June 14-16: Venice Lido, Italy
You had a work trip to Venice, so we decided to spend the weekend together there before that started. Paige, very kindly, offered their place in Venice Lido for the weekend. It was AMAZING.
I had been to Venice a very long time ago, but didn’t remember much. We travelled there by train which was long, but comfortable and easy. We arrived at the train station and it was super hot - we caught the local ferry out to Venice Lido, which took another hour. We were pretty beat by the time we arrived, but both the town and the apartment were so lovely that we perked right up.
We took a walk around the island and decided to stick around for dinner. On our way out, we discovered a small bar close the ferry dock that happily served us Campari spritzes and a basket of potato chips. It was perfect. We headed to La Favorita for dinner - it was fancier than we expected, but they were very nice and had a table available for us. The food was delicious - we started with crab and baby shrimp appetizers which I recall outstripping the mains. The best part was that they had a live band that was playing hilarious 90s music covers. All in all, it was just the best.
On Saturday, we headed in to the city to explore - we wandered from the Biennale Gardens up through Piazza San Marco. It was all beautiful, but also super crowded and hot. At some point we ducked in to a small bar, which was an excellent find. They made a delicious Campari spritz and had some nice light lunch options. We continued on up over the Ponte Di Rialto. Burned out from the crowds and heat, we headed back over to Lido to relax for a while. We had dinner reservations in Venice that night, so headed back that way. Dinner was at a nice wine bar and then we went to Il Mercante for a cocktail. It was a beautiful evening out and the crowd from the bar had spilled out in to the street, so we managed to snag a table. The cocktails were bizarre, but tasty.
We decided to have a relaxing day on Sunday, so we slept in and then headed to the local beach to rent an umbrella and chairs. We weren’t entirely sure how it worked, but we showed up at a local spot, fumbled our way through in non-Italian, and were shown to our chairs and umbrella. Success! The beach was beautiful and felt very non-touristy. We drank some beers in the sun and walked up to the little clubhouse for lunch. Overall, a delightful way to spend a day. In the evening, we went back to our favorite spot for Campari spritz and then to Ristorante Andri (per Paige’s recommendation!) for a stellar seafood dinner. It ended with homemade fruit liquors of all kinds of varieties. Made for a rough morning, but 100% worth it.
