I did my fair share of research once I learned that I would be traveling to Venice. I started a Pinterest Board, read through endless blogs about the: “Top 5 Things to do in Venice”, “Top Places to see in Venice”, “How to Make the Most out of 3 days in Venice”, and asked everyone I know who has visited before about their opinion. Needless to say, I had some pretty high expectations before even stepping foot on the plane.

My friends’ opinions fell into one of two categories: Venice haters or Venice lovers. Needless to say, Matt (my very own Venetian expert) falls into the “Venice lovers” category, which is what inspired this first trip from the very beginning. I have several friends who shared their distaste of Venice with me because they felt that it was overcrowded, touristy and lacked locals. After visiting and falling in love with this city, I wish that all of my friends could have experienced Venice the way I did.  I have heard that the summer is extremely crowded, but we went in April and did not have a hard time getting away from the crowds. Yes, St. Marks Square was filled with people for the majority of the day (and we stood in line for 45 minutes to get to the top of the Campanile), but the square was mellow and absolutely beautiful at night.

We also made the conscious choice to stay at an apartment in Cannaregio that allowed us to be centrally located just outside the commotion of St. Mark’s. The apartment was right across the canal from Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Castello and could not have been more perfect for us. We even got to wake up to a gentleman playing an accordion just outside our window in front of the church. We found places to eat that were off-the-beaten-path and avoided the crowds as much as possible. One of my favorite parts of the trip was just walking with no map and suddenly finding ourselves in a charming square or with a beautiful waterfront view.

I have never been to any place like Venice. My best advice for someone who is thinking about going for the first time is to keep an open mind and make a list of things you would like to do/see before you go using Venetian Holiday as your guide. A little bit of planning helped to guide our route for the day (for the start of the day, at least). Just don’t do too much planning, because you are likely to get lost and find yourself on an adventure that’s even better than anything you could have planned out.