Northern Italy in November: 7-Night Vacation Itinerary

For our typical Thanksgiving week trip (that we have done for many years but unfortunately missed in 2020 for obvious reasons…), we were balancing being able to do *something* due to the 2021 fall/winter covid wave breaking out in Europe, and the fact that Europe in the fall/winter is typically filled with indoor activities. We looked into various locations and determined that Italy, with the lowest covid cases at the time and the best weather for outdoor activities, was going to be the best location for our trip!

We decided to explore Northern Italy, with plans to land in Milan and rent a car to drive straight to Verona for 3 nights, then drive over to Venice for 3 nights, and back to Milan for another night before flying over to Finland to connect to our return flight home (while staying 2 nights as basically a really long stop-over).

In this post, I will be detailing our 7-night Northern Italy vacation itinerary in November, and in the next post I’ll dive into the Finland portion of the trip.

Day 0: Flight into Milan

After an exhausting travel night/day from GSP-DTW and then from DTW-LHR, and then after missing our scheduled flight from LHR to LIN, which James detailed in a prior post, and having to sit in London Heathrow Airport for an extra 8 hours more than planned, we finally flew the short flight over to Milan (LIN). Since we were now landing much later than planned, we decided to book a hotel near the airport instead of our original plan to drive straight to Verona, which we would do first thing in the morning the next day.

Flying over the Italian alps at night was pretty glorious, even while cloudy.

After we landed, we went straight to getting our rental car and driving the 3 minutes over to the Moxy Milan Linate Airport hotel. We were exhausted and very stressed out, as this was our biggest trip since covid hit, and we had a bunch of snags that almost made us turn around and go home.

But alas, we landed in Milan and celebrated (?) with a beer from the hotel to-go cold case up in our room before crashing for the night.

Day 1: Verona

The next morning, we drove the 1.5 hours over from Milan LIN airport to the city of Verona. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and slightly chilly but not too chilly.

We arrived at our hotel right near the Verona city center, and were able to park our rental car at a valet parking garage a few blocks down. We checked in and got ready to walk around the city.

Verona Sightseeing

We were only a few blocks away from the ancient Roman walls surrounding the old city center.

Right after the Roman entrance is the Arena di Verona, which is an ancient Roman amphitheater built in 30 AD. It looks very similar to, although smaller than, the Colosseum in Rome which was built a bit later in 70-80 AD.

The Arena di Verona however is still being used today for live performances, although probably much tamer ones than the ancient Romans were doing.

After wandering around the Arena for a bit, we decided to check out the small streets that pinwheeled off of the large piazza surrounding the Arena. It was very crowded in Verona, which I was surprised about, but we found out that was due to there being a marathon scheduled for the next day.

We headed down to Piazza Erbe, which was where one of the few Christmas markets were going on.

There was another Christmas market in nearby Piazza dei Signori, which is the main one in Verona, but there was a long line to get in so we decided to come back later to shop around and get some dinner at one of the food stalls when all of the lights were on and the area would be filled with “Christmas magic”.

Since it was close to sunset, I wanted to check out the view from Castel San Pietro, which is a really popular overlook spot across the main river Adige.

First, we had to cross over the famous Ponte Pietra bridge.

We stopped to take some photos and pick up some art from a local artist that had a booth in a mini Christmas market on the bridge. The art we bought was a drawing from this exact perspective, which I though was super cool.

Once we hiked up the short but hilly pathway (with some stairs) to the top of Castel San Pietro, we were awarded with a gorgeous view of the city with the close-to-setting sun giving some amazing lighting for photos.

There’s also a funicular (funicolare di Castel San Pietro) you can take up instead of walking but we decided it wasn’t worth the few Euros and it was almost closing time anyway.

It’s no wonder Shakespeare was inspired to write Romeo & Juliet, one of the most “romantic” written works, here because it was quite romantic…other than the construction crane in the way of course.

I guess I didn’t take a picture of it, but there was a cafe/bar up at the top where we sat to enjoy the view and get a beer (for James) and try an Aperol spritz for the first time.

Verona Christmas Market

Shortly before dark, we headed back down towards the Christmas markets so we could grab some dinner.

