venice
THE BEGINING of GRACIES ITALIAN SUIMMER !! Welcome everybody to an attempted summery of my summer travels. I have spent the last two months living on the southern Italian coast studying the Italian language, and traveling a bit in between. This week, the week of July 12th, is the first week in over a month that I have been in one location for more than a few days. With this time I am taking advantage to finally sit down and type. During the first few weeks of traveling, I posted short daily updates through Instagram, but have yet to write anything much of substance. It has been a goal of mine to write about my summer in a slightly more professional way so here I am, blogging.
On May 5th I finished my junior year of college at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, and by the end of the day was en route back to Washington. During my one week at home, I was able to fit in a few of my favorite hikes, go to the doctor, and pack up all my belongings for the summer.
After three flights and two layovers my sister, dad and I landed in Venice, jetlagged espresso deficient. My dad organized a transfer from the Venice airport to the train station where we then took water taxi to our Airbnb. There are other travel options when it comes to getting from the airport to town, but after 20 hours of travel this was so easy and hassle free. Not to mention taking a water taxi immediately after landing in Venice feels like something straight out of a movie.
We were able to drop our bags at our Airbnb, but had to kill a few hours before check in. In typical Hinz fashion, we located the closest coffee shop and ordered cappuccinos and croissants. After checking into the Airbnb, everyone had a quick snooze and then we headed out for the evening. We walked to the San Marcos Square, which is the main square/center of Venice. In the square you can find restaurants and the St Mark's Basilica! From the waterfront we were also able to see the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore lit up across the canal with the moon rising behind it. On our walk back to the Airbnb we stopped for a canal side dinner to finish the day off with some pasta and wine, in typical Italian fashion.
Honestly coming into this trip I had no idea what to expect of Venice. Given the quick turnaround from finals to moving abroad for the summer there was very limited time to research. With that my somewhat low expectations for Venice were quickly exceeded. The canals were so far beyond what I had imagined that I spent the first 24h completely jaw dropped.
Our second and third days in Venice were filled with good coffee, food & sleep to recover from the jetlag. One of my favorite activities was walking around the Parco Delle Rimebranze. I loved the contrast of the densely packed streets to the open air and beautiful views from the park. It also started to pour rain as we were walking & it was fun to take refuge in one of the local cafes.
Another highlight was taking a ferry to the island of Giudecca. Located right on the other side of the main canal, Giudecca is a bit more laid back then the main islands of Venice. We stopped for lunch at Majer, which I would highly recommend to anyone who is in Venice. Even after two months of travel and eating, this is still one of my top meals.
Venice was the perfect first stop on our week and a half of travel around Italy as a family. Venice is not somewhere to be rushed through but rather invites the traveler into appreciation and rest!! I would highly recommend visiting and also looking into a time that is not super busy. We were in Venice in mid May which is before peak tourist season and I think this added to the experience quite a lot :) !!
