Venice Travel Diaries

How I Spent My Day in Venice

What to Wear:

I wore a simple blue flowy dress. Overall around Europe, I find it easiest to wear dresses. There are so many benefits, they look cute, they are easy, and they take up less space in your bag. If you plan on riding in a gondola, and you are as crazy about pictures as I am, I would keep in mind that many of the seats are patterned. Knowing this, I chose a plain dress. If I could wear anything I would’ve worn a red flowy dress. That just seems like the perfect Venice outfit to me.

What I Did:

I chose to do my day trip to Venice through Smart Trips. Smart Trips is a travel company geared toward college students studying abroad in Florence and Rome. They offer tours/trips guided by other college students/young adults. It offers a safe way for students to travel “alone”. This was an easy decision for me because I went on this day trip alone, and I actually met a bunch of new friends!

Is One Day Enough?:

In my personal opinion, one day is plenty in Venice. It is a beautiful city and it was definitely a must-do on my list. Aside from the gondola ride, there wasn’t much I NEEDED to see.

My Day:

We met up at the Piazzale Montelungo (a lovely 32-minute walk from my apartment) at 7:30 AM. From there we took the bus to Venezia Mestre, where we took the ferry over to Venice. Upon arrival, we enjoyed a glass-blowing presentation at “Laguna Murano Glass”. Here, we also got to look around and shop, I bought a super cute ring! Afterward, we had some free time to roam around.

We decided to visit the famous “Florian Cafe”. This cafe has been around since December 29th, 1720. It is the oldest cafe in the WORLD. How cool is that? It has a stunning atmosphere both inside and outside, the food is presented beautifully, and it is all around an EXPERIENCE. Its prices do reflect that. For me, it was worth it, but the 25 euros I spent on gelato (including 6 euros for the live music) may not be worth it for everyone.

From the cafe, we headed over to our gondola ride (aka the most exciting part of the day). We had such a good experience our gondolier was so kind and funny too. He spoke to us throughout our ride and answered all our questions. he offered to take our picture and even pretended to flip the gondola to make us all laugh.

After the gondola, we headed to the famous “Rialto Bridge” for a little photo op.

The rest of our day was spent eating, shopping, and stopping in Venci to get some chocolate.

We all headed back to Florence via water taxi and bus, the same route we took there.

What I Would Do Differently:

The only thing I didn’t get to do that I would have liked to do is to go into the Basilica di San Marco. Honestly, I did have time to do so but I could have managed my time better. I also wish I would have researched a good place to eat for dinner, as I wasn’t very fond of the restaurant we aimlessly roamed into.

I am sure if there is more on your Venice Bucketlist, you may want more time to discover the city but for me, my trip was just right.

Safe Travels!

-xoxo, jenny <3