Thursday, June 29, 2017

VENICE


I am so unbelievably lucky, so grateful and so excited to be able to share my recent trip to Venice with you. My mum flew over from Australia to spend my birthday with me, and even booked us a five day trip to Venice. I’ve been backpacking round Italy before, but never went to Venice, so I was really excited to see it. We spent four nights and five days there, and it was magic. I wanted to share some pictures and some bits and bobs about what we got up to on our beautiful, relaxing trip.

On day one, we landed at about midday, and got the airport shuttle-boat thingy over to Lido, the island we were staying on. Hotels in Venice are often really full over the summer months, and often extreeeemely pricey. So instead, we stayed on Lido which has a white sandy beach, restaurants, shops and a regular vaporetto over to the main city. In true Jasmine-form, I kicked things off with a carbonara before heading to our hotel, checking in, and then getting the waterbus over to the city for a little walk around. 

Mum’s been to Venice about three or four times already, so she knows her stuff (thank god), because the streets are very windy and complicated to explore. The alleyways are long and dark and some are just dead ends. If I’d gone there alone, I’d still be wandering around in some piazza or another now. After another Italian feast of Pizza di tonno, we just went back to the hotel early-ish for a good sleep. 


We woke up on day two and headed out on the vaporetto into the city, but not before eating double my bodyweight in cheese, sliced meats, eggs and bacon AND melon AND yoghurt. We headed to the Doge’s Palace for a nosey round, and it was aaaamazing. They’ve still got access to the prisons downstairs so it was amazing to see all the old cells and chambers. I wrote Chris a quick postcard which STILL HASN’T ARRIVED and we went for lunch (carbonara, obv) and then we went back to our hotel for a spa treatment each, followed by some dinner nearby. I had a full body scrub. I died at how incredibly silky and dolphin-like I was afterwards. Swoon!



On day three our alarm went off hella early so we could go and take pictures in the city before all the tourists showed up. We got a few good pictures but apparently, Venice is the busiest city on planet earth and even arriving at 7am couldn’t save us. We got breakfast next to the Rialto Bridge and then headed off for some culture at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia. I tried an Aperol spritz with my lunch and to all ye Italians who may be reading this: you are nasty and Aperol spritzes have a special place in hell reserved for them. Then we went back to Lido and headed to the beach to laze around all afternoon.




Day four saw us have a little lie in, and then catch the vaporetto over to Murano where they make all the pretty coloured glass. Unfortunately, we went on a Sunday so not many of the factories were open, and we timed it poorly by ending up there on some sort of boating festival day. We walked around a bit anyway, and then gave up and went off for the highlight of my trip, the Isola di San Michele which is the graveyard island. Oooo spooky! Then we went back to the spa, this time for a full-body massage and a facial. Blisssss.



On day five we realised we’d literally bought no-one anything to take back with us, so we caught the vaporetto into Venice, bought some souvenirs. Chris got a t-shirt and a leather bracelet, Mum bought my sister an Italian leather bag (I got one too!) and an Italian leather belt for Mum’s partner. Then we went for my final carbonara (I was crying inside) and headed back for the airport. 


Venice is seriously one of the most amazing and beautiful places. The city has such richness and literally every single building is instagram-worthy. It’s the kind of place I’d absolutely love to visit again, and I feel I could have walked for hours through the city streets. Well, I think I did to be honest. We averaged 8 miles a day. A negative to the trip was that it is literally the most tourist-ridden place on earth. I know I’m saying that AS a tourist so it’s a bit ironic, but I certainly prefer visiting new places where the tourist population doesn’t outweigh the local population. But it’s definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and I’m so incredibly lucky and thankful that my mum took me to see it (and probably spent her pension in doing so). 

Lots of love,
Jasmine x

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4 comments

  1. Oh Venice looks so beautiful! I've been meaning to visit, this has inspired me to finally book a trip :) x

    http://chloeharriets.com/

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  2. Beautiful pics! It sounds like you had fun exploring the city with you mum.. Venice is a place that I really want to go back to!!

    Ronnie
    www.veronicabizzarri.com
    xx

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  3. I love Venice 💖 but I love you more 😍😍😍

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  4. It looks stunning! I'm planning a trip in February with a friend for her birthday x

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