Venice Itinerary

Itinerary for a Day in Venice:

This is a complete list of how I spent 24 hours in the floating city.

See the Bridge of Sighs (see photo above). Legend has it that the white limestone bridge, built in 1600, was the passageway for prisoners being taken to their cells. As they crossed, they would sigh while they had their last glimpse of beautiful Venice, hence the name.
Buy an umbrella for 3 euros with gondolas embroidered around the edges, because it rains… a lot.
Eat Italian pasta in a Venetien restaurant. With your friends, of course.
Meals in Italy are often several courses as the dining experience is more about the company you are surrounded by than just the food you are eating.
Drink aperol spritz. Order this with your meal because it’s a digestive drink and means you can eat as though your stomach is a bottomless pit. Trust me when I say that you will want to clean off your plate, because everything is always delicious in Venice.
Cross the Rialto Bridge, and admire the view over the canal from the peak.
Navigate your way through the winding streets toward more food: GELATO! After tracing street names on a creased map with our fingers, we finally found the gelato store we had our eyes on, tucked into a tiny corner on a narrow street. 100% recommend the tiramisu and salted caramel.
Go on a gondola ride. This is a bucketlist experience that is entirely surreal, bobbing up and down on tourquoise-coloured water in a little black boat with plush red seats. It was incredible floating beneath bridges and seeing windows half-submerged and backdoors literally opening onto the water.
See a glass-blowing demonstration. My friends and I were ushered up a set of stairs to a little room in which a man was heating solid tubes of glass and simultaneously spinning them into magnificent shapes. I was blown away by the intricate glass horse he set on the table after just 10 minutes of work.
Go on a wine and tapas bar/history hop. Saluti! On a guided tour, my friends and I visited three bars each serving different wines. We nibbled on Italian tapas as our guide taught us the history of her little city. The most intriguing fact I remember was that Venice is built upon wooden platforms supported by stakes driven into the ground, 117 islands connected by canals and bridges.
Admire the city by night. Piazza San Marco, Venice’s main square, is surrounded by hundreds of strips of fairy lights that made it feel like we were wrapped in gold thread. It was ridiculously breathtaking.

53, 000 people get to wake up and call this floating city their home every single day, and if that isn’t extraordinary and worthy of appreciation, I don’t know what is. I feel so extremely grateful that I was privileged enough to spend even one day in Venice, as future generations may not have that same opportunity. Not only are sea levels rising and consequently flooding the city around four times a year, but the islands themselves are sinking, and may not exist at all in the next century.
Visit while you still can; you won’t regret it.