Venice in 7 Hours

First of all seven hours is NOT enough time to explore Venice thoroughly. But that is all the time we had in the city built on water and we packed in as much as we could.

Second of all, Venice is extremely crowded during season, which may seem like a "duh, of course" observation for most. I had heard that it was crowded and there would be a lot of people there, but it's different when you actually see it.

I would suggest going in the shoulder season or off season if you're looking when to go to Venice. I visited in August 2013; not only was it teeming with people but it was sweltering hot with high humidity. While these may seem like negatives, it did not take away from how much fun I had while there.

My visit was with a tour group for other people my age and the small group I hung out with enjoyed ourselves, getting "lost" in the city (you can't really get lost because there are signs that point you in the direction you need to get to), exploring the touristy areas and holding pigeons.

Here is my guide to how I spent my seven short hours in Italy.

Vecchia Murano Glass Factory



While I'm sure the tour group gets nice commission for anything that the group purchases, the Vecchia Murano Glass Factory is actually pretty interesting. They started us off by showing us a glass blowing demonstration and a worker there fashioned a rearing horse right in front of us in about ten minutes. It was amazing how much detail he got into the piece of art in such a short time.

After the short demonstration, we got to walk around the huge store. Almost everything is made of glass, which is my nightmare because I'm extremely accident prone, but I managed to make it out without breaking anything! A small and insignificant triumph for most people, but I assure you, it's no small triumph for me.

Anyways, the store held all kinds of trinkets, from jewelry to masquerade masks to kitchen ware and glass made animals. There was no shortage. I managed to escape the store only purchasing a beautiful necklace for my mother. Watch out for the sales people; they are very persuasive (as most are, but people tend to get more easily trapped when they are on vacation).

Walk through the City with a Guide



While I would probably recommend this for a good bit of cities, I'm not sure I would recommend it for this one for the only reason that there are so many people and you can barely hear what the guide is saying.

After the glass factory, we were met by a sweet lady that was going to guide us around the city and point out the major sites and give us background information on everything. Headsets and maps were passed around to everyone in our group and we set off.

I liked this because the guide spoke through a microphone, which we could listen through our headsets. Had I been able to hear our guide, I may have actually enjoyed this walk more. The headset piece wouldn't stay stay in my ear and the volume didn't go up hardly at all, so I couldn't hear a word of what she was saying. I tried to stay as close to her as I could but ended up constantly falling behind, wanting to take pictures of what she was showing us. It's also very loud in the city due to all of the tourists but when we got to the less crowded areas, hearing the guide wasn't an issue.



If you plan to do a walk through of the city with a guide, stay close, ask questions, try to be in a small group and strike up a conversation with the guide. You'll be amazed at what you can learn from them.

Doges Palace

I'm sad to say that while I did go inside and got to see some amazing art, we only got about 30 minutes to walk through the palace. Which meant we pretty much walked at a steady pace the entire way through the palace because it's HUGE and we ended up not stopping very much to enjoy the history of it.



My advice if you want to spend some time in here, don't spend time walking through the gorgeous alleyways of Venice, unless you plan to spend more than one day there. Use your short time to walk through and learn all about the history of the Palace. If I ever go back to Venice, I will probably spend a quarter of my day in the place.

It's astounding how big and amazing this palace is and I am glad I just got the opportunity to visit it.

Gelato Stop!



Gelato is a must in Italy. Don't be stupid like me and only order one flavor the entire time (ahem, chocolate). Ask for recommendations from the seller of the gelato. My friends did and the orange flavor the guy recommended was amazing compared to my plain old chocolate (which mostly just tasted like ice cream from back home).

Gondola Ride

This was an added bonus for us while we were there and the reason we only got thirty minutes at Doges. The gondola ride was very nice. While we weren't serenaded in any way by our guide (super bummer), we got to float along through the canals and see what a sinking city looks like.



Taking the Gondola ride was also a nice break from the sweltering humidity and sun since most of the ride was in the shade. It cost about $25 per person because we added champagne to the ride, but you can do it cheaper than we did; we just decided we wanted to try and be classy.

St. Mark's Campanile



At the end of the day, our group enjoyed a trip to the top of St. Mark's Campanile. It was discounted for our group since we had so many people going up and it only cost $5 per person. It's usually $8 per person but the views are well worth it.

You can see all of St. Mark's Square and much of the city. The breeze up there is a sweet relief from the heat as well.





We stayed up at the top for as long as we could and shuffled our way to the line waiting for the elevator back down.



I really didn't want to leave. Much of the city was unexplored and we just had too little time there. When I go back, I will be spending time re-exploring Doges Palace, visiting St. Mark's Basilica (which is said to make you richer by just walking in because of all the gold you breath in) and getting "lost" throughout the city and exploring the shops.

Venice is a gorgeous city with many different sites to explore that require your attention. Take the time the city deserves to be explored and learn about the history of what's there. I wish I had the time and one day I will go back to visit again and explore all of the places I missed.