Weekend trip to Venice May 25th, 2017 - May 28th, 2017

Day 1 - Arrival

The birthdays of my friend and me, as well as our six-month anniversary, were getting closer and so was the question: What should we get each other as a present? Eventually, we came up with the idea of combining our birthdays and going on a vacation together. Since we had recently talked about Venice, the destination was quickly decided. We then picked a date when both of us had time (which was not easy due to our professional commitments) and booked the train. We took the Euronight train from ÖBB, which went from Linz to Venice without any transfers. The cost of the journey was 39.00 euros per person. Our trip started on Thursday evening and lasted until Monday morning, with several stops, including a longer one in Salzburg. On Thursday evening, we boarded the train in Linz at 23:00 and traveled to Venice in a compartment with five people. In addition to us, there were two women and a young Australian in the compartment who had the same destination as us. While I managed to get some hours of sleep, it was impossible for my friend to find peace and fall asleep in the narrow compartment. The next morning at around 8:00 am, we were woken up by the warm rays of the sun in Venice and got off the train, somewhat exhausted but with great anticipation. We immediately went to the Rolling Venice ticket office at the train station and bought a 72-hour card for 44 euros. This card was recommended to my friend by a friend who had taken the same trip just a week before. The Rolling Venice card offers numerous advantages, including discounts on museum tickets, and also serves as a ticket for all bus lines. While the vaporettos stop at every station, there is also the option of taking taxis, which are fast motorboats that take you directly to your destination but are relatively expensive, costing 80 euros. We took the vaporettos and went to the Markusplatz (Piazza San Marco), from where we walked to our hotel, which is located right in the center in a side street. Our hotel was called Antigo Trovatore and is located on Calle delle Rasse. We booked the hotel for 2 nights and paid a total of 549 euros without breakfast, which was double the original price. We had booked the hotel several weeks ago online at booking.com for half the price, but shortly before the trip, the price was increased by half and we could no longer cancel for free. The hotel was okay, but it didn't offer any luxury and was only equipped with the essentials.

If you want to save money, it is definitely worth considering taking a hotel on one of the nearby islands, from where you can reach the Markusplatz within 10 minutes by boat. For example, my friend's friend had booked an apartment for four people on one of the islands just a week before and paid only 99 euros, including breakfast. After checking in our luggage at the reception, we went into the city and enjoyed the breathtaking panorama and the sea air of the lagoon city, as well as the warm rays of the sun on our skin. After a short stroll through the numerous crowds of tourists, we found a small restaurant on the edge of one of the many canals, had lunch there, and observed the numerous gondolas passing by. We did not treat ourselves to a ride with one of the numerous gondoliers, as such a ride is relatively expensive, costing 80 euros for a daytime ride and 100 euros for a night ride through the narrow waterways. In this restaurant, there was a tourist menu with a starter, main course, and dessert at a really acceptable price. I enjoyed the excellent seafood spaghetti, while my friend tried the squid. In the afternoon, we continued our walk and visited the I Musei Di Piazza San Marco. We spent the evening at the restaurant Sottoprovo with pizza and a bottle of wine, and watched as the sun slowly set over the lagoon city. While it is very hot during the day, it cools down quickly in the evening at this time of year, with refreshing winds and a setting sun. Therefore, we retreated to our hotel to comfortably end the first successful day of our vacation.

Day 2 - Visit to the market and boat trip to Murano

On Saturday, we started our day with a visit to the Mercato di Rialto, a large market in Rialto. We bought delicious fruit for our breakfast, bought souvenirs for our family, and admired the numerous fish specialties. After visiting the market, we returned to the hotel and took a boat to Murano. The 25-minute boat trip on the open sea was an experience in itself, and we took out our cameras to capture everything for posterity. The island was already visible from afar due to a lighthouse. Murano is known for its glass blowing art, so we strolled around, admired the numerous shop windows and displays before having lunch at the Osteria al Duomo in a beautiful shaded courtyard. However, we had to wait for about 15 minutes before we got a table, as many other tourists had chosen this place for lunch as well.

