VENICE, Italy — It was like Marco Polo the Venetian conquering a whole new world — DIY travel.
Aside from our plane tickets, which we booked through a travel agency, Corporate International Travel and Tours (CITTI), we planned a family trip to Italy and Greece all by ourselves.
We booked promotional business class tickets on Emirates Airlines, which meant we couldn’t pre-select our seats or use the lounge for free. But hey, all four of us were in the comfort of business class.
If you have a BPI Visa Signature Card, you and a guest may have complimentary use of the PAGGS Lounge in Terminal 3 and if you have a Security Bank Platinum card, you may use the Emirates lounge, too. You may also pay, with a discount, if you’re a Skywards member.
The helpful agent in Emirates check-in counter made an effort to seat all of us in one row — like solving a jigsaw puzzle — and all four pieces fit!
While I was getting settled in my seat, I misplaced my passport and a Filipina flight attendant — who turned out to be the purser — got on her knees to help search for it and found it tucked deep between the armrest and the seat cushion, like a needle in a haystack. Such impeccable service from Emirates.
On the flight from Dubai to Venice, the flight attendant also managed to seat my husband Ed and me together. Such solicitous service from the Emirates ground and flight crew in both connecting flights!
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We had never spent a night in Venice during our previous visits — we had always stayed on the mainland, like Mestre or on a cruise ship. Our son Chino quipped in the past that Venice was like visiting Disneyland — we only stayed for a day. This time, we spent four days and nights!
Six months before our trip, I booked an Airbnb not far from San Marco Square and Rialto Bridge — but still off the beaten path.
A three-bedroom, two-bath apartment, it was vintage charm with modern amenities. It also had a veranda with a thriller and a killer of a view: a meandering canal with gondoliers in their boats paddling at daytime. Surprisingly, it was not noisy.
Tip for those traveling to Venice — be prepared for an obstacle course with your luggage. Since we were going to be on a two-week trip around Italy, we had humongous pieces of luggage. It was an ordeal to haul them over cobblestone roads and the tiny bridges of Venice (we were lost — actually we only had one bridge to cross to our apartment, but it was a bridge seemingly too far.)
Ed, Chino and his then future fiancée Gi-Anne woke up early the next day and were rewarded with sunrise on an empty San Marco Square. It was a morning replete with money shots. So, for that IG or CapCut moment, be the early bird among the pigeons on San Marco and Rialto.
Don’t buy your euros from a money changer (better buy them in Manila). But in case you must exchange your dollars into euros, go to a bank.
A typical, lip-smacking meal for four in Venice, with Prosecco or wine, costs about 100 euros in a restaurant that is not on the main square. Wander through the alleys and go where the locals go. We booked a local guide Nico (+39 340 269 2866 on WhatsApp) who took us on a land and boat tour, taking us through the ribbons of water that wound all over Venice.
“Every corner looks like a painting,” swears Chino. “It’s oil on canvas — but real life.”
Nico took us to the Grand Canal, pointed out the churches (there are 137 churches on the island), the Aman Hotel where George and Amal Clooney wed, the palazzo where Anya Taylor-Joy got married, the museums, the private palazzos, the canals where the gang in The Italian Job made their “escape.” We passed through numerous bridges (Venice has 438), ducking several times below the pedestrian bridges. As Phil Rosenthal says in his travelogue on Venice, the best way to see the island is from the water. Indeed. You see the uniqueness of the city that you can describe either as islands on a lagoon or a lagoon interrupted by islands — 124 islands!
It is an ancient place, “you are walking on history,” says Nico. So much so that on the island there is no old town or new town. All the structures are centuries-old, but most residences and restaurants boast modern amenities.
We had lunch where the locals go — Antico Gatoleto — and it was “squisito” or exquisite
Chino and Gi-Anne had the best gelato in Venice in a gelateria called Suso.
Good coffee you can find anywhere — even with your eyes closed.
We also took a short boat ride to Dorsoduro, a slice of Venice but a place “all to yourself,” adds Chino. This is where he proposed to his long-time girlfriend Gi-Anne Agoncillo.
Dorsoduro is home to some of the city’s most renowned art collections, including Galleria dell’Accademia — which is packed with Venetian Renaissance works — and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which houses 20th-century art in a gorgeous palazzo setting. It is also a university district, but still not busy.
An hour’s boat ride away from San Marco is the storybook island of Burano, which Gi-Anne likened to “wandering through Technicolored dreams” with its rows and rows of colorful two-story homes flanking canals. It is also renowned for its artisanal lace, and I bought a tablecloth.
We also had a delicious lunch in a Michelin-star restaurant named Trattoria al Gato Nero, which had the best scampi pasta and grilled fish. The tiramisu was also divine.
But of course, San Marco and its renowned cathedral is the beating heart of Venice, and all arteries lead to it. Its facade is one of the most intricate and ornate in the world with its Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic elements.
If you’re visiting Venice, don’t stay for a day if you want a lifetime of memories.