Bluesky at Home » Travel » Exploring Romantic Venice

Exploring Romantic Venice

Venice is one of the most romantic cities in the world. Today I’m share our day exploring romantic Venice. 

You can’t explore all the sights and beauty of romantic Venice in one day. We tried to cram every second by absorbing the history of the city.

We are off the ship first thing in the morning (good-bye Regal Princess, we’ll miss you) and take the ferry to the same pier near Saint Mark’s Square where we arrived yesterday. (Our bags will arrive from the ship this afternoon, which is great because we don’t want to drag four suitcases over the brick and cobblestone streets and bridges.)

It’s a prettier day than yesterday, sunny and warmer, which is perfect for a day exploring Venice on our own.  We head first to our hotel, passing through Saint Mark’s Square through one corner of the arcade.  We pass by beautiful designer stores on Saint Marzo and, over one bridge, past one church and take a right on Via XXII to Hotel Kette.

Hotel Kette

Hotel Kette

Some friends stayed here several months before us and highly recommended it. It’s a small bed and breakfast and its location is perfect.

We are taken to our room on the second floor. It’s very large, has an old-world feel and our window overlooks a canal.  Like so many hotels, this one was once a palazzo.  The decor may have a Venetian look, but fortunately, the bathroom is completely modern.

Harry’s Bar

Back on the street with our map in hand, we follow directions to Harry’s Bar, one of the iconic places to have a drink in Venice and maybe the world. It’s right at the entrance to the Grand Canal, just a few minutes from Saint Mark’s Square.  Opened in 1931 by Guiseppe Cipriani and named after a young American, Harry Pickering, the bar is actually very small.  It has seen the likes of Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, and Orson Welles. Its most famous drink is the Bellini, made from white peach purée and Prosecco. So that is, of course, what we order.  And it’s delicious, super cold and slightly sweet and fruity.

Harry's Bar

Having enjoyed the ambiance of a Venice landmark (not to mention the Bellinis), we head back to the streets.

Wandering around Romantic Venice

We wander around, through streets wide enough for one car to pass, although there are no cars or motorcycles or bicycles. Just people walking, with beautiful designer shops and down alleyways barely wide enough for one person to walk.  Some passageways are not only narrow, just spaces between buildings, but also low enough that we have to duck a bit (and Sweet Shark and I are not tall people).

You can imagine aristocrats and their courtesans meeting in secret for an illicit kiss in a dark passageway.  The streets are pleasantly crowded as locals and tourists shop, head to meet friends, or stop at a little wine bar, which we do.

Sweet Shark wants to find another place he read about, Trattoria da Fiore (not to be confused with Osteria da Fiore, a large restaurant whose crostini, or cichetti, are among the city’s favorite small plates.), a wine bar featuring local Venetian cuisine.

We enter a welcoming place near Campo Saint Stefano, find a table near the open windows, and order a glass of Soave Classico from the Veneto, a plate of our waiter’s suggestions. It’s a delightful meal, not at all a tourist place, for our first taste of Venetian cuisine.

trattoria-da-fiore

More Exploring of Venice

Full after lunch, we walk through more passageways until we find the Rialto Bridge, one of the most famous of the over 400 bridges in Venice. Spanning the Grand Canal, it’s similar to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence in that it has stores on both sides of the bridge.

We cross over from San Marco island to San Paulo island, where vendors are selling trinkets and souvenirs. I do find a beautiful calendar with hand-drawn fruits and vegetables. Both sides of the Grand Canal are packed with outdoor cafes full of people watching people and the gondolas and water taxis on the water.

For a first-time visitor like me, it’s pure joy to view Venice as I imagined it would be. I fell in love with Barcelona and now I’m falling in love with Venice. The books that I’ve been reading about 18th century Venice have fueled my imagination and I can imagine the city whose buildings look much the same as they did 300 years ago.  We choose one of the cafes and order another glass of Soave while we enjoy the beautiful day and the only place like this in the world.

Rialto Bridge

On our way back to the hotel, we spot a small store with beautiful tapestries in the window, one of the items we were hoping to find here. We enter and spend thirty minutes selecting and measuring until we chose two tapestries for our two-story entryway at home. (Actually, when we get them home, we realize it is way too difficult to hang them. They spend several months on our stair landing, but now we’ve moved them to the dining room.) The clerk deftly folds and wraps them and Sweet Shark carries them (the bag is heavy) back to the Hotel Kette.  Along with the Murano glass champagne glasses and Christmas ornament we bought yesterday, our shopping goals are now complete.

Dinner in Romantic Venice

For dinner, we take the suggestion of the concierge, who literally walks us around the corner and down the side street, and dine at Antico Martini on the Campiello Della Fenice.  As we enter the restaurant, we can tell that this is a special place.

The host leads us to the back of the restaurant and out to a covered patio and a table by the iron fencing that overlooks a beautifully lit white building with columns in front.  A few dozen people dressed in evening wear are milling around the courtyard in front of the building.  We ask what the building is. We feel a little foolish when we learn that it is Teatro La Fenice, the famous opera house in Venice.  It is really a magical setting for dinner, a beautiful evening with the La Fenice just yards away. The food, almost all seafood, wine, and service are exemplary.  We could not have asked for a more perfect evening in Venice, but it’s not over.

Antico Martini

Here’s the view of the Teatro La Fenice, the opera house from our table.

Teatro La Fenice

After Dinner Stroll through Romantic Venice

We stroll back past our hotel to Saint Mark’s Square. I was anxious to see what it looks like at night. Fortunately, it’s not crowded and we can enjoy the music coming from several of the outdoor cafes. 

Small orchestras – piano, strings, horns – provide live classical music as we stroll around the Square.

The stars in the clear sky twinkle above us. (I do say “twinkle, twinkle little star”!) I feel like I’m in a scene from a romantic musical.  I fully expect Julie Andrews to burst out in song from a corner of the Square.

We linger as long as we can, savoring every second of Venice. Tomorrow, very early, a water taxi will pick us up for the ride to the train station.  We have tickets on the Trenitalia, the fast train to Milan.

Good night beautiful, enchanting, mysterious, romantic Venice.  I hope we’ll be back.

blog signature

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.