The Christmas market in Piazza dei Signori fed into a beautiful courtyard, Cortile del Tribunale, where they were selling food and drinks, including hot mulled wine.

James got a beer and a reindeer chili, and I got a hot mulled wine and a ham and cheese sandwich.

We exited the Christmas market after filling our tummys, and wandered through the main part of the market to see if there was anything we wanted to buy for ourselves and family. We love doing part of our Christmas shopping at these markets and bringing home special gifts for our family.

We got a few things but it was pretty crowded since it was the first night of the market, so we decided to head out and come back the following night for more shopping.

On our way back toward the hotel, we stopped at a small cafe/bar for a nightcap beer and wine, which seems to be a common thing to do in Italy. We then walked back through the piazza next to the Arena, out of the Roman walls, and back to our hotel.

Day 2: Lago di Garda (Lake Garda)

On our second day in Verona, we decided to take a day trip to drive around Lago di Garda, which was a short drive away.

It was a bit cloudy and drizzly but this was the only day we had to do this, and I wanted to check out a few of the small towns near the lakeside. I was worried that we wouldn’t see any of the mountainous landscape that I’ve heard so much about on these lakes (also around Lake Como).

Malcesine

Our first stop was Malcesine, which is only an hour and 10 minute drive from Verona. We parked and walked a short bit to the center of the little ancient village. We were here during the (very) off-season so we hardly saw anyone around, and most of the shops and restaurants were closed. It was also a Sunday, so I’m sure that didn’t help us.

It was a really pretty little town though, with winding, hilly streets and a few piazzas.

Our main reason for coming to this town was to check out the medieval castle, Castello Scaligero di Malcesine, which overlooks the lake.

Unfortunately we couldn’t tour inside the castle because it was closed due to covid, and also probably the off-season, but we walked around the grounds and checked out the views. Also unfortunately I was correct in that the clouds would be obscuring most of the mountain views from the lakeside. It was still beautiful though!

There was this little beach area at the bottom of the castle that we assumed would normally be mobbed with people during the summertime.

I could just imagine kids jumping off of the little cliffside, and there was also a rope hanging off of the cliff for some good ole rope-swinging into the water.

We walked down toward a larger beach area outside of the castle grounds to get a glimpse of the castle against the water’s edge.

The view of the castle at the other end of the beach was really cool, seeing it perched up over the water, a good spot to watch for enemies out on the lake. Later on in the trip when we stopped at Sirmione, another small medieval town on the lake, we would learn that all of the little towns on the lake would constantly battle each other, which is why they built these defense fortresses.

After viewing the castle, we headed into the main part of town and walked over to a marina.

There was this old sailboat/ship in the marina next to a modern ferry that would normally take passengers across the lake to other towns, but was not in operation for the off-season.

We wondered how much it would cost to store your boat in this marina!

It was too bad the clouds were so low because it seems like we would have had a really nice view across the lake!

Torri del Benaco

After leaving Malcesine we decided to drive back south toward Verona and stop at another town, Torri del Benaco. We hoped that there would be more going on there since it looked like a slightly larger town.

We parked next to the Castello Scaligero in a nice parking lot, and walked around the town.

This town also had a nice marina with a lot of little boats. There were also a lot of interesting trees around.

Unfortunately, it was also quite dead and we were getting hungry. Not only was it the off-season, and Sunday, but we were also walking around in the middle of the afternoon, which in Italy is also when the shops and restaurants usually close up for a few hours between lunch and dinner (also known as nap time).

We walked around the Castello Scaligero a bit and took in the neat medieval architecture of this castle/fortress.

We ended up finding a nice gelato shop in town so we got ourselves a nice gelato snack/lunch! James chose chocolate and I chose hazelnut.

As we were walking back to the car, we noticed a ferry that was about to launch, so we sat and watched it depart.

I guess there is at least one ferry running this time of year!

Lazise

Since it was still early, we decided to check out one more town. We chose Lazise because it looked like there was a lot to see and also was not too out of the way to head back into Verona.

We parked near the Mura di Lazise, the town’s castle/fortress, and walked into the town via the medieval gates.

We came upon a small marina (which seems to be a common thing in these towns, not surprisingly) surrounded by little shops and restaurants.

