Venice, Italy.
It’s like nowhere else in the world.
There is more than a millennia of history just sitting on the banks of canal after canal.
After flying into Milan and taking the train to Venice, the city was the first one on our European adventure.
We arrived at Santa Lucia, one of the the city’s two train stations. Santa Lucia is the end of the line, so there’s no way we could miss our stop.
We walked out the doors and right into the city.
The train station is near the foot of the Grand Canal, and, depending on the season, there are people, EVERYWHERE!
There is also a vaporetto station nearby, to help you reach your hotel, if needed. You’re other options are here if your hotel is not within walking distance of the train station.
Travel Tip: Find out how many bridges you’ll need to cross to get to the hotel you hope to book. Do it before you make your reservations. Trust me, you’ll thank me later. This map will help.
We’d booked a hotel near the train station.
We waved off porters for hire who promised to take care of our luggage and deliver it to our hotel.
AND QUICKLY REGRETTED THE DECISION!!
We could see our hotel from the train station, yet we knew we needed to cross three bridges to reach it
Unfortunately we didn’t realize one of those bridges was a monster named Ponte delle Guglie.
I mean basically the slightly smaller stepsister to the Rialto.
We each had a suitcase and a smaller bag and managed to drag them — and ourselves — across the monster and to our hotel on the other side.
By then we were sweating, we were exhausted, we just wanted to sleep.
We quickly got settled in the hotel and grabbed dinner at a nearby restaurant. Then we fell into bed.
We woke up the next day ready to explore the city!
OK, we were still jetlagging and really wanted to just stay in bed.
But we were in VENICE!
We stumbled our way to the nearest vaporetto station and bought tickets.
After boarding, we decided to cruise down the canal to the Rialto bridge.
The good news is that we boarded toward the end of the line, so there weren’t a ton of people.
We claimed some room on one side to enjoy the view.
You’re going to want to do this as soon as possible, because at every stop more people stormed aboard.
We sailed down the canal and listened to a free Rick Steves Podcast that we downloaded before the trip. It described the buildings we passed and told them what many of them housed when the city was bustling .
Our destination was the Rialto bridge.
There is no way to miss it!
We exited the vaporetto, along with dozens of other people.
We window shopped our way up and down the bridge, and then started exploring the streets.
Live Like A Local: In Venice, street names are on the sides of buildings since this part of Venice is only for pedestrians.
We bought some jewelry as gifts and souvenirs in the shops near the Rialto Bridge.
Then we wandered around a little more and grabbed some freshly-squeezed juice to enjoy as we walked around.
After taking pictures of the bridge and the area around it, we jumped back on the vaporetto and continued on the canal, until we reached St. Mark’s.
If you haven’t already felt like you stepped into history — or a movie set — you will when you enter Piazza San Marco.
We joined thousands of tourists in Piazza San Marco, and headed to its most popular site, St. Mark’s Basilica. The gold mosaics, the inlaid marble floors, and the details found inside this building are simply amazing! Thanks to a little planning, we didn’t have to stand in line for over an hour to get inside.
Next to St. Mark’s Basilica is Doge’s Palace. They are the former leaders of Venice. Think of them as Dukes.
The Doge was appointed for life and lived in this palace. A series of Dodges ruled the city for more than 1,100 years. You can tour the palace. Click here for more info on tours and prices. 
On the side of the palace you’ll also find the Bridge of Sighs. Legend has it that prisoners walked across the bridge from the dungeon to where they were executed. They are said to have “sighed” as they looked out the windows of the bridge for the final time.
U Turn: Because of timing we ate lunch in St. Mark’s Piazza. Big no-no if you’re on a budget, like we were. Because of the location, I felt like we paid too much for our food compared to what we ate the night before. And it wasn’t as good.
After walking into St. Mark’s Piazza and taking in the Basilica and the Palace, the next thing that will probably catch your eye is a tall brick tower. It’s the campanile, or the bell tower. It took around 200 years to build! Just this tower. Compare that timetable to the other buildings around you. According to history buffs, the tower collapsed in 1902. This time crews were able to rebuild it in less than a decade.
Back in the day, (like the Middle Ages) the tower was also apparently used for punishment and public humiliation. People who broke laws were put in a cage and left hanging halfway up the tower. The punishment could last weeks!
There are many other things to see in the Piazza, but we were running short on time at this point. We boarded another vaporetto and headed back to our hotel to pick up our luggage.
From the hotel it was a short walk to something called the people mover. This is what we needed to take to the port to board our cruise ship for the next dozen days.
Walk In Our Shoes: Walk past the area where the buses and light rail is loading. DO NOT board one of these trains. You need to cross the street and keep walking until you see something that looks like a giant parking garage. That’s where you’ll buy a ticket and board the people mover for a quick trip to the port.
When we stepped off the mover, we thought we were just steps away from our ship! Boy, were we wrong! We ended up dragging our luggage through three huge parking lots (like outside of a stadium — times three!) and eventually ended up at the Norwegian terminal.
After sweating all over the NCL desk and checking in, we headed to our cabin. After a short rest, we explored the ship, had dinner and went to bed to get ready for the next day, and a new country!
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