Venice
Venice
About Venice
Italy is my 30th country on this trip, and I'm going to travel through several cities for around two weeks — Venice is my first stop in Italy. The biggest goal in Italy is trying as many Italian dishes as possible, since the country has a huge passion for its cuisine and I love it.
Venice is in northern Italy, known as the "City of Water," and it's also popular with Japanese tourists. The city is made up of small islands and canals, so small boats are the main means of transportation — water buses, taxis, and even ambulances.
Venice was founded around the 5th–6th century AD by refugees fleeing barbarian invasions on the Italian mainland, who built their city on 118 small islands scattered across a tidal lagoon. As the Venetian Republic (697–1797), it grew into one of medieval and Renaissance Europe's wealthiest maritime powers — a key gateway between East and West that controlled Mediterranean trade routes to Asia and produced figures like Marco Polo. The Republic finally fell to Napoleon in 1797, but Venice's unique island layout, palaces, and canals survive intact today as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Venice landmarks
The main activity in Venice is wandering around the town and enjoying the scenery in the small streets, which look like a maze — but there are still a few places worth seeing.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta ai Gesuiti (also known simply as "I Gesuiti") is an early 18th-century Baroque Jesuit church in Venice's Cannaregio district, built between 1715 and 1729 by architect Domenico Rossi. Its most striking feature is the interior of intricately inlaid green and white marble carved to look like draped damask fabric — even the pulpit and walls — an illusion so convincing it feels almost theatrical. The church also houses Titian's Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (1559), considered one of the great works of his late career.
The Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale) is the Venetian Gothic masterpiece on Piazza San Marco that served as the residence of the Doge — the elected ruler of Venice — and the seat of the Venetian Republic's government from the 14th century until the Republic's fall in 1797. Its pink and white marble façade and lacy arched colonnades define Venetian Gothic architecture, while inside the Great Council Hall hangs Tintoretto's monumental Paradise, one of the largest oil paintings in the world. The palace is connected to the old prisons by the famous Bridge of Sighs (Ponte dei Sospiri) — named for the last sighs of prisoners glimpsing Venice through its windows, and famously the site of Casanova's 1756 escape.
Unfortunately I didn't go inside due to the budget...
If you had to name one famous person from Venice, it would be Vivaldi, one of the most popular violinists of the 1600s. His best-known work The Four Seasons is performed all over the world, and I had a chance to attend a concert at the church where Vivaldi once learned and taught violin. The concert was mostly The Four Seasons and lasted about an hour — the music was wonderful, and it was the first time in my life I'd been to a violin concert.
Foods in Venice
Venice has plenty of great seafood and you can enjoy authentic flavors here. I have allergies so I could only try a limited range, but squid ink pasta was on my wish list and it finally came true. Squid ink pasta is called spaghetti al nero di seppia in Venice, and I learned that the color "sepia" actually comes from the name of cuttlefish (seppia), whose ink is used in the dish. The pasta was amazingly good — not fishy at all, perfectly balanced, and tempting enough to make me want to order another plate.
We also can't miss eating pizza in Italy. This local restaurant was reasonably priced, and I had a tre funghi (three-mushroom) pizza made with hand-rolled dough.
As for dessert, gelato is the go-to summer treat and you can find shops on every street. You can usually choose from more than 10 flavors (I think I ate gelato every day I was in Italy lol).
Venice was a truly unique place — I could really feel why it attracts so many people. Next stop is Bologna.
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