Your first visit to Venice – a suggested week-long itinerary - Part 1 - Day 1

A colleague at work recently departed for her first visit to Venice.  Of the two of us, I can’t tell who was more excited – possibly me!  I put together a suggested itinerary for her trip, and I’m eagerly awaiting her return to hear about her experience of Venice.

So I’ve been doing (even more than usual) dreaming about my own ‘ideal’ week in Venice for a first-time in visitor (you know, on the train to work, walking to work, at work, coming home from work, as I’m cooking dinner, as I’m washing up etc).

So here we go: I invite you to come along with me on my ‘ideal first time trip to Venice’:

To anyone visiting Venice for the first time, I would recommend arriving on Monday afternoon, and staying for at least six nights.  I know, that probably sounds like a lot of time to you, but for me, even this is scarcely enough to see Venice, but it would be sufficient to at least see the major monuments and experience the city. 

What follows isn’t a guided tour of Venice – there are many fine guidebooks that do the job nicely.  What I’m proposing below is a suggested itinerary for your week-long stay in Venice to help you get the most of the city’s major sights and activities for your first-time visit.

Note:

This of course, assumes that neither the architecture nor visual arts biennales are in session – in which case, I’d ideally add on another two days to see as many of the exhibition spaces in the Giardini della Biennale and external sites as possible. 

Nor does this itinerary take into consideration major exhibitions or events that might be held during your visit.

Day 1 - ARRIVE MONDAY AFTERNOON

Travelling from Australia, I’ve always flown into Venice from a connecting European city.  I’m sure there are cheaper ways to arrive in Venice, but for me, it takes 24-hours just to reach Europe from Sydney, and I’m always anxious to maximise my visiting time in Venice.

I also love, I love, I love the experience of flying into Venice...that precise moment when the magical, enchanting jewel comes into view far below.  Seeing Venice from the air is truly a wonderful and it always catches my breath and squeezes my heart to see Venice again.

Inside arrivals hall at Marco Polo airport, purchase your 7-day vaporetto ticket and your return transfer to Venice.

Catch the Alilaguna boat to Venice

Check-in to your hotel or your apartment

Get out into the city to feel Venice under your feet, in front of your eyes and surrounding all your senses.

Go to the Accademia bridge, climb up to the top and take in the view of the Grand Canal looking toward the Salute. 

Walk down to the Basilica della Salute and if it’s still open, step inside quietly to enjoy its baroque elegance and serenity.  I always feel like walking into the Salute is like walking into a motherly hug.  This beautiful space has a warmth and a welcome that is hard to imagine until you’ve actually experienced it.

It will be difficult to tear yourself away from the cosy atmosphere off the Salute, but when you’ve had your fill, walk a short distance to the Punta della Dogana and breathe in and enjoy another classic Venetian view across to the Piazza San Marco, to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore across the Giudecca canal, and watch the vaporetti and water taxis motor past. 

You really are in Venice!

As evening falls, walk back to the Salute to catch the vaporetto down the Grand Canal.  Marvel as the palazzi and churches lining the Grand Canal slip quietly past you.

The Grand Canal from a vaporetto as the sun begins to fade

Descend at Rialto to enjoy cichetti (aperitifs with delicious little titbits) or an early dinner at one of the restaurants in the bend of the Rialto – I love the view of the Grand Canal and Antonio da Ponte’s 1588 bridge from this spot, nestled into the ‘S’ bend of the Grand Canal.

Then, enjoy a post-prandial stroll across the Rialto bridge and follow the amply-signed tourist route towards Piazza San Marco.  You will walk to the Piazza past Campo San Teodoro, through Campo Manin.

At Campo Manin, you could take a small detour and follow the signs to the ‘Scala del Bovolo’ – to see that much photographed house in Venice with an outdoor staircase in the form of a snail shell.  You can’t get inside, you can only stand at the gates and observe.

A detail of the Scala del Bovolo

Onward to Campo Sant’ Angelo, Campo Santo Stefano, Campo San Maurizio, past Santa Maria del Giglio, and Campo San Moise to finally end up in the Piazza San Marco. 

And look, up ahead of you – there is it – the Basilica di San Marco! 

And there’s the Doge’s Palace!

And the campanile! And the clock-tower!

When you’ve had a chance to recover, look around the rest of the buildings. 

Feel the size, space and shape of the Piazza all around you. Imagine all the lives, famous, infamous and anonymous, that have passed around you over the centuries. 

Draw a breath.  Walk down to the piazzetta to savour the view across the Bacino di San Marco to the Salute and Punta della Dogana on the other side of the Grand Canal, to San Giorgio Maggiore and the look down the Riva degli Schiavoni.

Walk back toward CaffeFlorian, and depending on the weather and your preference, sit down inside one of the ornate rooms or outside in the open-air with the band. 

Enjoy a hot chocolate, an elaborate tea service or a glass of Prosecco or a Bellini.

As you stroll home, listen to the sound of your footseps and your voice echoing around the dark, winding, silent streets.  Hear the soft sound of the water lapping against the sides of the canals all around you. 

Sleep tight - you’re going to wake up in Venice!

Click here to read Your first visit to Venice - Part 2/ Day 2

Admiring my tea tray inside Caffè Florian's

So, I have a confession to make to you:  I love Caffè Florian.

