Weeks before our civil wedding in Vaduz, Kevin told me Venice would be one of our honeymoon road trip stops. In all honesty, I could not say 'dream come true'. Why? I did not even think dreaming about it was possible for me. I never thought I would set foot in this beautiful 'floating' city of Italy, never in my wildest dreams.
So when I stumbled upon these photos in my drive, it still felt surreal.
We parked our car at Venezia Porto Margherita area and boarded the train towards the center of Venice, where the only mode of transportation are your feet, and the gondolas.
It was the peak of summer, but the fresh coastal breeze was pleasant. It's also when most of European schools were on break, so you can imagine the tourist crowd (including us), everywhere.
We stayed at a decent bed and breakfast, where everything outside the window looked like a painting.
The waterways were indeed mesmerizing to look at, especially that their back drops were mostly centuries-old buildings withstanding the tests of time.
The gondolas, which we decided to skip, costed about 80 to 100 euros per ride. We thought about it many times, but we spent that amount to fill our bellies instead.
Every nook and cranny was beautiful. We enjoyed walking in those narrow alleys. It was only my second time in Europe so you can imagine how wide-eyed I was with things I had not seen in Southeast Asia. Even those alleys were picturesque, I had to take a lot of photos.
Every shop we passed by had something engaging, one could easily spend the whole day without getting bored, there was so much to see!
We had a huge appetite in Venice, actually, everywhere we go we make sure we are appropriately fed, lol. These were where what we saved up not getting into a gondola went. Italian food just oozed with freshness, it was impossible to not indulge. The cantaloupe with ham was one of my favorites. The freshness and sweetness of the fruit and the saltiness of the ham was a perfect combination.
We also found this nice, cozy pasta shop which sold freshly made pasta with a wide variety of sauces for approximately 5 euros per serving. It was very memorable, because that was where we met our Malaysian friend, Fida, and her Japanese boyfriend. We caught up in Tokyo after that, by the way.
Everyday we ate tiramisu. Where else can you find the best tiramisu than in Italy itself? You see every restaurant and cafe we went to, there was always tiramisu. This cheesy custardy in soft lady fingers dipped in espresso and liquor, sprinkled with cocoa powder was making love to our taste buds we could not get enough of it. So there was always an urge to eat it 2-3 times a day.
We also took the ferry to cross the canal and saw the lovely dome of Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, where lots of people hung out around it.
One morning we walked around Piazza San Marco, where tons of pigeons flocked all around the square. I was approached by a man who gave me bird's feed so I could be surrounded by pigeons. It was a great opportunity for photos, which we gladly took, until the guy started asking for 5euros. Oh well, we were tourists after all. But Kevin did not choose to get ripped off and gave him some cents before we walked away. He followed us for a while and then gave up.
There were so many churches around Venice, I lost count of how many we passed by. But Basilica S.Maria Gloriosa dei Frari was one of the outstanding ones we visited.
We snuck into the Virtuoso di Venezia orchestra house, hoping we would see some rehearsal but to no avail, so we just looked around and marveled at the artwork inside.
Even though we did not want to shop because of limited luggage space, we could not resist it. Especially that we went to Poli, an artisan distillery shop of grappa, an Italian grape-based pomace brandy. It is the equivalent of schnapps for the Germans or ouzo for the Greeks; one usually drinks to calm the stomach after a meal.
Even these cute little creatures mingled around and looked comfortable in this lively environment.
Across that table was me, sipping this giant beer. Cheers, xoxo.
