Venturing Through Venice: Kimble Adriatic Cruise Part One

Bryan Johnson
May 22, 2025
9 min read

It's been a little over a month since our last trip, so we've taken full advantage of the opportunity to enjoy our time with Hugo and Reynolds, especially while getting some sun in the yard or enjoying the sunset on the roof! It's almost like our pups knew we were traveling soon and their favorite dog sitter, Jessi, would be back!

May 7: Travel to Venice

Our trip started with our seemingly standard drive to Sevilla around 2:30 pm; don't tell anyone I left work two hours early for Katie and I to make our 6 pm flight to Venice!

Treviso Airport

In true Ryan Air fashion, they advertise this airport as "Venice," but in reality, it's a 30-minute train ride away in Treviso! As if the long journey ahead wasn't bad enough, the plane landed in an absolute downpour!

As we left the airport, a heavily advertised bus was parked right out front, taking passengers to Venice for €10/person! Being the public transit lover that I am, I refused to pay the fee and instead remained content on using the public bus and train to get us to Venice!

Katie had her doubts...and after spending €8/person, a significantly longer journey to Venice, and getting substantially wetter while waiting in the pouring rain for a bus, I have to admit, Katie was right. Sometimes it's best just to pay a little extra for convenience!

Treviso Train Station

We eventually made it to Treviso Station and onto Venice, arriving in town well after 10 pm. We eventually made it to our AirBnB where we were met by our host, who gave us a quick tour of the place!

While Katie and I's journey only lasted a few hours, nearly 4,000 miles away, Cindy and Richard were just beginning their 12+ hour trip across the pond!

May 8: Surrounding Venetian Islands Ferry Tour

Katie and I's morning started a little later with a 9 am wake-up! Around 10 am, I made my way to the airport to meet Cindy and Richard at the much closer Marco Polo International Airport. Katie chose to stay behind and save us the €20/person round-trip shuttle fee. Since I'm the navigation guru of the couple, I happily met the in-laws and got them into town!

Bacaro Quebrado

After some long-awaited greetings with the Kimble Crew, it was time to grab lunch, and the Kimbles arrived with the best surprise ever: some smuggled Chick-Fil-A sandwiches! What a treat! Katie and I enjoyed a bite of the U-S-of-A for lunch!

Just a two-minute walk from our Airbnb was Bacaro Quebrado, where Richard and Cindy shared a lunch of lasagna and pesto pasta along with some Hugo spritzes! When in Italy, you drink all of the spritzes, and we weren't waiting any longer to start that trend!

Following lunch, we slowly walked our way back toward the train station, where we met our boat for a 2:30 pm Venetian island excursion!

Murano Island

We first visited Murano Island, located just north of Venice! Murano is famous for its glassmaking, which has been produced there since the 13th Century.

Gino Mazzuccato

Our first stop on the island was at Gino Mazzuccato for a glass blowing presentation. Katie, Cindy, and Richard enjoyed seeing the talented craftsman blow glass to form a colorful drinking glass and a glass horse figurine.

You'll notice a picture of me with an AirPod in and my phone in hand; while the glass blowing presentation was going on, I was participating in a virtual surgical plan (VSP) for an oral surgery case coming up in the next couple of weeks! I may be on vacation, but this was a work call I didn't want to miss! Luckily I was able to half-watch the presentation while also seeing the glass-blowing demo.

Check out this video Katie captured of the glass blowing demonstration!

Torcello Island

The second stop of the tour, and the least interesting at the time, was Torcello Island. At the time of the tour, we had absolutely no idea what the significance of this place was. It had a small waterway, a few houses, and a church...nothing looked too special.

On our tour the following day, we learned that Torcello was the earliest settlement in the Venetian lagoon, predating Venice itself!

Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta

On the island is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the oldest church within the Venetian Lagoon, having been founded in 639 AD. Again, there wasn't a whole lot going on with this island and its 35 inhabitants, so we spent our 45 minutes of free time enjoying beer, peach Bellini, and wine that we bought from a food truck!