This town seemed a little more lively, but we were still way too early to eat dinner since Italians don’t start eating until at least 8pm.

We walked around each side of the marina and took in the sights.

We also walked around to a boardwalk that lined the waterside, and noted the neat looking black and white brick and marble walkway.

There looked to be some temporary booths set up along the boardwalk, and when I consulted the internet it told me that they would soon have a Christmas market starting up. Too bad we weren’t there in time for that!

We kept noticing that there were a lot of street signs, piazza signs, and businesses with the name “Marconi”.

Guglielmo Marconi, the famous Italian electrical engineer and inventor of “the radio”, was born in Bologna so I was confused as to why he was so represented in the small Lago di Garda towns, but the internet has not given me that answer. I guess they just really liked the guy here!

Anyway, once it started to get a bit dark, we headed back to the car, via the medieval passageway again, to make the 30 minute drive back to Verona.

Dinner in Verona

Before heading to dinner, we popped by the Christmas market once more for a bit more shopping, and then wandered around looking for a good spot to eat.

We ended up at a place called Il Punto Rosa Hosteria, a tiny restaurant that had amazing reviews. We were still early, only arriving at about 7pm (which is a bit late to start dinner in the US!), so we were able to get a table for 2 without a reservation.

I assume if you showed up with more than 2 and at a later time then you would need a reservation because this place was super tiny!

The waiter came around with an iPad which we were to use to view the menu and to place our orders. I thought this was a super cool way to order! We started off with some wine and beer.

Being in Verona, I had to order the local regional wine which is Valpolicella. They had these mini wine bottles, which I thought was adorable! I believe they were half-liter bottles, so that’s about 2.5 glasses. I let James try some, but he’s not a fan of wine. He did say he liked it though!

James got a local Italian beer that he said was pretty good. Beers in Italy tend to be pretty light, so it’s perfect for those who don’t like a heavy beer like some in Germany and the US.

We started off our meal with a large antipasto plate that had a few local meats and cheeses. It was definitely one of the better antipasto plates we’ve had! James loved the mortadella, and I loved the prosciutto.

We often don’t do a first course after having a starter, but I wanted to get the local Verona-style Risotto all’Amarone. I would have just gotten it as my meal but the menu said that it had to be ordered by 2 people, so we decided to get some as a first course and see if we wanted more afterward.

This was so good! It had a very red wine-heavy taste, but I loved that about the dish. It’s very different than risotto made with white wine but in a good way. It was definitely filling, but we decided to order a main course each anyway, because “when in Verona”…

I went with a truffle pasta which was fantastic and oh-so filling!

James went with a pork chop dish that had a red wine onion gravy on top. He thought it would be a single pork chop, but there were 3! I tried helping him a bit but he powered through and finished the rest like a champ. Needless to say we were both incredibly stuffed by the end of the meal, but it was fantastic so we really couldn’t complain!

Day 3: Verona/Drive to Venice

On day 3, we had the morning to spend in Verona and then we planned on driving over to Venice in the mid-afternoon, which was about an hour and 15 minutes. We would dump our rental car at the outskirts of Venice and then use public transportation while within the city.

Breakfast and Sightseeing in Verona

For breakfast, we went to a cafe called Cafe al Teatro.

This was right across from the Teatro Filarmonico opera house.

James had chocolate cake and a cappuccino, and I had tiramisu, which originated in the Veneto region, and a caffe corretto, which is espresso mixed with liquor. I chose the amaretto flavor, which was delicious but definitely more of a dessert beverage.

After breakfast, we decided to walk around Verona a bit more before we left town. It was much less crowded this morning versus the rest of the time we were there!

We walked over to the Castelvecchio to check out the medieval castle grounds and the Ponte di Castelvecchio bridge.

The drawbridge and drained moat were pretty cool!

On the Ponte di Castelvecchio, we got some more cool views of the city from a different angle.

I love getting framed shots like this!

After walking around a bit, we decided to go back to the Christmas market for one more lap around to see if we could pick up some more gifts for the family.

It was much less crowded so we were finally able to get everyone a gift!

We passed back by the Arena and the piazza one more time to say Arrivederci!

The piazza and nearby restaurants were a lot less packed than they had been the past few days due to the marathon!

