Arrival
Rather than going by train, we took an EasyJet flight from Naples to Venice. It was cheaper and quicker than the train. The only downside was getting to Naples from Sorrento since our flight was at 10:15am. The Circumventia train runs early enough, but it does not go all the way to the airport, so getting there would still be difficult.

Fortunately, SITA runs a bus service from Sorrento directly to the Naples airport. The bus runs every 2 hours and it's an hour and a half ride, so we had to take a 6am bus - no breakfast at the hotel for us. It worked out nicely though; there was a bus stop in Piano, so we were hauling our luggage there when the bus went by on the way to Sorrento. The driver actually stopped and asked where we were going; he then picked us up and took us in. Didn't save us any time, but it saved us from waiting at the bus stop for 20 minutes. That was very nice.

As for the flight itself, it was delayed by about 1/2 hour, so we arrived in Venice's Marco Polo airport around noon. From the airport, you still have a good 45 minutes before you can actually get to Venice though. There are a few options - either a bus/taxi ride to the station on Venice's mainland (then vaporetto from there) or a direct Alilaguna water bus. We chose the Alilaguna line; it's 13 euro per person, but definitely a nice, easy way to get into Venice. And it stopped at San Zacharia, which was very near our hotel.

Hotel Campiello
Hotels in Venice are very expensive; rarely will you be able to find any decent hotel under 150 euro per night. We found Hotel Campiello online and booked a non-refundable room (which was considerably cheaper than normal) and it was still 160 euro per night. But we were very pleased with this place and highly recommend it to anyone.

A word of advice - print directions. I failed to (the one time I didn't), and even though the hotel ended up being just a short walk from the vaporetto stop, we walked for a while trying to find it - and it's very easy to get confused walking around Venice. Heather finally found it in one of our guidebooks and found the way; the hotel proved to be very convenient once we did.

It's located down a fairly quiet side street just off of the main canal-facing street by the San Zaccaria stop. It's extremely close to Piazza San Marco and in good proximity to the Rialto area too. The location is excellent. There's a good buffet breakfast and the staff were nice. We highly recommend Campiello.

Nothing Like It

Love it or hate it, there is nothing like Venice in the world. Just wandering the streets is an adventure; you are very likely to get lost at some point, and that's not always a bad thing. It can be frustrating, but it's usually fun and you're likely to come across something you haven't seen before.

For our first day, though, we stuck mostly to the main attractions. After getting settled in our hotel, we grabbed a bite to eat at a little bar close by, then headed to St. Mark's Square.


We got some pictures, then decided to buy the San Marco Museum Plus Pass - it's a 13 euro ticket that covers the Doge's Palace, Correr Museum, and one other Venetian museum (we chose Murano's Glass Museum). We bought the tickets at Correr (no lines there) and walked around that museum first. It was somewhat interesting - lots of Venetian history - but not necessarily a must-see (although Doge's Palace is, so since you have to buy a combo ticket, you might as well take a peek inside).

We walked around St. Mark's Square for a bit, then noticed that the line to St. Mark's Basilica was quite short, so we walked right into there. It's free to get in, but we later found that the lines get extremely long - we happened to pick a time late in the afternoon when we were able to practically walk right in. It's definitely a beautiful church, well-worth a visit while you're here.

Afterwards, we walked to the famous Rialto Bridge, the oldest of the four bridges that span the Grand Canal, and took a few pictures.

At this point, we didn't really want to plan anything out for the rest of the day, so we just walked. We went through Campo dei Frari, up and over the Ponte dell'Accademia (another one of the four bridges) all the way to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute (the church that lies at the mouth of the Grand Canal).


We ended our day with dinner at Trattoria Pizzeria Nono Risorto, a nice restaurant/pizzeria a little north of Rialto. It took us a while to find it, but it's a neat place - we actually came back here for lunch the next day.

To see all of our Venice pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.