Honeymoon in Venice

When we were planning the wedding earlier this year the topic shifted to the important decision of where to go for the honeymoon. When deciding on a honeymoon location, the important thing to remember is what will sound more impressive when retelling to the grandchildren?

We're heading to Oz at the end of the year and needed to save some money for that as well as the wedding itself so were trying not to plan anything too elaborate honeymoon wise. We were also getting a bit worn out with work and planning everything and liked the idea of heading somewhere quiet. For some reason Hastings popped in to our heads. We checked it out, I found an awesome place to stay and we booked but there was something lurking in the back of my mind. What will we tell the grandchildren when they ask us in a million years time where we went on our honeymoon. Isnt Hastings a bit of an anticlimax? Ever since I'd been to Venice, right after Russ and I started going out, I wanted to go back there and take him with me. He was the one thing missing from that trip. Everywhere I went I imagined how much he'd like it and wanted to bring him there.

Accomodation wise, the cost of Venice and Hastings was pretty much the same, it was really only the cost of the flights that would be the major difference.

All I needed was to find some reasonable flights and we could make it work, and mercifully, I did!

We got married on the Friday and headed off on the honeymoon on the Monday giving us enough time to square things away and spend a little time with family post wedding. We flew out with Alitalia about midday and changed in Rome to our Venice flight. Yes there are direct flights with Easyjet or Ryan air from Luton but by the time you factor in all the added extra's and the getting out to Luton when you're right down the road from heathrow anyway, it makes less economic sense.

And we like Alitalia, their inflight snacks are nicer.

So flight to Rome then change to Venice. It was hot and humid when we got there and from the miriad of ways to get in to Venice from the airport, we chose to catch the bus to Piazzale Roma. Takes about 20 mins and then you cross the giant bridge into Venice and turn your back on cars for the duration of your stay.

Personally we liked the walk, though it was hot, as it gave us a chance to ease into Venice. It would definitely be lovely in cooler weather if you didnt have too much luggage with you otherwise the vaporetto or a water taxi are good alternatives. As we wandered down to pick up the keys to the apartment we rented, I pointed out all the little places that I'd discovered last time to Russ. Our plan was to dump our stuff and head out into the streets to explore and get a cool drink if nothing else. We were staying at an apartment that was owned by the people who ran the B and B I stayed in the last time I visited Venice. I had emailed them earlier in the year to check if they had availability and let them know we were coming for our honeymoon and they suggested the apartment for our stay. It was perfect. We had the place to ourselves, a little kitchen and dining area and it was in a lovely quiet bit of the town. We arrived at B and B sandra to pick up the keys and Leonardo, Sandra's husband, walked us over to the apartment and showed us around. It was 4 flights of stairs to the apartment and it was hot but we managed. The airconditioning in the apartment was a godsend. We kept the shutters on the windows closed most of the time that we were there to try and keep out the heat.

We changed and wandered out on our first night dying for cold water but not hungry for much more than a slice of pizza. This was probably one of the first trips that I went on without an itinerary. We just woke up when we wanted and wandered out into the day. Russ wanted to go see the islands, Murano, Burano and Torcello and on one day we did, spending enough time in each to sketch, maybe eat something and explore. Other days we just picked a direction and walked, stopping by a canal to sketch and rest, jumping on a vaporetto when we felt the need. We did manage to get ourselves a gorgeous album for our wedding photos from one of the traditional marbled paper shops. We watched the guy making them while we were there. We went to florians for afternoon tea one day ignoring the 12 euro orchestra covercharge and just enjoying the surroundings.

Early one evening, when wandering through Piazza di San Marco we saw a lot of people wearing academic robes and a big stage. It was a graduation ceremony, as we wandered past them they'd clearly gotten to the end as they threw their little caps into the air and shouted hooray. Was a signal to us to get the hell out of there as it became obvious all those people were about to try and leave the square, we fled as if from an invading army and didnt stop until the sound of the academic crowd died out. We found a restaurant in a little square that had a table free and parked ourselves there for dinner, while the crowd trickled after us singing “Dottore, dottore, dottore nel buso del cul, vaffancul, vaffancul” I'm not going to tell you what that means, I'm going to let you find that out for yourselves.

Some of the graduates get stripped down to their undies or wear costumes and get pranked by their friends and family so there were lots of semi naked recent graduates getting stuff thrown at them in the square. Was fun though. We got out of San Marco at exactly the right time.

Something cool we found on Murano was a present for Jack, it was a spider made from glass, looked completely realistic, I got him a couple of flies to go with it. We were so scared of breaking it all the way home. I held it on the plane just in case it got bumped and the little legs broke. It made it all the way back to australia too, we packed it well with all their other little presents. But sadly it broke when it was being handled by the kids, we'll have to go back and get him another one.

Venice was as magic as I remembered it, and it was a perfect place to spend our honeymoon. Seems like it might also be the right place to spend our first anniversary as well.

Next up: Christmas down under.