Travel to Venice

After a nice morning in Verona, we checked out of the hotel and grabbed the car from the parking garage to make the drive over to Venice. The drive is about 1.5 hours of mostly highway (autostrada) driving.

In order to get to Venice from the mainland you have to drive on a long bridge which is right next to the railway for trains into the city. Considering you cannot drive in most of Venice, we planned on dropping off our rental car right outside of the city and taking a “vaporetto” aka “water taxi” (a taxi boat) over to our hotel. There are also several parking lots on the very edge of the city where you can park your car before taking the vaporetto in.

The vaporetto was a really unique experience! James detailed much of this process in a previous post. There was a ticket booth before you walk up to the platform, and then you wait at the platform (looked like a large bus station) on the edge of the water for your vaporetto to arrive.

Traveling on the vaporetto was a really nice way to get used to Venice, and was the main mode of transportation we took the entire time we were there, other than walking!

It took about 20 minutes or so to ride over to the hotel we would be staying at, the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice. We got a nice view of the hotel as we pulled up to the vaporetto station.

Arrival in Venice

We arrived on the small island called Guidecca island where our hotel was located. It is across the very large canal (not the Grand Canal) from the main islands of Venice. We could see many of the main attractions from our vantage point!

It was a short walk from the vaporetto station to our hotel. The ground was very wet and puddle-y due to the rains they had gotten in the past few days, but the forecast during our visit was supposed to be great!

James detailed our hotel in a previous post, but I couldn’t get enough of the views out the windows of our amazing corner suite!

This was the view from our bedroom in the suite. It was shaping up to be a beautiful afternoon/evening!

We even got a really cool view of the side of the hotel from the living room portion of the suite.

We were quite tired so we relaxed for a few hours before heading out to dinner. We decided to stay closeby on Guidecca island so that we didn’t have to go very far or take a vaporetto. Also so we could enjoy the beautiful evening lights across the canal!

There was a cute cicchetti bar down the street from the hotel with some outdoor seating.

We decided we would make cicchetti our meal for the evening!

It was a little wet but we were able to sit close to the water’s edge and enjoy the view.

We started off with some drinks, and then later ordered some cicchetti.

For those who don’t know, cicchetti (pronounced “chi-KET-tee”) are small plates of food, typically a variety of toppings on crusty bread, sometimes little sandwiches or meatballs on sticks. This is a Venetian specialty similar to Spanish tapas. They are eaten throughout the day, and even well into the night as an after dinner bar snack, and are very cheap (only a few euros a piece, some even as cheap as 1 euro!). You can find cicchetti in most places that serve food in Venice, but especially in “cicchetteria” which are bars that specifically serve cicchetti.

We had one of each cicchetti the bar offered. From the top left going clockwise: a soft brie-like cheese with walnuts and jam, pickled onions, raw tuna tartare, shrimp and veggies with pesto, a seafood medley, and a smoked whitefish spread (my personal favorite!). This was a really nice dinner and surprisingly filling, especially after going back for a few additional of our favorite cicchetti, and was a great way to start our time in Venice!

Our hotel was really beautiful all lit up for the night!

Day 4: Murano/Venice

The next morning we woke up to a fantastically beautiful clear and sunny day!

It was so clear we could even see the tips of the mountains in the distance!

We walked down the street to grab a quick breakfast at a cafe.

We had cappuccinos and some small pastries. They had very cute little tartes and chocolates too!

Travel to Murano

After breakfast we hopped on the vaporetto that would take us over to the island of Murano. It was about an hour journey but definitely felt faster due to the amazing sites we were seeing!

We ended up on the Grand Canal for a hot minute, passing by the Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo!

It was really cool passing under these old bridges in the canals.

We also passed by the small island of San Michele where there is a large cemetery and church. It’s probably a good idea to have a cemetery separate from the main islands where everyone lives (would probably get smelly otherwise, and also ghosts…)

After passing the cemetery island, we arrived in Murano!

Murano Island

I guess because of the hour in the day (before lunch) and the time of year (November) it was really pleasantly empty! We heard that Murano was one of the most touristy parts of Venice, but we seemed to have it all to ourselves!

