Traveling to Venice, Italy – Day 2

Since we went to bed the night before fairly early, we got a pretty early start the next day. Well, early for us. We took the bus from our AirBnB to Venice. It took about 15 minutes. And as I mentioned before, the bus stop was right in front of our door. Talk about convenient.

I love to travel, but I also travel on a budget. The only thing I won’t do to cut costs is stay in a hostel. I’m too grown for that. And I will splurge a bit on lodging. But for sight seeing and attractions, I will research to find deals.

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy which consists of 117 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. Which is why the main attraction of Venice, Italy are the gondolas. They were the main means of transportation within Venice back in the day. There aren’t any cars in Venice and you can only get around by boat or foot.

After doing a Google search, I learned that the gondolas were 80€ a pop. The good thing is that it was per gondola and not per person. But there were only two of us and we didn’t want to pay 40€ to ride a boat to nowhere in the Grand Canal. I would rather buy a leather purse. And I did.

Instead of public buses, Venice has a pubic ferry (water taxi). We ended up taking the water taxi to the islands. The 20€ day passes were more in line with our travel budget.

Venice is a walking culture and we walked and walked. It was great exercise, but I need to reevaluate my workout regimen since moving back to Michigan. My life has become sedimentary. All the walking we did in Italy sort of made me miss living in NYC.

So I’m not a pasta person at all. I don’t crave it. I could care less if it fell off the face of this earth. My friend really wanted to go to Del Maro’s. It was a pasta place that she read about and saw it got amazing review on Yelp. Plus it was hella cheap. I went with her and was just going to wait for her to eat because I don’t do pasta. The place was a very small carry-out only spot. No seating. Everything was made fresh. I’m talking the pasta noodles were made fresh too. I noticed on the menu that there was a garlic and oil option. I LOVE anything with garlic. And a really light pasta is all that I can really tolerate. I’m not into a heavy red sauce. So I said what the heck, it’s only 5€. Why not? I ordered the garlic and oil pasta with mozzarella cheese. Let me just tell you that it was the BEST pasta I have ever had in my life. Everything was fresh. The spices, the garlic, the cheese, the noodles —- EVERYTHING. It was delicious. My mouth is watering as I type this. I can still remember the taste. I have been trying to catch that pasta high ever since I’ve been back in the states. #nomnom

Later on that evening we sat by the canal and had dessert at Hotel Dona Palace. It was nice. My friend and I were the only ones sitting out on the patio. You wouldn’t even know it was there because it was hidden and off the beaten path. The waitress waved us down and  pretty much made us sit down. How could we refuse? The place was so beautiful and serene. There is something about water that is relaxing. Why is that? Maybe because I’m a Pisces? #dunno. We had already had our pasta  so we just ordered tea and dessert. But once we were done. The same waitress that dragged us in, pretty much kicked us out. Lol. She said they were closing. I wasn’t sure if it was because we weren’t ordering more food or what. By that time another couple had sat on the patio also and they were getting the boot too. So we didn’t feel too bad.

Here’s a little budget travel tip. Italy is known for tapas. They are small plates of food at appetizer prices. You can get enough food to fill you up for a small price.

I really enjoyed my time in Venice. I definitely will do it again. This was my second time and I’m looking forward to a third.