as it’s been in decades”.
“The canals are crystal clear”.
“There are even dolphins in the canals!”
Visiting Venice at such a unique time for the city and the world in general became too good an opportunity to turn down – especially after months spent anxiously indoors.
This is how we got on in the floating city.
Day 1: St. Mark’s Square and Al Gazzetino
We arrived late in Venice the previous night, and hadn’t got the best night’s sleep.
Leaving the hotel slightly later than anticipated, we set out with a quiet excitement to see the city we’d been dreaming about visiting for years.
But first – food.
We were staying about 10 minutes walk from Ponte Rialto, and saw (on TripAdvisor) a few promising sandwich places.
I’m not talking Pret-a-Manger here obviously… I’m talking glorious italian sandwich-kinda places.
And boy did we find one.
Al’Merca is just behind Ponte Rialto and was JUST what we needed. They sell little petit pain-esque sized rolls, full of super fresh ingredients, and for just 1.50€ each!
We tried a few, but the one that stood out was one with Prosciutto and Truffle cream/oil.
And they don’t scrimp on the truffle!
If you fancy a quick bite for breakfast or lunch, we couldn’t recommend a better place!
Appropriately fuelled by Al’Merca, it was time to see some awesome sights.
So we headed straight to the most famous part of Venice – St. Mark’s Square!
Obviously we’d seen pictures of this area… but we were still blown away.
St.Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace are, quite simply, two of the most beautiful buildings we’ve seen. The details and sculptures are just incredible.
What made the experience even more special was that the sun was shining, and there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of people.
We’d seen pictures of St. Mark’s Square, and we were expecting huge swathes of tourists as far as the eye could see.
Instead we were really pleasantly surprised to find this:
It was a special moment.
With the last 6 months mostly staring at the same walls at home, we were just able to marvel at one of the most famous buildings in the world… and feel like we’d stumbled on a hidden gem.
The sun however, was relentless. It seemed isolation hadn’t really prepared us for this part, and at 32 degrees we were baking!
Partly to get out of the sun, we chose that moment to visit the Doge’s Palace.
Entry is 15€, but we went for the option which included 4 museums for 25€.
We had to put on masks again, but it was a small price to pay to get out of the boiling sun.
The inside of the palace is fantastic.
The courtyard was literally empty, and the unique design continued for some pretty awesome shots.
As you continue up the stairs and into the palace itself, everywhere you look is covered by ornate and mind-blowing art and furnishing.
It hadn’t taken us long to understand the hype about Venetian art and architecture was fully justified.
Our second meal in Venice was our favourite meal by a distance.
Trattoria Al’Gazzetino is a short walk from St. Mark’s, and with 12,000 positive reviews on TripAdvisor, we thought it was a safe bet.
We were right.
The two dishes we ordered were a main plate of calamari and pasta with spider crab.
Yes, they tasted as good as they look. Much better in fact.
Coming from Greek heritage, calamari is a way of life (I’m exaggerating, but also not really).
Up until now, Crete had been the gold standard of calamari for me.
However, Trattoria Al Gazzetino may have just taken that crown (although Cretan calamari is way cheaper, just saying).
Both dishes, including the spider crab, were excellent… and all the dishes we didn’t order were also fantastic too.
You are wondering, did we get served other people’s food and wolf it down before the restaurant realised their mistake?
No! … well we don’t think so…
Reason why? Because they kept bringing us free dishes!
We ordered two dishes, and were also treated to a wonderful gnocchi as a free starter, some delicate sardines and polenta for a free lunch dish, and a hefty size of tiramisu for a free dessert!
WHAT?!
We got more dishes for free than we ordered.
Ok I’ll move on now… but I mean, who doesn’t like free stuff??
After that phenomenal lunch, we spent the afternoon exploring the back streets and canals of Venice a little more.
Even just walking around a normal, non-famous street, the beauty is truly wondrous.
We stopped at this canal, because it was just so beautiful.
Weirdest thing? This is just the Venetian version of a road!
Mind. Blown.
In fact, every canal is unbelievably beautiful. We really don’t think it’s possible to take a bad photo of Venice.
All that exploring had soon built up our appetite again, and having already had pasta for lunch, the choice for dinner was clear.
We did have a little more trouble finding a pizza place that appealed. In the end, we decided on Pizza 2000 which was nearby and had lots of good reviews.
Inside wasn’t the most comfortable to sit in, especially with the lack of air con.
The pizza itself was pretty tasty, but with our outstanding lunch fresh in our minds, it didn’t hit the same high.
Pizza 2000 is a solid choice, but we’re sure there are other better options in Venice.
Suitably full, we ambled back on a wonderful walk along the cobbled streets and beautiful canal bridges to our hotel, to rest our weary heads.
Day 2: Murano, Burano and Lido
After stopping at Frulala for a delicious yoghurt, granola, and fruit-filled breakfast, we headed back to St. Mark’s Square.
St. Mark’s Basilica itself was closed, but you can go up the stairs to walk along the walkways at the top.
This allowed us some wonderful views of Venice in the early morning, and really showed the lack of crowds.
Next on the list were the islands Murano, Burano and Lido (we skipped Torciello for time purposes).
Here we made our first real mistake: getting around Venice and the surrounding islands can be confusing, and getting the ferry from San Marco is a terrible idea.