We headed down one of the main canals and took in the sights:

There were many, many glass shops, some with cute animal figurines!

We also saw a lot of very nice boats.

We walked toward what felt like the “main” part of Murano, where the canals split into a few different directions along their Grand Canal.

We crossed over the main bridge and took in the sights over the canal.

It was just a gorgeous day to wander around!

I loved seeing all of the Venetian gondolas around, especially the ones that looked hand-crafted.

We wandered into the Basilica of Santa Maria and San Donato and walked around for a bit, admiring the 12th century architecture.

Apparently the mosaic tile floor is one of the largest and best kept of its kind from the time it was finished in 1141!

The middle of the floor was blocked off, probably to preserve it as well as possible unless there was a service going on, but it felt so weird (and terrible) to walk on it around the sides knowing how old it was!

Next we attempted to find a glass factory and see if any were open for an impromptu tour.

It seemed a little quiet and maybe they were not open during the off-season, but we stumbled on a really cool glass sculpture outside one of the factories!

We headed back toward where we came from to shop around some of the glass stores, and maybe to get some lunch, passing by the Basilica of Santa Maria and San Donato again.

We stumbled on a nice place to get some lunch that had a little table next to the canal.

We had some drinks along with a yummy folded pizza-flatbread-grilled sandwich thing (I forget the name).

This was an absolutely lovely spot for a light lunch and a refreshing spritz!

We shopped around some glass stores and got some gifts for our family (they made great Christmas gifts!), and then headed back on the vaporetto to the main part of Venice.

Exploring Venice

We didn’t go all the way back to Guidecca island where our hotel is located, but instead hopped off at the first stop on the main Venetian islands and went for a stroll through.

I couldn’t get over how beautiful each canal was, and loved seeing and walking over the bridges. Venice is definitely one of the most unique places I’ve ever traveled to!

We were lucky (and strategic) that we were in Venice during the off-season because there were no crowds at all!

Just absolutely breathtaking…this one’s getting framed and going up on the wall at home!

It was really hard to capture some of the unique canal intersections. I attempted a panoramic at one of them because it was just so interesting.

It was also insane how tight some of the canals were, and I really felt for the ambulance boats (pictured here) that had to wind around in the canals!

We eventually found ourselves in the Acqua Alta bookstore, named due to the fact that when the Acqua Alta occurs (high tide flooding), the bookstore is sometimes flooded so they try their best to put the books up high so they don’t get ruined!

They had some unique ways of storing the books above the floor, including in some gondolas!

They also had this cute “instagrammable” area off to the back. We got a magnet showing art of this exact view which I thought was fun. We also got some gifts for family: an Italian comic book for my brother who loves comic books, and an Italian medical textbook for James’ brother who was finishing up medical school. We also found an old Italian physics textbook which we almost put down but then just had to have for our home library (yes, we’re nerds!)

They also had these stairs made out of old books that you could climb, but didn’t actually lead to an exit. Another “instagrammable” area only I guess!

When we left the Acqua Alta bookstore, the sun was starting to set (in November it was dark by around 5-5:30pm!) This made for some beautiful golden light photos.

We caught a great shot of a gondola ride! We thought about taking one while we were in Venice but they are very expensive (and a bit cheesey in our opinion). But do you if that’s what makes you happy!

We passed by a really neat Venetian mask store, which fascinated me but also creeped me out a bit.

Exploring Venice: Piazza San Marco

As it started to get darker, the Christmas lights started popping on as we made our way over to Piazza San Marco (aka Saint Mark’s Square).

We caught the front of San Marco Basilica in amazing golden light!

We considered going inside the Basilica but we didn’t have tickets and the line was pretty long. Also we were a bit wary of going inside crowded places due to covid, although in hindsight I wish we would have gone in!

I always wondered what it would be like to stand in this square, considering it looks just like the Italy portion of Epcot at Disney World! (don’t kill me for that dumb “Dad” joke)

The piazza was surprisingly empty, and we think it might have been the emptiest its been, maybe ever.

We also made our way over to the Bridge of Sighs, or Ponte dei Sospiri, where prisoners that met their fate in the courts of Palazzo Ducale would take their last look out to the world before they were imprisoned (or so the story goes).

