Venice

For years we have been dreaming of nothing more than exploring Venice. I’ve always been enamored with the the romantic and mysterious city on the water. When we had a chance to plan a visit I jumped at the opportunity. When you are ready to travel again Venice must be the place that you go to! We took a flight from London to Venice. When we arrived at the airport I was impressed with how easy it was to navigate. After a short walk through the terminal we took an escalator down to our private Water Taxi that we pre-booked through Motoscafi. I generally don’t spend too much on transportation, but this was well worth it for an unforgettable first arrival into Venice. When I read the reviews on TripAdvisor someone described it as jetting into Venice feeling like James Bond and they were right, the arrival in Venice was unreal. 

AirbnbFor this trip we decided to try It’s a great area where you can feel like a local, but close enough that you can walk to areas of interest quickly. for the first time. We lucked out with a historic palace on the Grand Canal. It has been in the same family for centuries, the description actually said that it has been in the same family since the 16th century through ownership and dowry. With that view and history I was sold. The palace was conveniently located in the San Polo neighborhood as well. 

After settling into our Airbnb we decided to explore the area. In Venice there are no cars so you get everywhere by foot or boat. We decided to walk around and wander down tiny alleys leading to grand plazas. We felt completely safe wandering around and everyone we came across happened to be incredibly friendly. We stopped for gelato and carried on with our walk. The point in Venice is to explore and not focus on getting lost because you will get lost. Even those with the best direction will end up turned around at some point. Wandering is how you find the best places anyway. Thats pretty much how we ended up finding our restaurant for dinner.

We walked by a beautiful garden courtyard with ivy lit by candlelight. It was exactly what you imagine an adorable Italian restaurant to be. We were actually a bit apprehensive to enter because there was no sign just an open garden door. Stopping there was the best decision we made because our meal was to die for. Great pasta, bread, and wine is the exact way to my heart. We were shocked with how delicious the pasta was and when we looked to the kitchen we saw what looked to be the restaurant owners mother in the kitchen creating her masterpiece. The place was full of locals and all seemed to know the family quite well. After we ate our food I saw a delicious plate brought out to a table across the way from us. When I asked the waiter what it was he said we just had to try it and brought us out plates of the pasta. He was right it was linguini with crab, but it was like nothing we had ever tasted in the states. If you are in Venice I highly recommend Trattoria De Ignazio. This is the Garden entrance by day.

Day 2 began with a flytographer session at St. Marks Square. We love getting that early morning light and the beautiful sights without thousands of tourists. It’s so nice having the gorgeous plazas all to ourselves but waking up early on vacation can be tough so we don’t do it that often. Check out our experience with here with Flytographer in Venice. Here’s a few snaps from the amazing session.

After our photos and walk around the neighborhood we ended up back at St. Marks Square