I know, I know, I know...it's incredibly expensive so say the guidebooks, and only tourists go there.  

But if you think Caffè Florian is expensive now, imagine how expensive it would have been in the past.   

Nowadays we consider coffee and chocolate to be everyday food stuffs, but when Caffè Florian opened in 1720, both drinks were luxury items for the wealthy, and coffee houses served as exclusive meeting places for the nobility and socialites. 

Coffee first reached the Arabic world from Ethiopia and was being cultivated in the middle east from the 14^th century.  By the 16^th century, coffee had become available in Persia, Turkey and northern Africa.  Venetian merchants first introduced coffee-drinking to the wealthy in the 1600s, and the first coffee houses opened in Venice in the 1650s.

Around the same time, the Florentine merchant Antonio Francesco Carletti broke the Spanish monopoly on chocolate by bringing back fruits of the cocoa plant from the Spanish colonies in South America in 1606.  By the 17^th century, artisans in Venice, Florence and Turin had become experts in the preparation of chocolate.  It was costly, and remained a beverage of the elite until the Industrial Revolution.  

Floriano Francesconi opened Caffè Florian in December 1720 as Caffè alla Venezia trionfante (the Café of the Triumphant Venice).  This original cafe comprised two simply furnished rooms, and from the start, served the finest coffee, hot chocolate and wines imported from Malvasia, Cyprus and Greece.  Its popularity grew, and during the 1750s, the cafe expanded to four rooms.  Carlo Goldoni (1707 – 1793) and Casanova (1725 – 1798) were amongst the café’s famous patrons during this period.

Interior of Caffe Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venezia

The first time I experienced Caffè Florian was on a visit from Switzerland with my boss, who kindly treated me to drinks as the sun set over the Piazza and the crazy band competition between Caffè Florian and Caffè Quadri was in full flight. 

Years later, when I was in Venice with my own staff, I remembered my treat from all those years ago, and took my small team for a prosecco to mark the end of another mad Biennale stint.  It was fabulous.  The lights shone on the Basilica, there were hardly any tourists in the square, the music by the band was merry and fun, the drinks were cold and bubbly, and it felt like a suitably celebratory way to acknowledge the effort and dedication of our team. 

So when I brought my husband to Venice in October last year, a quiet drink at Caffè Florian's was high our lengthy 'to do' list.  And, as I'd never actually sat inside, I spent quite a bit of time studying interior views of Cafe Florian on the internet and deliberating which room I liked best.

Except that I couldn't decide - I really like them all.

In 1858, the interiors of the café were re-decorated by Lodovico Cadorin, who created the opulent decorations that still exist today. Cadorin created a series of grandly named rooms:

The Sala degli Uomini Illustri (Hall of the Industrious Men) with paintings by Giulio Carlini of ten Venetians – Goldoni, Marco Polo, Titian, Francesco Morosini, Pietro Orseolo, Andrea Palladio, Benedetto Marcello, Paolo Sarpi, Vettor Pisani and Enrico Dandolo. 

(As part of the 2003 Venice Biennale, the Austrian artist Irene Andessner temporarily replaced these portraits of men by photographs of herself portraying ten notable Venetian women including the courtesan and poet Veronica Franco, portrait artist Rosalba Carriera and Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia,the first woman in history to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy).

The Sala del Senato (Senate Hall) with panels showing scenes from the arts and sciences.  Apparently it was in this room that the idea for hosting the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art of 1893 in Venice was formed – and it was this small exhibition that has grown into what we now know as the Venice Biennale. 

The Sala Cinese (Chinese room) with its paintings of gorgeous women and their lovers and the Sala Orientale (Oriental Hall) depicting more gorgeous women in harem trousers and tunics.

The Sala degli Stagioni/ degli Specchi (Hall of the Seasons or of mirrors), a long, narrow room with mirros and paintings of women depicting the four seasons.  

I love the crazily ornate interiors, the hope that it will be quiet enough to choose the quietest spot available, the view through the windows, the people watching...

We ended up escaping the rain and cold by ducking into Caffè Florian's twice during our week-long trip. On the second visit, it was a busy Saturday morning and we were seated in the Sala degli Specchi.

Interior of  Caffè Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venezia

Interior of Cafe Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venezia

Interior of Caffe Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venezia

I can't go past a silver pot of filled with earl grey tea leaves on a wintry day.  

Interior of Caffe Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venezia

I was delighted that my usually very health conscious husband ordered the famous thick, rich hot chocolate and let me steal a couple of sips.  

Cornstarch mixed with water is added to the simmering chocolate to create a thick, creamy, delicious, rich cup of liquid chocolate flavoured with vanilla, sugar and cinnamon.

The 18th century Venetian poet, Antonio Sforza, wrote Sonnet in Praise of Hot Chocolate. This is an excerpt from the sonnet:

It has no beginning or end,
this love that I have for thedaughter of cocoa,cinnamon, sugar and vanilla;I would go three hundred miles barefoot just to drink a little cup of it.…I would give up all beverages –I would give up tocai, and malvasia –and the whole geneaology of winesif I could only be given that holy liquor which touches my heart,which only to name it makes my mouth water.