Normally we have heard that this site is super crowded (you are standing on a small bridge to view this other bridge), but we didn’t have much trouble here at this time of day/year.

The sun was starting to set and making everything look just absolutely gorgeous!

I couldn’t help myself from taking 1000 pictures…

Even waiting for our vaporetto to take us back to the hotel was a sight for sore eyes.

To head back to the hotel this time, we decided instead of taking the public vaporetto that we would try out the hotel’s private vaporetto for guests.

It was taking off from the exact same spot as the public vaporetto shuttle and only cost a few euros per person to use it for your entire stay, so we said why not!

It was a lot fancier than the public vaporetto!

We had some beautiful views pulling away from Piazza San Marco in the sunset!

We got back to our hotel just as the sun was setting below the horizon, so we had about 4 hours to kill before dinnertime (not really joking…)

Dinner in Venice

We relaxed and got cleaned up, and then eventually headed back out on the hotel vaporetto shuttle straight across to the other side of the canal to go to dinner.

We ended up walking down some small canals toward an area that had a few bars and restaurants that looked good.

We stopped for a pre-dinner drink at around 6:30pm since many of the restaurants didn’t even open their doors until 7pm!

James got a beer and I got a glass of prosecco (for only 3 euro!!) and they gave us some popcorn to snack on. Every bar in Italy always gives you some sort of snack, whether it is chips (crisps for non-US people), popcorn, or little crackers. I like that because it gives me something to do other than just drink.

For dinner we ended up at this really cute restaurant with a great menu and great reviews, and luckily because it was early we didn’t need reservations and got a table right away.

We were hoping to sit outside, and saw some tables next to the canal, but they were only seating inside for dinner.

We had an amazing meal, starting off with antipasto (as per usual) and our mains were a quattro fromaggio gnocchi for James, and a frutti di mare pasta dish for me (was everything I wanted from a seafood pasta in Venice!)

We ended the meal with dessert, which is uncommon for us since we’re typically too full, but we had to have this Crema Catalana, which is a Spanish/Catalonian dessert similar to creme brulee. It was fantastic, and I even liked it more than a typical creme brulee, probably due to the citrus and cinnamon added to this version.

After leaving the restaurant, we walked back toward the vaporetto station to head back to the hotel, and found the streets/canals of Venice to be eerily calm this time of night.

There were also some small and kind of creepy alleyways we passed though. But that’s just part of the charm of Venice!

Once we got back to the hotel, the night was still young and we had some food/drink credits to use (since James has some status at Hilton hotels), so we decided to have a nightcap in the hotel bar before heading up to bed.

Day 5: Venice Main Islands

We woke up to another gorgeous day in Venice!

We slept in a bit because we had a big day yesterday, so we only left the hotel right before lunchtime. We took the vaporetto across the canal, but first stopped to watch a wooden piling being slammed into the ground! It looked like they were rebuilding a vaporetto station.

Brunch at a Cicchetteria

We made our way to a cicchetteria for “brunch” right across from a historic boatyard, Squero di San Trovaso, where they still make gondolas today!

We sat outside and ate some cicchetti, drank some brunch drinks, and looked at the gondolas in the boatyard.

We had a beer, a spritz, and an assortment of cicchetti featuring (top, clockwise): prosciutto, smoked salmon, salami sandwich, pickled sardines, smoked fish spread with onions and some really good brown sauce, and another smoked fish spread with mortadella and artichoke. These cicchetti were really good too, and I think my favorites were still the smoked fish spreads!

This was a really beautiful area (what isn’t in Venice?!) and a very enjoyable place to sit and eat brunch.

Exploring Venice: Cannareggio

After brunch we walked up toward the Grand Canal to take the vaporetto up to Cannareggio to walk around. Cannareggio is known as the “16th-century Jewish Ghetto” and seemed like an interesting area to wander around for a bit.

We also hadn’t really spent much time on the Grand Canal so we figured this was a good opportunity for some sightseeing on the vaporetto on the way.

We passed under the famous Rialto Bridge and reminded ourselves to check that out later.

We got off in Cannareggio and started walking toward the main part of the “Jewish Ghetto”, Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, where there was also a synagogue we were hoping to explore.

