12 Hours in Venice - Everything to do, eat and drink

You might think how you can fit so much into such a small amount of time in the city known for its beautiful canals and over 100 small islands, but with a lot of planning we visited all the main tourist attractions.

Each narrow road in Venice leads out to the famous St Mark’s square where the famous Basilica di san Marco building is, the famous cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocesse of Venice is best known for examples of Italo-Byzantine architecture. For its opulent design, gold ground mosaics, and its status as a symbol of Venetian wealth and power, from the 11th century on the building has been known by the nickname Chiesa d'Oro (Church of gold).  St Mark’s Square is also homed to Doge's Palace, which is built in Venetian Gothic style it is one of the main attractions in Venice and today is a museum filled with history of the building along with art work from the early centuries. 

At the top of our list was a gondola ride, we picked it up from St Mark’s Square and spent forty minutes cruising around the canals of Venice, it was truly beautiful and was surreal sitting on the gondola. It was a great way to see the canals of Venice and take in some of the beautiful architecture.  

There were multiple restaurants, cafes and bars lining the narrow streets of Venice, for a late breakfast you found a small cafe with views of the canal, I had a classic cappuccino and a chocolate croissant and we sat and watched the boats passing and tourists crossing the nearby bridges.  When taking a break from the site seeing we were spoilt for choice on what bar to try, we found a beautiful one by the famous Ponte di Roialto bridge where we tried the classic wine-based cocktail Spritz Venezia, it is a traditional Venezia drink, the setting was beautiful. 

Most of our time was spent walking around the narrow streets of the city looking in all the small antique stores selling classic Venezia goods including class, Carnival masks and souvenirs. I had to purchase the traditional masks that is worn for the annual Carnival of Venice which is held for the Christian celebration of lent as well as this I bought a small class gondola souvenir to remember my trip and to play homage to Venetian glass which is an important industry in Milan. Murano Glassmaking is world-renowned for being colourful, elaborate, and skilfully made. Many of the important characteristics of these objects had been developed by the thirteenth century.

Venice is definitely up there with one of the most beautiful places I have never visited and I enjoyed every minute exploring this beautiful city, the photographers don’t do it justice.