Venice, Italy Travel Photos
This extremely huge restaurant composed of a series of interconnected buildings seems to be recommended by every single hotel in Venice. Is it that good? I really dont think so. I barely remember anything memorable about it besides its huge size. Or maybe the food was good but having a billion people around you in a million interconnected halls really doesnt help the digestive experience.
I guess it just doesn't feel right in Venice. A city so intimate on so many levels is not the right fit for a restaurant better placed at the Venetian in Las Vegas. You will have a much more autentic experience in a small traditional restaurant with half the menu and one 10th the size.
After wandering aound the whole city looking for a good place to buy traditional Venetian souvenirs (meaning masks, lots and lots of masks) we arrived in Veniceland. This quite large store a few blocks away from San Marco has its in house artists like many other stores but it also seems to offer masks that are authentic and well made, revealing the theatrical heritage of its owners.
The place offers a great variety of masks in many styles I haven't seen anywhere in the city and the people inside never seemed honest and open. We ended up buying a few thousand euros in more than 20 masks and everything was shipped to us back to Peru without any problems. I spend some serious time looking for a good place to buy masks in Venice and I feel fully confident to recommend Veniceland, its products and its people.
A cafe with great snacks, deserts and wonderful coffee, tea and hot chocolate selection. It has the best Irish Coffee I ever tried and the 32 flavors of hot chocolate (including hot white chocolate with wild fruits) are in a category by themselves. It is always the most crowded place on Campo San Stefano so it shouldn´t be hard to find. And having heard italians recommend it saying it has great coffee is quite a compliment. Worth visiting every day you spend in Venice. At least I did and I still have 26 flavors of hot chocolate left to be tried for my future visits.
Charming little restaurant run by a local couple, fits maybe 20 people and the menu is quite small but the quality is very good, prices are reasonable and the owners are always around to help with the choices, recommend some great local wines (I was recommended the red Amarone from Veneto and loved every drop of it), and just chat. It seems to be also popular with the locales, several store owners in the are mentioned it to us, and that is always a good sign. A fun fact is that while everything is very italian, the chef is japanese!
Overall, Oliva Nera is a beautiful way to escape from the crowds that fill every corner of Venice and many of its better known and much larger restaurants.
This restaurant is worth a visit only for its extreme wine list covering every country imaginable with bottles ranging up to tenth of thouthands of euros. You dont feel half as bad drinking that 50 euro wine after you realize it costs only 0.5% of the most expensive one on the menu.
The food is really good, service is impecable, decor is elegant and the atmosphere is one of the most elegant found in Venice. Movies were filmed in this restaurant located just a few blocks from San Marco. Yes it is expensive but it doesnt feel unreasonably so.
The gondola ride is so typical of Venice and also so distinct that I would recommend it to everybody even for the relatively extreme price. The moment you slowly exit one of the narrow side canals into the Grand Canal and see the view of the palaces and the Rialto opening up inf ront of you with other gondolas going back and forth is definetly an experience from a time gone long ago. And some gondolieri double up as tour guides (as long as you find one who speaks relatively good english) and exceptionally it is possible to find one who sings adding that final icing on the cake of the overall experience. But to take full advantage of it and not feel that you didnt get enough for your money I believe it is useful to:
1 - Try to look knowledgeable about the city - at least be sure where you are and where you want to get, looking like the most stereotypical tourist wont help get the best value for the money. The sad reality is that some gondolieri may try to take advantage of the poor tourist you are so the best way is just not be one.
2 - Negotiate the route of the trip - the gondolier will propose you someting that might not be the most scenic route so just take out your map and show the exact path you would like to follow. Of course it is also important to...
3 - Take your gondola relatively close to the sights you want to enjoy from the water - you could go across the whole city but that might take a couple of hours and run you into a few hundred euros. It is best to take your gondola close the area you are interested in so you wont spend half the trip going through some nondescript canal with nothing to see beyond brick walls.
4 - Price and value - usually the gondolier will offer you a couple of options (as of March 2006) the prices were around: 60 minutes - 100 euro. Thats where you follow suggestions 2 and 3 and negotiate the route and all the details of the trip. It is also importante to finish the negotiation clearly stating the exact route, the price and the length of the trip so that no doubts arise.
5 - Supply and demand - the final pointer is that it is always useful to remember the basic laws of supply and demand. There may be hordes of tourists everywhere in Venice but you will still see gongolas near almost every bridge or popular street so take advantage of that and get picky about the gondola you like, the gondolier you like and play the cards to your advantage to get the best value for your money. The trip is expensive enough as to be worth the effort to be made as enjoyable as possible.
Located in palatial building, Londra Palace Hotel continues the long history that began with the hotel Beau Rivage first opened there in 1860. Now it is an excellent classical european hotel in a great location (less than 5 minute walk from San Marco) and with an amazing view of the opening of the Grand Canal. I would stay there again just to enjoy the sunrise over the San Giorgio Maggiore. The hotel is by no means cheap and the restaurant is also very expensive but for the location, the distinct room decorations and for the view of it is definetly a place worth spending a special occation in.