We walked through a small “tunnel” of sorts that had a sign denoting the area’s name.

We entered the “Campo di Ghetto Nuovo” square and it was pretty empty. The buildings were really interesting, as they weren’t quite as ornate as some other parts of Venice but felt like they held a lot of historical significance.

I took a panoramic photo to try and capture the square.

Unfortunately it seemed the synagogue was closed, and was also behind this metal building which served as the entrance? It was a little odd, but I wondered if it was just under construction or something.

After exiting the square, we passed by some workers building a new bridge!

We wandered around the area, which was pretty empty and not much was going on, but it was a nice day to walk around.

We passed by some interesting architecture up here as well.

Exploring Venice: Rialto Bridge

We decided to walk toward the Rialto Bridge to check it out, stopping to get some gelato on the way!

I’m not enturely sure what I was expecting from the Rialto Bridge, but I don’t think high-end shopping came to mind when I read about a “market”!

It was a little busy, but we were able to stop at the top for some amazing views!

It was a nice time of day to see the bridge also because it was bathed in golden light.

We saw how crowded the area restaurants were even at this time of day, and due to that figured those restaurants catered more to tourists (since they were eating so early!) so we made a mental note to maybe skip those for other options.

We took the vaporetto back to the hotel to rest up a bit before dinner, and saw some cool buildings along the Grand Canal.

Dinner in Venice

After we rested a bit and got ready for dinner, we decided (since it was still early…) since we had some more dining credit to use we would head up to the hotel’s rooftop bar for some pre-dinner drinks.

The view up at the top was really neat! It was beautiful seeing Venice all lit up from above.

The rooftop had an indoor section and an outdoor section. The outdoor section had heaters scattered about so we were nice and toasty.

We sat down at one of the high top tables and waited for a server to come around. These cozy couches were also available.

We placed our order and got our drinks shortly after. James got a beer and I got a Bellini. Our drinks also came with some olives and crackers.

After drinks, it was time to head out for dinner. We vaporetto’ed across the canal and wandered to a restaurant that had good reviews. However, when we sat down inside, the place felt very touristy and the menu wasn’t really too “Italian” (more “Italian-American”), so we decided just to have a drink and bail after to find something more traditional Italian.

We were maybe a little too late at this point for a restaurant experience without reservations (everywhere we looked was super crowded) so we decided to pop into this neat bar that had food but really only starters and antipasto. We figured we would start with that and then see how it goes as the evening went on.

We knew we had to get some antipasto meats considering this place had a slicer right at the bar!

We ordered a few plates: some assorted cheeses (above, bottom right), assorted meats (above, top right), and something we’d never had before: swordfish carpaccio (above, top left).

The swordfish carpaccio (seen a little better in this photo above) was delicious! It was pretty salty but had a texture somewhat between smoked salmon and prosciutto, and almost tasted like a combination of the two. We couldn’t get enough of it!

Also, the decor in this place was interesting and slightly creepy…

After we ate our food, we were feeling quite full so we decided that would be our dinner for the night and were totally satisfied with that!

We got some pretty neat views of our hotel on our walk back.

Also a great view of the entire hotel on our vaporetto ride back across the canal.

Day 6: Venice/Drive back to Milan

We woke up to a cloudy and drizzly day which seems (from most of my travel research) more common for this time of year, so we were pretty lucky to have had such beautiful days during the core part of our visit to Venice!

The first thing we needed to do this morning before leaving Venice was to get a covid test, which at the time was a requirement to re-enter the USA at least 3 days before arrival. There was a pharmacy on Guidecca island a few blocks from our hotel so this was a good opportunity for us to get our tests out of the way.

It was a relatively quick process since we went to the pharmacy shortly after they opened and did not have to wait in line. They took our information, took us to a back room to perform the tests, and then told us to wait outside for 15 minutes for our test results. Right after we got our tests done, a (very loud) family of 8 walked into the pharmacy to get theirs done as well (other US citizens). I really felt for the pharmacy having to process all of those tests at once!

After we got our negative results, we went to the same little cafe down the street that we went to the first morning and grabbed some breakfast and cappuccino.

After breakfast, we packed up our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and grabbed a vaporetto toward where we would pick up our new rental car to head back toward Milan.

