The Wandering Wedding Photographers, Pt. II | Destination Wedding Photographers in Venice, Italy
Follow us through Verona in The Wandering Wedding Photographers, Pt. I here!
Here's something we didn't know about Italy. For all of their enlightenment and art and incredible contributions to modern culture, they've been able to largely avoid teaching English as a second language across the country! We made the mistake of not learning any Italian before we went, which made it reeeeally difficult to do basic things like buy gas and groceries. So we just kept wandering around until we found somebody who knew enough English to help us, but they were few and far between.
Our next trip - We're going to tour the West Coast of Italy, rent scooters, go wine-tasting (because hopefully I won't be pregnant next time), and stay in one of the medieval castles we drove by!
BUT FIRST, VENICE.
When we went to Italy to shoot Sophie and Stefano's wedding, we only had 74 hours on the ground and we wanted to make the most of it. Venice was one of two major cities we visited. And wow, the old city of Venice was NOT what we expected. We jumped on a bus outside our AirB&B (more on that in another post), and didn't notice until halfway to the old city that we were supposed to buy our bus tickets before boarding. (Sorry Italy. We paid for the trip back, I promise.) You can't drive to the old city - you can only get there by bus or train. And it was insanely crowded. As soon as we got ourselves untangled from everyone else on the bus, we decided to start walking towards Piazza San Marco which was about a mile from the bus stop. Normally, that shouldn't be a big deal, but being 11 weeks pregnant, I just couldn't do it. We gave up, slowed down, and soaked in what we could get.
The crowds of thousands of people mostly stayed close to the bus terminal. Once you cross three or four bridges toward the center of the city, the tourists disappear and you get to see the real Venice, the locals who still live in the floating city, the small town vibes in an ancient metropolis that's all but cut off from conveniences like Fed-Ex delivery or supermarkets. We could have spent weeks exploring the hundreds of canals and thousands of tiny streets!
But we didn't have weeks, we had until sunset. So we walked and enjoyed the amazing architecture and then - how could we tour Venice and not go on a gondola ride?? Our gondoliere was awesome and gave us a long, quiet tour even though sunset is prime time for those guys. The gondola ride is what made Venice worth the trip!