As promised I will post reports on our recent trip to Italy. Here's a report on our stay in Venice. Having been there before our only must see was the Basilica. We arrived on Sun. 9-6, thanked the luggage Gods for our bags being on the carousel, and took the 95 euro water taxi, getting our "gondola" ride in the process. We went through little backstreet canals to Casa Santa Maria Formosa, where we've stayed before. We like this hotel as it's 1/2 way between St. Mark's and Rialto Bridge. We stayed in a new ly opened area of the hotel up 3 steep flights of stairs, and the bed was rock hard, so will make sure they put us in a softer bed if we go again. One perk is the contents of the mini bar are included; another is ham and cheese at breakfast, not just pastries which my husband doesn't like. For dinner we ate at the little restaurant on Campo Santa Maria Formosa--just okay pizza, fun waiters.
Day 1, we walked over to St. Mark's square after leaving our bags at the hotel as we were early & room wasn't ready, wandered around the square, window shopped and took a peek at the gondola station behind it. On the walk back we stopped at Bar Cavatapi on a little side street for drinks and to watch the parade of tourists walking by. It was great watching the Italians on vacation with their kids. Had dinner at Il Giardinetto, lovely setting, delicious seafood, attentive service, but fairly empty at 7:00. Every night we ended up eating later and later because we didn't want to be the only diners!