Disclaimer: The 2 times I have been to Venice, I have encountered the worse weather. It has been gloomy, rainy and freezing.
My first time in Italy, was magical. I feel in love with every city, every alleyway, every day was great. With that said, Venice still seems to me a bit over-rated. However, an under rated city in Italy is still and always will be a beautiful city compared to anywhere else. If you haven’t noticed by now I special love affair with Italy. Back to my first time in Italy, what a beautiful experience. Being first-timers we made the mistake of driving from Rome. Since it was our first time driving in Italy and being confused by the laws and speed limits and getting lost, we arrived in Venice late at night. Which was a perfect time for a late-night traditional meal. It was gloomy, the streets were slippery, therefore we weren’t able to enjoy it to its fullest.
Six years later I was able to give Venice a proper visit of 2 full days. In proper travel fashion I was supposed to land in Venice take a gondola ride and enjoy the next 2 days in Venice before boarding on my Mediterranean cruise. My transatlantic flight from Miami to Madrid got delayed, which caused me to miss my connecting flight to Venice. I had to wait 15 hours in the Madrid airport catching the last flight to Venice of the day. On the bright side, if I was to be stuck in any airport the Madrid airport is not a bad one to be stuck in. There’s enough to do to keep you entertained and busy for days in end. There’s shopping, coffee shops, bars, and typical Tapas restaurants all around.
Arriving in Venice, at around 1 a.m.; we had to cancel our tours and just wish the best for the next day. The next day we decided to make the best of it and try to do our canceled tours before checking into the cruise. When we woke up it was pouring rain and it continued to rain throughout the day, but it was that type of rain that was so cold that you can feel it in your bones. Yes, that type of rain to say it was awful is an understatement. It’s important to note that from the cruise port you need to take a ferry to get to the island of Venice.
After arriving to the island, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask the tour company if we could do the tour that was scheduled for the day before but was missed because of our flight delay. Being that the weather was so awful, and it being off season it didn’t take much convincing for them to take us our gondola ride. Boy am I glad we did that gondola ride. This gondola ride is extremely touristy, takes you through the canals of Venice, if you’re lucky you’re on the canal in which the musician is on. Regardless, you’re able to hear the music in whichever gondola you are in. And it is just magical. As touristy as this may seem it is a definite must do!
After the gondola ride, we took a quick tour through the Piazza San Marco and throughout the streets of Venice before taking the taxi back to the cruise ship. Despite the weather Venice was a beautiful city for me but in my opinion, it was over-rated, it wasn’t the marvelous, picturesque romantic city everyone dreams of when they think of Venice. After our adventure to Venice it was off to enjoy 12 days aboard the NCL Spirit through the Mediterranean.