If you want to relax and get some distance from the crowds at the Markusplatz, the small island is the ideal place to do so.

In the evening, we returned to Rialto, where we crossed the Rialto Bridge and explored the district. Rialto also has some English pubs. We stopped in front of one of them and watched the last minutes of the English Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea. My friend was nervous during the last minutes of injury time and was relieved when the final whistle finally blew, confirming Arsenal as the winner. If you don't want to go back to the hotel immediately after dinner and want to have a drink, Rialto is quite a good choice. Otherwise, Venice is only partially suitable for night owls. We had dinner right on the Canal Grande with a view of the Rialto Bridge next to a Canadian couple. Here, we paid 8 euros for the service. Overall, however, it should be noted that before the trip, we thought we would have to pay more for going out to eat, but the prices turned out to be completely reasonable, and for two people, including drinks, you pay a maximum of 75 euros when sitting right by the water. In the evening, we usually ordered a bottle of wine with a bottle of mineral water.

The range of dishes between the different restaurants did not vary much, with pizza and pasta being found on almost every menu.

The trip to Italy is already worth it solely because of the quality and taste of authentic Italian pizza and pasta.

The hotel staff, as well as the waiters in the restaurants, understood German reasonably well in addition to Italian and English, so communication was not a big problem.

Day 3 - Splashing in the sea and an unpleasant surprise

We planned to spend our last day relaxing on Lido, but before we went to the beach, we made a detour to Rialto, where my friend bought a new backpack. In Rialto, you can also find a small Spar supermarket. So if, for example, you forgot your toothbrush at home or need any kind of groceries, you will find what you need there.

The subsequent boat trip took about 15 minutes. When we disembarked, we were initially surprised and shocked to see cars and motorcycles again after two days. In the previous two days in Venice, we had almost gotten used to being surrounded only by vaporettos, gondoliers, etc.

When we arrived in Lido, we strolled down the Gran Viale Santa Maria Elisabetta to the beach club, where we booked 2 beach chairs and an umbrella for 20 euros (very expensive) to escape the heat a little. In front of us, there stretched the nearly 6-kilometer-long golden sandy beach and the sparkling blue sea, with one beach umbrella and beach chair after another. Lido is especially popular with families with children because the sea is relatively shallow. We planned to stay at the beach until around 4:00 pm before we started our journey back to Venice. The weather, like the previous two days, was perfect again on Sunday, with the sea being pleasantly warm with gentle waves, which increased in the late afternoon. So we enjoyed the last hours of our vacation to the fullest and let the sun tan our skin. After packing our things, we walked back towards the boat, but before that, we stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch. I ordered a salad. Before I could take a bite, the unpleasant surprise happened and a bird did its business in it. Instead of receiving a new salad, I was served a small side salad as compensation. When we asked for the bill, both salads were charged, and my explanation that I hadn't even touched the other salad was unsuccessful. In the end, I only had to pay for the large salad, and fortunately, I was reimbursed for the small one I received as a replacement.

Since we had to check out of our room in the morning, we returned to the hotel to pick up our luggage that we had left at the reception. On the way back to Venice, we saw a multi-story, gigantic cruise ship from MSC Cruises passing by just a few hundred meters away from us. It was truly an impressive sight.

Then we made our way to the pier, took one last wistful look at the lagoon city, and then headed to the train station. The time to say goodbye had come. When we arrived at the train station, we were obviously too early (2 hours). We stocked up on provisions for the train journey and boarded the train to Vienna at 9:00 pm. The train journey lasted until 7:00 am, with an unexpectedly longer stop in Villach. We were extremely glad to finally get off the train, as this time, there were six of us in the compartment, making it almost impossible to sleep.

All in all, the duration of the trip with 2 nights and 3 days in Venice was ideally chosen, although we would have liked to stay longer on the last day.

If you want to visit more museums and islands, or follow in the footsteps of Commissario Brunetti from the Donna Leon novels, it is probably better to book a whole week in Venice.

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