Metropolitan City of Venice travel guide and discussion

Celebrating 610 days of travelling with Trip.com: Together, we've explored 23 cities worldwide; in 2025, I unlocked 20 new cities and was honoured with the title of Voyage Virtuoso#2025travelstory My favourite places to visit were Malta, Portimaõ /Algarve and Amsterdam!

Riding a gondola in Venice is a once in a lifetime romantic experience, that's why so many visitors have it high up in their bucket list! During my visit I collected useful Infos on prices and tips to share with anyone planning on visiting Venice and interested in riding a gondola. Standard official daytime gondola rates in Venice are €90 for a 30 minute private ride, while nighttime (from 7pm) tours cost €110 for 35 minutes. Official pricing is per boat (holding up to 5–6 passengers) rather than per individual! If you want to extend the time of your ride, prices are: €40 for an extra 20 minutes during the day and €50 at night. It's possible to share a ride for prices around €35 to €40 per person, this option needs to be booked via tour providers. ✨Practical Tips!!✨ · Confirm the price and duration first! Always agree on the route, length, and exact cost with the gondolier before stepping onto the boat. · Singing is extra! Standard rides do not include live singing or musical instruments unless explicitly negotiated and paid for beforehand. · Avoid main-stamped hubs for quiet routes! Boarding away from San Marco or the Rialto Bridge and choosing smaller neighborhood canals, offers a quieter, more romantic atmosphere. · Ride away from Canal Grande! You can take a public ferry ride for 10€ to ride the whole length of the main Venice canal, take advantage of that and use your gondola ride to explore more hidden, private and romantic smaller canals instead! · Budget alternative!!!! Use a traghetto dock if you just want the experience of riding inside a real gondola without paying the steep private tourist price (2€pp only, the gondola will only cross the canal and not give you a tour) Enjoy your visit and your gondola ride!! 📍Venice, Italy #travel2026 #travel #couplestrip #thingstodo #familytravel #citydaytours #venice #italy #venezia #gondola #gondolaride #traveltips #italytravel #romanticgetaway #canalgrande

Celebrating 2,374 days of travelling with Trip.com: Together, we've explored 22 cities worldwide; in 2025, I unlocked 12 new cities and was honoured with the title of Voyage Virtuoso#2025travelstory

#underratedspots I skipped the polished showrooms and went for a raw walk near the Murano glass furnaces, specifically around the Colussi area where the heat hits you like a physical wall before you even see the sparks. I was maybe ten feet from a fornace(furnace) when a gust of heat rolled out—around 1300°C inside—and I swear I saw a shower of molten gold sparks fly upward like fireflies before vanishing. A glass maestro stepped out, wiping sweat with a soot-streaked rag, and grinned at my wide eyes, saying, "The island breathes fire, you just have to stand close enough." The smell of burning soda ash and the rhythmic whooshof the bellows were intoxicating in a primal way. It’s messy, loud, and dangerously hot—nothing like the delicate vases in the shop windows. It got me thinking: is the real art of Murano in the finished glass, or in the terrifying, spark-filled seconds where it’s still liquid and alive in the maestro’s hands? If you’ve watched a live glass blow, did the heat make you respect the craft more, or did the sparks make you want to run for the air-conditioned gallery?

#TravelGuide #EuropeTravel #Italy #Venice A city on the sea, comprised of over 120 islands, embark on a romantic trip to Venice, Italy. Already renowned as one of the world's most beautiful cities, Venice is even more stunning when viewed from various observation decks. Take a water bus or taxi to enjoy the beauty of Venice. And don't forget to try their famous gelato and squid ink pasta!

#overratedspots #overratedspots Everyone hypes Erberia as this “authentic green market soul of Venice” right by the Rialto, and I bought into it completely. I arrived at mid-morning imagining a poetic path of banana leaves, citrus scent drifting from crates of Sicilian oranges, and locals bargaining over artichokes from Sant’Erasmo. What I actually found was a chaotic stone quay baking under the sun, where the orange peel scent was competing aggressively with the smell of fish guts from the nearby market and the exhaust of moored motorboats. I stood there holding a melting gelato, wedged between a tour group doing a scavenger hunt and a gondolier yelling at a delivery guy, thinking: is this the “herbal heartbeat of Venice” or just a humid loading dock with better architecture? Here’s the real story that made me side-eye the hype. I watched a vendor casually toss a rotting banana leaf cluster into the canal, right next to a row of tragically picturesque wooden poles. A tourist gasped like she’d seen a cardinal sin; the vendor just shrugged and said something in Venetian that probably translated to “welcome to reality.” Meanwhile, the influencers were lying on the stones trying to get the “aesthetic banana leaf flat lay” shot without getting gondola grease on their linen dresses. I stayed for an hour, hoping the atmosphere would shift. It didn’t. The orange peel scent only hit in sharp, occasional bursts when the wind changed, and mostly it smelled like diesel, old rope, and overripe melons. I ended up fleeing to a cramped bacaro just to breathe air that didn’t remind me of a compost bin with a view. I’m not saying Erberia is terrible—sunset there can be genuinely pretty when the Grand Canal turns gold—but calling it a “banana leaf & orange peel scented path” feels like aggressive marketing poetry. It’s gritty, smelly, and oddly loud for a place everyone describes as “tranquil market charm.” Have you ever had a Venice spot that smelled completely different (and worse) than the blogs promised, or am I the only one who got hit in the face by a rogue whiff of fish and citrus at Erberia?