4 Days in Venice Trip Report
Afternoon Exploring
Next on our list was a visit inside St Mark’s Basilica. Thankfully we pre-booked our tickets online as the queues were insane! We found our fast-track entrance and spent the rest of our time gawping at the interior. The place is covered in stunning gold mosaics with vast golden domed ceilings. There is a lot to see and you can spend as little or as much time there as you like. You can book a tour, or there are different levels of tickets you can purchase providing different levels of access. We kept things simple on this occasion, wanting to balance our busy morning with some more relaxed exploration in the afternoon.
Over our 4 days in Venice, one of our favourite things to do quickly became having a wander with no agenda. The city is a labyrinth of narrow alleys and winding canals, and every turn revealed something new – a hidden courtyard, a quiet bridge, or a peaceful waterway. We admired the pretty views and slowly made our way towards the neighbourhood of Dorsoduro.
Crossing the Grand Canal to Dorsoduro
Located on the other side of the Grand Canal, we chose to cross via the San Tomà traghetto taxi gondola – this turned out to be an unexpectedly hilarious experience! The crossing is only €2, so it’s an absolute bargain if you decide you can’t afford a full gondola ride, but we didn’t expect about 8 other people to pile onto the gondola quite so haphazardly! The boat rocked all over the place and we thought we were all going in! We half laughed, half clung on for dear life the whole way – easily one of the funniest memories of the trip.
It was worth the chaos though when we finally made the crossing. While many visitors seemed to stick to the main sights of Rialto and St Mark’s, Dorsoduro had a completely different vibe. The crowds thinned out and the streets were quiet and peaceful. After a bit of an explore, La Bottiglia caught our eye: a cute little bar, opposite a small bridge and on the corner facing a canal. We grabbed a little table outside, admiring the view and ordered (yep, you guessed) 2 glasses of wine, to toast another successful day.
We crossed back over the Grand Canal on the Santa Sofia traghetto taxi – thankfully a smoother ride this time! After a busy day on our feet, we enjoyed a lovely meal near our Airbnb at Ristorante Hostaria al Cavallo – perfect!
