Venice was the first stop on my father/daughter backpacking trip. We arrived at the Venice-Treviso airport with daylight to spare but get into Venice until 11:30pm after our first bus pulled into the airport parking lot spewing smoke. haha. So our first sight of Venice was at night which was beautifully lit and less crowded, with the last few cafes and bars starting to clean up and close. We stayed at Hotel Stella Alpina which was comfortable and close to the train station. Best of all, it had a beautiful little walled garden with wisteria hanging over a trellis that was lovely to sit and eat our breakfast under.

Only about %20 of Venice is really touristy and those spots are super busy, so my Dad avoided those places for the most part. We just peaked our heads in quickly to see San Marco and the Rialto Bridge and spent the majority of our time happily getting lost on almost empty side streets of Venice. We had fun finding hidden gardens and allies as we happily clicked photos. My Dad was the perfect travel partner for this trip seeing as we both love photography. We were on a quest; Venice was the treasure chest and our photos were the jewels. So we were more like pirates than tourists.

Venice, Italy is a unique world of its own. When you first step out onto a Venice street in the day and see a canal in front of you with a gondola pushing past, you feel like you’ve stepped into a fantasy novel. With ferry buses, water taxis, fishing boats and gondolas all sharing the larger canals and grand canals, it’s an amazing site to behold. Standing on a bridge over a canal and looking out can have you transfixed watching all of the activity below.

I left Venice wanting more which is always a good thing (especially since it was my second trip there). I’ll be back for more, I’m sure.

Check out our next stop on our Italy Adventure: Burano!