Burano Island

The final stop of our boat tour of the Lagoon was Burano Island, famously known for its colorful homes along the canal!

In Pescaria Vecia

After snapping some pics of "Rainbow Road," we made a pit stop for a spritz while enjoying the sun next to the Venetian Lagoon! (See, Spritzes run Italy, and we run on Spritz!)

SU e ZO Gelateria Pasticceria

As we made our way back to the boat for our return to Venice, we quickly grabbed some gelato for the trip! Nothing screams Italy more than gelato (and Spritz!)

Ae Oche San Giacomo

Once we made it back to Venice, it was dinner time! After a quick pit stop at the AirBnB, we made the short walk up the street to Ae Oche San Giacomo for a good meal of pizza and pasta!

Keep in mind, the Kimble parents just few 12 hours across the big pond, landed, and were immediately swept up into Katie's no-time-wasted trip! They deserve a medal for keeping up with us today!

May 9: Venice in a Day

The first full day in Venice came with an early start time. We were up and out of the house by 7:30 am!

Bar Rosa

We quickly grabbed coffee and breakfast at the cafe just next door to the AirBnB! Cindy swears this was her favorite cafe, but I think it was more the novelty of having restaurants in the same plaza as our home that made it so special!

Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto

At 8:30 am, we met up with our tour guide in the Rialto area. While we were off yesterday, island-hopping, the Vatican chose its next pope: Robert Prevost from Chicago! Pope Leo XIV is the first pope from America! As we walked around the city of Venice, we spotted Italian newspapers sharing the news.

Mercato di Rialto

Our first stop of the tour was the nearby Rialto Market, where we got to walk around and see Venice's most famous seafood market.

Ponte di Rialto

As we continued our journey, we crossed the Rialto Bridge, the oldest and most famous bridge in the city. This is also the main bridge crossing the Grand Canal of Venice!

Check out this short clip of some of the things we experienced in Venice, including boat watching from the Rialto Bridge!

Gondola Bacino Orseolo

One of the highlights of the day was a 20-minute gondola ride around Venice! Most gondola rides are incredibly expensive, so we were fortunate that our guided walking tour included this experience! (Way to go Katie on finding this gem of a tour!)

Bar Chiaranda

After our gondola ride, we were permitted 45 minutes of free time to grab a snack, so we stopped at Bar Chiaranda for an empanada, beer, and wine!

Piazza San Marco

Our tour began back at Piazza San Marco, one of the most recognizable landmarks of Venice, and adjacent to St. Mark's Cathedral and Doge's Palace!

Saint Mark's Basilica: Basilica di San Marco

Arguably, the highlight of the walking tour was St. Mark's Basilica, one of the most beautiful churches that Katie and I have had the opportunity to visit! (And we have visited a ton of churches around Europe!)

Built in 828 AD to house the relic of the Apostle Saint Mark, this basilica was primarily used as the private chapel for the elected leader of the Venetian Empire, also known as the Doge. In 1807, after Venice was conquered by Napoleon, St. Mark's Basilica became the city's cathedral, a role which it still holds to this day.

Inside the basilica, we were treated to beautiful mosaic tiles covered in gold leaf, similar to the tiles we saw in Istanbul within the Hagia Sofia. This would make sense because both Cathedrals were built by the Byzantines during the height of their empire! Although contested by some, it is largely believed that the remains of the Apostle Mark are held within the basilica; it's cool that we are standing in the presence of the remains of a man who walked and talked with Jesus!

Doge's Palace: Palazzo Ducale

Just adjacent to St. Mark's Basilica is the Doge's Palace, the elected leader of the Venetian Empire! Although the interior left a little to be desired when compared to its neighbor, the basilica, the views of the waterways from the palace were stunning! Also, an important pop culture reference: numerous scenes from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning were filmed within Doge's Palace!

