Itinerary of the day: Burano → Doge's Palace → Campanile → Ponte dell'Accademia
Many other places want to borrow the name, such as the several cities and towns that call themselves "Venice of the North" "Little Venice" or "Green Venice", to name a few. Once you've been to the real thing, it's difficult to look at the the spin-offs the same way again.
Not saying that Venice was not touristy, but the crowds couldn't overpower the grandeur history and beauty. Besides, it was much easier to escape them in Venice compared to Rome - just walk into a small alley and not a single other tourist would be within vicinity.
Other ways to avoid the crowd were to stay late at night, wake up early in the morning and stay in neighbourhoods like Cannaregio or Dorsoduro. At 8:00 the day-trippers hadn't arrived and honeymooners were still in bed, It felt like I had the city to myself.
Garbage
I planned to spend the morning in Burano, a small island about 50 minutes away by vaporetto.
Although Murano, the glass island, is much closer, I wasn't really interested.
Burano was traditionally known to produce laces, but time changed and much of the more affordable lace products were imported from China nowadays. Not the reason why I visited.
Cat lovers would love Burano. At least one, sometimes several cats could be spotted at any given time. Also not the reason why I was visiting.
The sheer amounts of photos I took in Venice proved that Venice was indeed "photographer's paradise". Burano offered another excellent subject for photography. It was like looking into a box of crayons, or a Pantone formula guide.
I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.
There were many restaurants with good TA reviews to choose from on Burano, but the one I wanted to visit was not open on Fridays. We returned to Venice to seek for lunch.
Ran into a wedding like a travel show cliche.
Lunch was at Osteria La Bottega ai Promessi Sposi, a restaurant I found through TA reviews that was very close to our B&B. It was hidden and tucked away from the main street, which was a good sign.
We were the first customers of the day, so the restaurant was empty. Later all theses tables became occupied with locals.
Hand written, Italian only menu. Another good sign.
The owner preparing our prosecco cocktail.
Antipasto misto di pesce e verdure (mixed appetizers of fish and vegetables). I love every single item on here, but favourites got to be the sarde in saor (sweet and sour sardines) and the baccala mantecato (creamed dried cod).
While the spaghetti al nero di seppia was fresh and delicious, my dad was a bit disappointed that this dish was not what he anticipated (not strong enough cuttlefish taste). From this meal on he gave up on ordering anymore of this.
Originally we ordered semifreddo alle pesche e mirtilli (frozen cream cake of peach and blueberries), but the owner apologized about the cake being less than perfect, so he offered the mousse al limone instead.
Ended the meal with a nice, normally priced expresso.
The owner was so friendly and the foods were beyond amazing! Pasta and seafood were all fresh and excellently prepared. Not expensive either - about the same cost as similar restaurants in Rome or Florence or Milan. The myth of "Venice only offers tourist-trap dining" was completely busted! My parents loved this place so much that they wanted to come back tomorrow.
This restaurant also offered their antipasto as cicchetti - come try the amazing baccala mantecato!
After lunch we returned to St.Mark's Square again for actually touring the buildings during the day. Crowds were daunting at this hour!
St Mark's Basilica. After knowing no photos allowed inside, and seeing the queue outside, I lost all interest to enter. We've seen enough extraordinary churches through this trip already anyway.
St Mark's Clock.
On the two prominent columns at the square, one was Lion of St. Mark.
The other St. Theodore, the patron saint before St. Mark. I felt bad for the dying reptile.
Compared to the basilica, I had intense interest for the Doge's Palace. This was the symbol of THE Republic back in the days of Age of Discoveries. This was the symbol of a city built on marsh and flourished over a thousand years. I couldn't control my fangirl dancing feet walking into this building!
Details of Doge's Palace's reliefs.
The courtyard.
Secret denunciations box. Can't say equivalents of this do not exist today...
Only at the "exterior" components of the Doge's palace were photography allowed. I recommend going to this website for high-res 360 degrees virtual tour of the palace chambers. Chambers that triggered all my fangirl emotions were Hall of the Senate, Grand Council Chamber, and the Shield Room.
Within these chambers were breathtaking pieces of art. Tintoretto's Paradise was the focal point of the Grand Council Chamber. I was fangirling so hard here that the staff was so sure I was going to raise my camera and snap a picture!
(Photo from Wikipaintings)
Another painting I must see was Tiepolo's Neptune Offering Gifts to Venice. I did a parody of this in this fancomic so I really wanted to see the original.
(Photo from Wikipaintings)
San Giorgio Maggiore as seen from Doge's Palace.
For fans of Casanova, there was a "secret itinerary" tour that would visit the prisons in more detail. I didn't join such tour and thought the prison route was already too long.
San Giorgio Maggiore again.
...and the world famous Bridge of Sighs could be seen a few steps back. I had no interest in this bridge, but my dad was emotional that he finally saw the bridge he only read about in books since highschool. Him saying that made me glad that I brought my parents on this trip.
Doge's Palace's admission was a hefty €16, but so worth every dollar.
We then ascended the Campanile. It was crazily crowded, even just moving a few steps was difficult, but views were nice. Note that the photos were taken through net wires so they may look more appealing than in person. Depend on one's interest level this activity would be a give-or-take.
Today's sunset I plan to view from the Accademia Bridge. Judging from the amount of clouds though we might not get a golden sunset.
View from the bridge. This is a classic postcard view and also an ideal place to see sunset, with one end of the grand canal cutting through the centre and Santa Maria della Salute on the right.
View of the other side from the Academia Bridge.As expected, the sun rays weren't golden because of the cloudy weather, but a cooler blue.
Dinner was at Taverna San Trovaso nearby. This was a larger restaurant visited by some locals and many tourists, including tour groups. Usually this would be a bad sign, but the food exceeded our expectations. It got full really fast, so come right at opening time or make reservations!
They were very generous on the seafood servings...there were more clams than pasta in this spaghetti alle vongole.
Unlike Trattoria da Gianni we visited yesterday, seafood in this spaghetti frutti di mare were fresh. Scampis came in whole - with claws and heads still attached.
Cappesante (scallops). I would've preferred to not embed scallops in starch, but still amazing.
We were eating seafood to our hearts' content...when I think back to the foods we had on this trip, the seafoods of Venice became the first thing that came to mind.
Let's see how the city that claimed to have originated this dessert handled tiramisu! Apparently "Venetian style" is the more popular cake-like version with a layer of lady fingers? It was good, but I prefer the gooey ones we had in Civita di Bagnoregio and Villnöß.
Venice at night is the city's finest moments, so my photo-ops were to continue well into the night.
Tomorrow would be the last day of the trip and last day in Venice, but I felt I had only scratched the surface!
