Week 2: September 10-16

Katie & Webster
Sep 17, 2018
4 min read

Week two has flown by! Monday was a pretty low key day, back to work for the week so we needed to get some groceries, make lunches and do laundry. We took a nice walk to the MI6 building (the one from James Bond). MI6 focuses on anti-terrorism activities, they’re basically spies. It was fun to look around even though we couldn’t see much.

On Tuesday, I came home to a huge package at the door. It was beautiful flowers from our new bank, HSBC UK. I had to wait ten minutes for my scheduled appointment... they were so apologetic and offered to send flowers to make up for it☺️ Fantastic customer service. We also had a wonderful FaceTime call with Grandmom, she is doing well and drinking lots of water (We are SO proud of you Gmom)!

Wednesday we prepared for our weekend away by cleaning out the fridge, doing more laundry, and packing. We also tried a popular treat here, the cronut from Dominque Angel bakery. It is a mix between a croissant and a donut. I was underwhelmed, but Webster enjoyed it. We also called home, twice, once to Webster’s parents and once to Mom & Andrew.

Thursday was a whirlwind. Webster left for work extremely early so he could come home at lunch and get our bags for our weekend away and I had a busy day at work writing a press release to be sent on Monday. We met at 5:20pm at Victoria Station to head to Heathrow Airport. London Tip: Avoid the tube at all costs during rush hour😒 I have never seen so many people pushing onto the train at a time, it was complete madness but we made it from central London to Heathrow in about an hour. Once at the airport, things were easy. We didn’t check any baggage so we headed straight for security and to our gate. Our flight took off at 8:15pm London time and arrived in Venice at 11:25pm. We had some snacks (cookies and milk) on the plane and then slept the rest of the flight😋 On Thursday night we stayed at an AirBnB/BnB called Villa so Tigli. It was owned by an Italian family who have turned their residence into a four room BnB. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I have never been so impressed for a place that cost less than $100 CAD per night. We had air condition, wifi, luxury features, breakfast, an airport pickup and the windows had screens (something very rare to find in Europe)!

On Friday we woke up at 9am to get going by 10am. We packed everything up and headed to the bus in the small town we were staying in. For €1,50 we rode a bus into Venice. Once we were in Venice we took our time walking towards our next AirBnB. We walked up and down little alleyways, crossing bridges, taking pictures and people watching. We arrived at the Rialto bridge for lunch - such a beautiful spot! After some delicious pasta, we stopped in a few shops to get some Christmas presents checked off our list! We arrived at our Airbnb at 3pm. Although not as luxurious as our Thursday night stay, our new Airbnb was only a 5 minute walk from St.Mark’s Square. Thankfully it had air conditioning so we pumped the AC when we left to explore the city in the evening. On Friday night we walked on the boardwalk along the water to St.Mark’s Square, then to the Rialto Bridge to see it in the evening. We finished our evening off with a late dinner in a local restaurant.

Saturday, we woke up early and toured the Doge Palace. We got to see the government rooms, the grand dining room and the prisons. It was a neat tour. We then walked along the water and shopped a bit more. On Saturday afternoon we took a boat to the beautiful JW Marriott hotel, which has its own island! We spent a few hours with Chef Luigi making pasta and pizza - what an experience! We did everything from making the dough, to stuffing ravioli, making sauce and cooking the finished products. We even got to sample everything we made! Then at about 9pm we came back to Venice. We spent some time in St.Mark’s Square listening to music - Webster’s favourite part, so Italian!

A sample of some of the wonderful music we heard in St. Mark's Square!

Sunday morning we woke up early and checked out of our Airbnb. We headed to a local bakery to enjoy one more Italian cappuccino. We then went to St.Mark’s Square and rode the elevator up to the top of the bell tower. We were 90 stories above Venice looking over the entire island. Then we took a gondola ride through the grand canal for about 45 minutes. Gondola rides are SO expensive but we had to check it off our list so, we invited another couple who were staying at the same Airbnb to join us. They were happy to have someone to split the cost with too! The gondola ride was definitely a highlight for me. I was afraid it would be very wavy, and I would be so sick, but it was so smooth...the water was like glass! After our gondola ride we stopped outside Doge’s Palace for a cold cappuccino (Imagine an iced Capp from Tim Hortons but x10 better!) We spent the afternoon shopping, wondering down little alleyways. For lunch we tried pasta in a box, it is a big Italian trend right now so we wanted to see what all the buzz was about. It was delicious, homemade pasta! We ate it on a small bridge and watched the gondolas go by. At about 6:30pm we took the bus from Venice to Marco Polo airport. We enjoyed some last minute Italian pizza, and worked on this blog post, while we waited for our flight.