The light of the sun was slowly fading when we arrived in Piazza Roma, the entrance to Venice if you are coming in by land. This European trip is work related for my husband. I just tagged along as everything was organized for us. We were booked in a hotel in Mestre (just across the causeway from Venice) and a hotel transport was arranged to drop us off in Piazza Roma and we are on our own from there.
So let me share with you our adventure as we went out to Venice on our own at night. There are no roads for cars in Venice. We can either go on foot or take a boat.

This is Venice with canals and bridges everywhere.
I hadn’t done any bookings at all, and hadn’t read anything about Venice – what to do and how to get around to the places we are going. We didn’t really know much about anything in Venice, so the first thing we did was look at a map in one of the shops in the square. The shop owner was really helpful, he told us that we can ride a vaporetto (water taxi) and go to Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square) where everyone goes.
We followed what the shop owner suggested and took a water taxi that cruises along the main canal of Venice.

This is our first view of a vaporetto (not such a good photo at night). I have a better photo of a vaporetto in my next post about Venice by day.
Let me show you some of the illuminated buildings that we saw as we cruised along the Grand Canal of Venice.

Fondaco dei Turchi “The Turk’s Inn” – constructed in the first half of the 13th century is apparently an example of a Veneto-Byzantine architecture. Currently it houses the Museo de Astoria Naturale (Natural History Museum of Venice).

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, this church was proposed in 1630 by the government of Venice as a response to the plague, which had already killed about a third of the city’s population. The church is a promised offering in honor of “Our Lady of Health” (which was Mary) if she would free the city from the plague. After the epidemic had subsided, the Senate kept its promise and construction of the church soon started. ‘Salute’ is Italian for health or well-being.
Unfortunately most of our photos were not so good as we did not have a camera that can take better photos at night.
By the time we arrived in St Mark’s Square we were so hungry we looked at places to eat rather than admiring the square. We saw that the restaurants had window displays that show their wares.

Mozzarella cheese with water constantly running through it (I don’t know why they do this). The soothing sound of the water is a contrast to the rumblings in my stomach.

We found a little Italian restaurant in one of the side streets near the square. We had a nice albeit funny (in a weird way) waiter. He has long black wiry hair that I think he is trying to tame by wearing a hat. He looked more like a pirate than a waiter, actually he reminded me of the character Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. My husband wanted a hot chocolate but the waiter said “don’t you want coffee instead?” (because they don’t have hot chocolate in their menu). My husband said he didn’t want coffee that late at night, so the waiter said he will personally make the hot chocolate. After a few minutes he brought with him a tall glass of hot cocoa with the sickeningly sweetest hot chocolate my husband had ever tasted.
After the meal we thank the waiter for his ‘very personal service’ 🙂 we ventured out to look at the square. This was about 10 o’clock at night. Only a handful of people were in the square.

Piazzetta dei Leoncini an open space on the north side of the church named after the two marble lions presented by Doge Alvise Mocenigo in 1722.

The lights were on and the moon was out. Holding hands we sat down in the steps of the building and just let the atmosphere seeped in. The music from the violin in a nearby restaurant wafted through our ears while the age old buildings illuminated by the lights stand tall and we can see the church at the end of the square almost like a silent witness of what is happening between us. It felt so magical and enchanting.

It’s true what was said that the best way to see Venice is at night when there aren’t that many tourists around.

It was a mesmerizing moment that we captured in our memories. As I write about that night so many moons ago, I could still remember what it felt like. I think that is why we travel, to gain experiences, and there were moments like that in Venice that stay with us.
Other posts about ITALY:
LAKE COMO – day trip and transport strike (1 of 2)
LAKE COMO – day trip and transport strike (2 of 2)
A night out in VENICE —>You are here
VENICE (1 of 3): A city with no cars – visited during the Regata Storica
VENICE (2 of 3): St Mark’s Square –Where everyone goes
VENICE (3 of 3): Gelatos and Masks
Travel Photo of the Week 8
Travel Photo of the Week 13
Text & Photos by Alicia Davis