We had to say goodbye to Milan as we were heading over to Venice as our next and final stop. That morning I ate the last of my leftover risotto, then we checked out of our hotel at 10:30am and headed over to the main station. We had about two hours before our train departed, so we browsed through some shops then had lunch at Mercato Centrale, which is a marketplace with food vendors and restaurants inside the station. 

By noon we headed over to the tracks to board our train. We were pleasantly surprised that it was quite spacious inside so we didn’t have to fight for luggage space. They also gave out free drinks and snacks during the ride, so time went by pretty quickly. We arrived in Venice Santa Lucia around 3:30pm and we could already see our hotel from across the canal. 

Hotel Antiche was such a good pick and we had an amazing three-day stay. We were already sweating by the time we made it over the bridge and into the hotel lobby and they were quick to offer us glasses of water. We checked in and got led to our room, which had a direct view of the canal. After freshening up, we went downstairs for a complimentary welcome drink, then we were off to explore. 

Since we only had a half day we didn’t end up buying any ferry passes, so we went off on foot. Even though we had a map, it was actually very easy following the signs on the streets which point to San Marco (and the ones heading back to Ferrovia). The one downside was the heat, as it was sweltering hot that day. There was some shade from the alleyways, but as we got closer to Piazza San Marco, we started getting the full brunt of the heat. 

Another thing I should mention is the insane amount of tourists in Venice. Venice already introduced the tourist tax, which is charged by the hotel for overnight stays. This year they also introduced the Access Fee, which is geared towards day trippers. While we weren’t required to pay it as we were staying multiple days, we still had to apply for the exemption. To be honest I don’t think it did anything to reduce the amount of tourists in the city. I was actually looking forward to Venice the most on this trip, but with the sheer amount of people, we learned we had to be a bit more strategic when it came to planning our activities.

Nevertheless, once we got to San Marco we made use of our museum pass and visited Doge’s Palace first. I love the architecture from the outside and it was quite interesting seeing all the apartments and chambers inside as well. Since we still had time, we ended up also visiting Museo Correr. While the library was already closed by then, we had a nice visit inside the museum. 

For dinner that night we had 8pm reservations at Ristorante ai Barbacani. It was a really cute restaurant tucked on a side street. Once we were seated they started us with complimentary glasses of prosecco. I didn’t hold back on ordering dinner as I got both their sautéed mussels and clams appetizer and their cuttlefish ink rigatoni. One of my friends ordered their lobster tagliolini and she didn’t realize it came with a whole lobster. It was so amusing watching her struggle eating it. Towards the end I fully took over and probably embarrassed her by getting my hands right into it. I hope there was no photo evidence of me manhandling this lobster in an upscale Italian restaurant. =D

By the time we were done dinner it was already dark. Heading back towards the hotel, we passed by Suso and lined up for gelato. Overall it was a pretty good first day in Venice, although we had already accomplished half of the activities we had planned for our three days in the city. However we were very much looking forward to visiting Murano and Burano the next day!