Venice and the Gritti Palace

Our trip to Venice started with an hour layover in Milan, which I’d envisioned this as a glamorous layover enjoying an espresso in a charming train station coffee shop.  In actuality, we could barely find a place to stand without being jostled by teeming crowds while we waited, juggling cold slices of foccacia, bottled water, and our luggage while cigarette smoke wafted around us. So much for romance!

BUT…  Everything turned around when we arrived in Venice!  Stepping out of the train station into the bright sun, we walked a few short steps to the water taxi dock and found our driver, then set off. Within moments we were in the middle of the canal and almost overwhelmed with the sights – beautiful old palazzos with varied architecture, bridges, and so many boats! Water taxis, gondolas, vaporetti (water buses), delivery barges piled with laundry or groceries, police boats… the list goes on.

As we approached the end of the Grand Canal and the striking domed Santa Maria della Salute church, the Gritti Palace came into view – our home for the next few days. D’s parents had stayed there before he was born, and his mother recalls the way the bellhop showed them to their room, flung open the shutters, and sighed, “Isn’t the light beautiful?”  

The building was built in 1475, and became the Gritti Palace in 1525 when it was the residence of Doge Andrea Gritti. With the frescoed walls, Murano chandeliers, and antiques and art everywhere, I could imagine we were stepping back in time as we settled into our room… or rather, our suite. Thanks to our wonderful travel advisor, we were upgraded to a stunning corner suite overlooking the Grand Canal and a quieter side canal.

I spent hours on our Juliet balcony watching the comings and goings on the Grand Canal. The small canal we overlooked was filled with gondolas, often in both directions so it was interesting to see how they navigated the narrow space and the corner of our building, often by kicking off the wall to help guide their boats. Fun fact – gondolas are slightly banana-shaped to counterbalance the weight of the gondolier who stands on one side.

and the musical gondoliers whose route took them right under our windows – sopranos singing opera, accordionists, and a tenor belting out Volare.

A little cheesy? Yes, but listening to the music while gondolas float down the narrow canal feels just right.

As our first order of business, we headed down to the Riva Lounge for cocktails. I had a Bellini and we soaked in the atmosphere. Of course there were more gondolas to watch!

We ventured into the streets of Venice for the first time and crossed St Mark’s Square on the way to dinner at Vero, a lovely small restaurant with an Italian chef we’d met a few times in Tokyo, funnily enough. He’s back in Italy now and his cuisine is Venetian with has a hint of Japanese influence. We also had the wine pairing, mostly local from the Veneto region, which was fun.  Service was very personal and attentive and the chef came out to talk with us.

We walked home and had the best sleep in our quiet room.

I took a stroll in the morning to snap some photos while Dan slept in a bit, then we had breakfast on the terrace. It’s an impressive buffet, but knowing how much more eating was in our future I stuck to coffee and a slice of jewel-like fruit tart.

After breakfast we headed out for the day, our objective: meeting our guide at the Rialto Bridge at noon.  It’s not easy to navigate the twisting streets and bridges, even with Google, so we found ourselves at a few dead ends and definitely took some alternate routes here and there. 

We stopped along the way at a little paper and bookbinding shop, which was locked up – but the owner came to check what we wanted and ultimately let us in since we were only in town for the day.  He was otherwise closed to fulfill a large Christmas order for a longtime client.

We met our guide Mattia, a PhD in history specializing in the Middle Ages, and set off for a walking tour with stops along the way for cicchetti, small Venetian tapas that are enjoyed along with a splash of wine.  Mattia was a great guide and gave us a lot of additional history and tidbits about the city.  Similar to Japan, there are regional dialects in Italy with completely different vocabulary.  He said that when he’s in shops or restaurants he makes sure to clearly speak in Venetian dialect so he isn’t taken advantage of as an out of towner might be.

My favorite cicchetti were those made with baccala (whipped salt cod) and Dan liked the sarde in saor (fresh sardines and onion marinated in oil and vinegar).  Some interesting sights we saw included the Venice hospital (complete with boat ambulances, naturally) and the Jewish ghetto, marked with “stumbling stones” in front of the last residences of Jewish victims of the Nazis.  Mattia noted that Venice was a relatively safe place for Jews during WWII, as many residents hid their Jewish neighbors (including his own family).

At the end of our three hours together we were sweaty and tired and decided to hop in a water taxi to return to the Gritti (Mattia negotiated the price for us). We freshened up and rested a bit (well, I hung out at the window and watched the gondolas some more) before our final Venetian dinner.

I’ll leave you with a snippet of Volare. Close your eyes and imagine you’re in Venice!