Welcome back to tales from our pocket.
That's right, we have hit the skies again, and we are really excited to share the city
that we're in with you.
You might recognize some of the architecture that's behind me as byzantine, it might remind
you a little bit of Greece (that is not where we are).
We are in a city that is divisive - people either love where we are, or they hate where
we are.
A little bit like cilantro, maybe?
That is not a hint, by the way - that is not where we are.
Where are we?
Where is so divisive, and where is a city that's instantly recognizable by how it looks?
We are in Venice.
Now the truth is, we've been to Venice before and we love Venice.
We do!
We're Venice lovers, not Venice haters.
We are really excited to be back here once again, and to share with you one of the cities
that we fell in love with.
Let's just take a minute to catch you up with how we got here.
We left Minneapolis early yesterday morning, but not too early thankfully.
(We're going to Venice!)
And we flew from Minneapolis to Atlanta and Atlanta direct to Venice, which was amazing.
All of our other flights have been connecting all over the place.
It was so nice and easy to get here this quickly, this easily.
And then once we arrived in Venice, we took a boat provided by our hotel from the airport
to our hotel - and that is the only way to arrive in Venice.
It was amazing!
I definitely recommend staying at the Hyatt just to take their boat; it's incredible.
The main sites in Venice we did, but we did those last time - and they are fantastic.
They are fantastic; you should go see them, but we already saw them, so we didn't do them
this time.
The good news is if you do want to do those, you can do them all - all the big ones anyway
- in a day or less.
and here is piazza San Marco, and now you've seen it!
and here we are at the grand canal
the rialto bridge, academia bridge
and basilica san marco and the dojas palace
or two days - whatever speed you want to do.
You could do it in as little as a day.
There's plenty of other videos on YouTube you can find going through all of that in
probably agonizing detail, but that's not this video.
We wanted to film for you a bit more behind the scenes in Venice and things that maybe
some other videos don't cover.
Take it away...
Visiting Venice can be crazy.
Millions of people visit here each year, and for good reason.
It's a beautiful place and there isn't anything like it elsewhere in the world.
But when you're in San Marco square, it can feel like all those millions of tourists are
there with you at the same time, and you need to get out.
So here are our tips to help you fall in love with Venice just like we did.
You might be wondering, is it possible to lose the crowds when you're in a busy city like
Venice, and we're here to tell you: it's possible.
And our first tip is to go where the others don't.
Everybody follows the same well-trodden paths in between the main sights in Venice.
If you get off those paths just by a block even, you'll quickly leave everyone else.
Sometimes you just really don't know where you are!
There are also these helpful signs that point you in the direction of the next main attraction
as you walk, and that's a sign that you are walking where everybody else is.
Just go someplace else - it's that easy!
A block to the left or a block to the right and you'll be in good shape.
Now, to be honest we don't really know where we are. We know that this is one of the squares
in Venice, and actually we've been here before, but we still don't like "know" where we are.
But this is such a great example of typical venetian life!
We have some dogs racing around behind me, and if you hear a squeaking of a toy, that's
them - not a child.
There are kids getting home from school, there are a bunch of kids playing ball in the background,
and sitting at the cafes we have a bunch of people that are having apertifs.
If only they'd come here
and on the way here i met the cutest Pomeranian that was eight months, and his mom let me
hold him.
And he was so cute, I wanted to bring home with me.
This is typical Venice life for the locals.
We are nowhere near Rialto, we are nowhere near San Marco, and this is incredible.
You might think with a view this spectacular that we had climbed to the top of the campanile,
but you'd be wrong.
This is actually the top of the department store in Venice, and that is one of our tips.
When you travel to Europe, check out the department stores, because many of them have fantastic
cafeterias and or terraces at the very top, and you can find absolutely incredible views
- for free!
The Rialto bridge is directly underneath us!
Our second tip for department stores is that they usually have a bathroom -that's free!
If you can't find one obviously labeled with a wc or a toilet or something like that, a
restroom, look for customer service.
They frequently can be found right outside customer service.
There are only four bridges in Venice so it can take a while to get to them.
Instead you can use the traghetto to cross for 2 Euro per person and you get a little
mini gondola ride.
If you're a gondolier and need some work done on your boat, this is where you come.
Another tip.
Venice is literally built on the water, and they're really good at seafood.
Venetian cuisine is excellent.
We've had really good food everywhere we've been.
We've tried stuff on the menu that we knew what it was; we've tried a lot of things that
we had no idea what it was - and it was all excellent.
So we would encourage you to try things whether you're familiar with them or not.
Step outside your comfort zone; try it, it's all good!
Food tours are a great way to learn any new city that you're visiting, and we had a fantastic
time on ours last night.
We went to a church we never would have gone in, if we hadn't gone on this tour.
We've been in a lot of churches and this one was so unique and beautiful.
We really liked that. We got to try a lot different foods that are typical of Venice...
(This is cicchetti dinner.),
and we finished our evening at the building you see behind me, on the third story up,
overlooking the grand canal having prosecco.
It was a bellisima end to a fantastic evening.
We are just about as far as you can get away from most of the tourists here.
We're actually trying to see if we can find a place that we stayed in this area, well,
i guess it was six years now.
No luck so far.
Well, we found it, we think.
So we stayed at this place right here.
It was an airbnb type thing, and lovely quiet street - although it was kind of a walking
thoroughfare, and i got to overlook the gelato place.
It was torturous.
They had really good ice cream.
Another tip we have when you're in Italy is to get the ice cream - the gelato - get the
gelato, then try the flavors...
and when they're really good, don't give it back to your husband.
Another recommendation: film your spouse awkwardly eating it!
So the Italians think it's very strange to order any coffee with milk any time after
lunch, basically, so we're breaking the rules.
I mean, I'm not.
Heather's not though.
The church has got a lean; this tower has a lean to it.
So you might be wondering - can I go to Venice if i get motion sick?
You need to ride the vaporetto to get to a lot of the fun places.
Here's the fastest answer we can come up with.
If you get a little bit motion sick, you can probably chance coming to the island of Murano.
Head to the far outside side of central Venice, and take the direct ferry across to Murano,
and there are no stops in between.
It's like a 10 or 15 minute ride and it's pretty calm.
You're probably gonna be okay.
If you get severely motion sick like my best friend and you puke if somebody even mentions
a boat, then you can still go to Venice.
Just stay in central Venice.
You don't have to take a vaporetto to get around, you don't have to take a gondola.
You can use your feet and still experience the amazing things that Venice has to offer.
So our next tip to you is that it's okay if you don't do everything the first time you
come to Venice.
Go with how you feel in the moment.
It's a very venetian thing to live in the moment, and if you feel called to do all the
sights when you're here, by all means do all the sights.
If you get here, you do one site but you just want to live la dolce vita,
then tear up your list and do what feels right in the moment.
Either way, you'll be sure to enjoy your time that's here in Venice.
This great shellfish and spaghetti dish that we had probably had it five times - it was
really good.
(off-camera: it's a little embarrassing to have something five times, isn't it?)
-laughter