The boat has to go around the whole island, and it took us 50 minutes to get to the ferry stop Fonte Novo… which was a 5 minute walk from our hotel.
Don’t do what we did and take the least efficient route possible… especially when you need to wear masks and stand the whole time.
Around an hour and a half later, we (finally) arrived in Murano. While this area was known for it’s beautiful glass-blowing and glassware, we were on a mission to fit everything into one day.
So we sat down for a coffee near the canal, and then went to queue for the ferry to Burano.
The ferry from Murano to Burano was much simpler, and only took about 30 minutes.
Even better, we found Burano to be really empty but really colourful and beautiful.
We walked around the main canals and back streets for a little while, completely in wonder.
We were also really excited for food in Burano, because we’d been told the seafood is super fresh.
And who doesn’t love seafood?
This is where we encountered our second big mistake which could have been so easily avoided.
For the love of god… Reserve your restaurant in Burano.
Up until now, we thought that we’d just never need to plan ahead. Apparently, we’d been very lucky.
Unfortunately, there are a few restaurants in Burano that seem miles ahead in quality without those imposing ££££ signs.
The two we tried to go to were both fully booked – Trattoria Al Gatto Nero, and Trattoria Alla Maddalena.
I can’t quite communicate just how heartbreaking this was… especially as we could see everyone’s food as the waiter regretfully shook their head as we asked for space.
And it looked gooood.
In the end, we ordered a mini feast at Osteria al Fureghin.
The food was pretty tasty, but it didn’t blow us away. And when you have one meal in Burano, you obviously want it to be quite special.
The final stop of the day was Lido!
And what an end to the day it was.
Even though Lido is just a 12 minute ferry from San Marco, this little island has a vibe all of it’s own.
We suddenly felt we’d had a little taste of a proper beach holiday!
Walking along the beach, feeling the sand beneath our toes, and just watching the waves was such a brilliant experience. We wish we’d known beforehand to spend more time here, or even a few nights.
All the months spent indoors had given us time to work on appreciating the positive things. Sitting on the beach in Lido, we were able to really experience where we were, and be grateful for it.
The meal we had at Al Cavaliere was also delicious – one of the best things in life is a pizza with chunks of delicious parmesan on it.
Leaving Lido was actually a little sad, seeing as we’d only spent a few, wonderful hours there.
Definitely don’t ignore Lido when you go to Venice!
Day 3: Campanile di San Marco and the Grand Canal
Even though we were flying in the evening, we were committed to making sure we made loads of awesome memories on our final day in Venice.
We started with a light snack at Al’ Merca (again), and some souvenir shopping.
Venice is an awesome place to get some high quality photo prints and designs, for a really reasonable price.
Having failed for years to properly decorate our photo frames, we took full advantage 😂. We bought a few from Feelin’ Venice shop, and a fantastic little store full of amazing prints down Calle delle Acque.
For lunch, we wanted to try a more “substantial” sandwich after developing a love of Italian Sandwiches on our travels.
Full of flavour and delicious flavour, the sandwiches at l’Bacaro de’ Bischeri were nice… but not at the levels of our all time favourite All’ Antico Vinaio in Florence.
Probably makes sense, as the latter has almost 30,000 reviews and it probably a national treasure.
Up until now we hadn’t spent a lot of time near the grand canal, as we’d been quite content to walk the quieter back streets.
So we decided to take the ferry all the way down the grand canal, from Ponte Rialto to Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.
This was so much fun!
Cruising down the Grand Canal in a private boat is no doubt more enjoyable, but if you have a day pass for the ferry, it’s really beautiful to see the buildings from the water.
You also don’t get a real sense of how beautiful and unique Venice is, until you spend some time on or near the grand canal.
Grabbing some coffees, we sat on the steps of the Basilica just watching the boats and canal. Once again we felt so lucky that there were so few people.
Next up it was time to get back to the main attractions.
The views from the top of Campanile di San Marco were just as impressive as we’d hoped, and Museo Correr just behind it was surprisingly huge!
Of course, it was on our final day that we found our favourite gelato place in Venice.
If you are looking for the best gelato in Venice, we are pretty sure it is Suso Gelatoteca.
Unbelievably decadent. And we loved every second.
For our final meal, we decided to eat on the Grand Canal.
Up until now, we’d avoided these restaurants like the plague because… well nothing screams tourist trap like a man standing outside a restaurant in a famous place actually screaming for you to come in.
That said Ristorante Florida really impressed. The lobster with tagliatelle was so fresh that surprisingly brought it out when I ordered it to show me.
I also wasn’t sure how I felt about that at the time…
With our final meal in Venice a success, we headed back to the hotel to collect our bags.
All in all…
Not going to lie, we had real doubts about going to Venice this summer.
But after our prior trip was cancelled we were committed to seizing the opportunity.
Of course, some parts of it were not ideal – wearing masks in 30-degree heat was definitely one. 😷 Also we should have planned more time in Lido.
That said, we are so glad we got to see Venice in its current, unique state.
The sun shone almost every day, the streets were blessedly empty and the canals were calm and clear.
No one has the answers for how life gets back to normal – or even what that looks like now.
For us, going to Venice was a step forward, and we are so grateful for all the memories and experiences it gave us.
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