Venice Untour, Summer of 2006
by Jean McCall, Gainesville, FL
My husband and I were in Venice, Italy on an Untour from May 3-17, 2006. Venice is magical. I had been but my husband had not. We both found it special. We have done Untours before--Prague, Greece, Paris, the Rhine in Germany and now Venice. We have enjoyed them all in different ways and really like being two weeks in one place so that by the second week we feel as if we belong. We make a decision on an apartment not only on availability but on being in a neighborhood instead of the tourist areas. We usually find a place to have coffee and tea in the late afternoon and go back to the same place each time.I would like to tell Untour travelers going to Venice about our apartment, the Berti, on the island of La Giudecca. We found our very own pasticceria on the fondamenta not far from our apartment. We spent many afternoons watching the sun set over Venice, having hot tea, coffee and a pastry or cookie. The waitress became our friend. I asked what would we do on the days they were closed. She answered, "I guess you will just have to come to my place."
Our vaporetto stop, Palanca, was 1 minute and 40 seconds away from the Accademia vaporetto stop on the mainland of Venice. And our stop was very rarely crowded. The posted times say 2 minutes but they were on time and rarely did we wait long. We ate in some good restaurants on Giudecca but went over to the mainland for many meals. The furniture in the Berti was interesting. Some of the pieces were hand maid by the owner who lives in Tuscany. Our apartment was quiet and we enjoyed having two bathrooms, one with a shower and one a tub. The tub bathroom was on the first floor with stairs up to the main apartment.
There is a lot of restoration work on Giudecca and from the real estate notices we saw this is a trend with prices rising on Giudecca. There is one expensive hotel there, the Hotel Cipriani, and a Hilton going up on the other end of Giudecca. There is a supermarket, The Coop, just a short walk off the main fondamenta.
There is a fish market, on the main fondamenta, as well as restaurants, fresh fruit markets, a bakery, our pasticceria, a hardware, meat market, an Internet place, a bank with 24 hour accessible ATM, a post office and the nicest Laundromat I have used in all our travels, including stateside. The Laundromat is a couple of vaporetto stops from Palanca, near the Vitelle stop. The only thing I found missing on Giudecca was a good gelato place. And that was across the Giudecca canal from Giudecca on the fondamenta on that side of the canal, Nico's. Another supermarket near Nico's is Billa.
I purchased a small popout map from AAA that was great. It is made by Compass Map Group and a US phone number is 1-800-617-6768. I used it every day. All vaporetto stops are on the map as well as Venice mainland, La Giudecca, Murano and other places in the Venice Lagoon.
We enjoyed several things I would recommend. First take a vaporetto tour of the whole island of Venice from any point and back to that same point. That gives you a good idea of the layout of Venice. We went to Lido, Murano--twice, Burano, all accessible by vaporetto and lovely trips. We made an appointment to see the La Fenice, the opera house, with an English guide and enjoyed that very much. It is advisable to make an appointment to see the Doge's Palace with an English guide and one does not wait in line. Plus you see some thing you would not see otherwise.
We did not take a gondola ride. It was $100 or so and we decided we did not care that much. We did take a Traghetto ride, a gondola ride across a short span, simply to get from one place to another. San Giorgio Maggiore, the island next to Giudecca,has a beautiful church, San Giorgio, with a campanile (bell tower) with great views like the campanile in St. Mark's Square. San Giorgio has an elevator and is less crowded than the St. Mark's one. I highly recommend that for different views.
We felt safe in Venice and never saw a drunk, a person obviously on drugs, or a homeless person. The beggars we saw were the ones seen in other places in Italy, usually older women sitting on the ground. They look pitiful but do not speak.
Wander around in Venice. Get lost. You are never far from somewhere. Venice is unusual. Eating out is expensive but the grocery store prices are not out of line with things in Florida, where we live. Enjoy. Venice is yours for great memories.