Just next door to the palace was the most notorious prison in Venice for political and criminal offenders! I don't know who decided to build a prison connected to the home of the political leader of the Empire, but that doesn't seem like the most intelligent logistical choice.

Another fun fact: the city of Venice is known for its stone letterboxes. Formerly recognized as lions (like the one destroyed below by Napoleon) and then others decorated as theater masks, these stone letterboxes had open-mouthed slots for people to submit written grievances to the courts. These letter boxes used to be placed all over the city as a way for people to report crimes to the government!

When Napoleon took over Venice, he destroyed all signs of the lion from the city's decoration. For ages, the Venetian symbol was a lion, and we will see Venice's impact on other Adriatic countries later in our trip!

After exploring the interior of the palace and the prison, we ended our tour in the most impressive part of the palace, the courtyard. Unfortunately for me, a seagull decided to go B-52 bomber with its bowels just over top of me. After a good laugh from the rest of the gang, they cleaned the bird scat off my shirt sleeve and had me good as new!

You can also see, pictured below as proof, what Cindy's favorite angle was within the walls of Doge's Palace! That's right folks, my mother-in-law is a butt lady!

Bridge of Sighs: Ponte dei Sospiri

Immediately following the end of our tour, we jumped over to grab a picture of the Bridge of Sighs, the bridge that connects Doge's Palace with the prison I mentioned earlier.

The last few pictures above show us crossing the Bridge of Sighs from inside the palace, just like ancient prisoners did as they spotted the last bit of sunshine before entering the dungeon cells.

Giardini Reali

With our 7-hour tour of the city over, it was now time to look for some local art. Just a short walk up the waterway, numerous local artists were out selling their work! Each couple walked away with another beautiful watercolor for their collection!

Libreria Acqua Alta

With sore feet from our long day of standing, it was time to slowly start making our way back to the AirBnB! While doing their research before arriving in Venice, Katie and Cindy found a bookstore with a gondola and numerous cats roaming throughout, so of course, we had to check out this quaint place along the way.

Located in a lower part of the city, Libreria Acqua Alta is known to flood anytime it rains. As a way to combat the floodwaters, the bookstore doesn't use traditional shelves to display their books- instead, they use old gondolas and bathtubs!

Trattoria Da Gigi

After hours of walking around the city, everyone (especially me) was starting to get hangry, so we needed to find food fast! Fortunately, we found some good food just up the street at Trattoria Da Gigi! Of course, we got pizza and pasta, we're in Italy!

Just FYI for others traveling to Venice: Venetian cuisine is mainly seafood, so most restaurants are known for their shellfish pasta dishes. Our gang is less shellfish-inclined, so we stuck with the classic Italian options during our stay!

Santa Maria Formosa: Parrocchia di Santa Maria Formosa

As we continued to make our way back to the house, we ran across Santa Maria Formosa, a church that was used during the filming of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Here's a clip showing many of the places we visited today that were in the film! Towards the 3:40 timestamp, you can see the Santa Maria Formosa bell tower as Tom Holland tries to save it from crumbling!

Polo Urban Bookshop

Our final stop of the evening just happened to be a book shop! While Cindy was the main one who wanted to go look, Katie found two new covers of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that we had never seen before! Of course, we snagged them for our collection, even though we already have an Italian copy!

Katie justified it by saying we have visited six different parts of Italy and already have two more trips planned for the summer. Apparently, her logic is: we can own a few copies of the same language if the covers are unique and we have visited the country at least that many times.

Our collection now has over 30 books, and we are hoping to get two more on this trip, as we are set to visit Montenegro and Croatia!

After showers, we spent the rest of the evening drinking wine and spritzes while playing games on the back patio! What a great way to end our time in Venice.

May 10: Checkout of Venice AirBnB

The following morning, we had a slower start with an 11 am checkout time from our AirBnB! After some coffee made in the mokka pot, it was time to head to the cruise terminal and get this party started! That's right: Venice was just the first stop for us as we venture through the Adriatic Sea aboard a 7-night cruise!