Drive to Milan: Pit-stop in Sirmione

One of the small towns on Lago di Garda that I had looked into, called Sirmione, was about halfway on the route back from Venice to Milan so we decided to make a day of it and stop to look around at the sights.

Sirmione is located on a skinny peninsula that juts into the southern end of Lago di Garda. While driving in, it was really cool to be able to see the water on both sides of the road, just past skinny stretches of land on either side with a single home or hotel between the road and the water.

Sirmione is a medieval town with a fortress in the middle and castle ruins at the very tip. We were able to park right outside the ZTL area which was very close to the Castello Scaligero fortress.

We went over the moat and inside the fortress. For a small fee we were able to tour around the fortress and even go up to the top!

The view at the top was pretty cool, overlooking the water and the enclosed docks where they would store their boat fleets.

We were able to go up even further into one of the towers. It was a little rainy out so it was nice to escape into shelter for a few minutes.

There was a spiral staircase and some skinny areas to walk through to get to the top.

At the very top of the tower, you can even see the entire skinny island! The below is the view back toward the southern end of the lake, back toward land:

And the next is the view toward the tip of the island:

We went back down and found a bathroom right next to this cool interior drawbridge.

As we exited, there was a relic of an old handmade canoe, made out of a large tree trunk. There was also some information about the history of the fortress.

After we exited the fortress, we decided to walk around the town for a bit.

It was the middle of the afternoon at this point so most things were closed, and it was rainy so we didn’t really stay long.

It was a little odd to see so many palm trees around, but I guess it would fit better when the weather is warmer!

We also wandered down to the water to take a peek at their marina area.

We also ended up inside a medieval church (was nice to get out of the rain too!)

There was a Last Supper painting on one of the walls, which was a bit of a sting for me since we were originally going to spend a day in Milan and got tickets to see Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper fresco, and this was the exact day and time we were planning on doing that. We had decided against Milan at the last minute simply because we just didn’t want to be around a lot of people at the time for covid reasons (Milan is a huge city!) and preferred to be in smaller, less populated areas.

Sirmione was a super cute town and I would imagine would be bustling during the on-seasons.

Arrival/Dinner in Milan area

On the way into the Milan area, we were starting to get hungry. Our next hotel, another Moxy, was next to the Milan-Malpensa airport and did not seem to be in an area with a lot of “good” restaurants. I was looking on the map and there were a few small towns in the outskirts of Milan that looked promising for a spot to park, walk around, and eat some dinner.

We ended up in the town of Gallarate which didn’t look like a whole lot from Google maps but ended up being adorable!

We were still a bit early for dinner, as the 3-4 restaurants in town didn’t open until 7pm and we arrived a little before 6pm, so we found an espresso bar in this little piazza that sold wine and beer.

We sat and enjoyed our beverages until it was time to eat. At around 7:30pm we couldn’t wait any longer for food so we made our way over to one of the restaurants in town, Radici Osteria Contemporanea. It had a lot of very good reviews so we were confident that the meal would be adequate for our Thanksgiving dinner (almost forgot!)

We entered the restaurant, which was adorably modern with some rustic touches, and saw the staff in the back having what looked like their nightly prep meeting. There were no customers inside, so we freaked out a bit but trusted the reviews and waited for a table. The hostess did not speak English much at all, and our Italian is horrible but we managed to ask for a table for 2 for dinner.

After we sat down, a waiter came over to offer us a menu. A bit later, the chef came out and asked if we spoke Italian, and when we said basically no (“un poco Italiano!”), he got a server who he said could speak English. The server said his English was bad (we think he was just nervous to try to speak English to us, totally understandable because we were also nervous to try to speak Italian but his English was way better than our “Italian”), so the chef took our drink order (he spoke English pretty well). I asked for a local red wine and it was delicious!

We then ordered a starter of, you guessed it, antipasto meats! Another delicious antipasto!

For our meals, we both ordered first courses because they sounded amazing. James got risotto with mushrooms and I got a pumpkin ravioli with a ricotta cream topping. Both were incredible!

After the first courses, we were still a little bit hungry but not so much for entrees, so we split another first course which was homemade pasta with duck confit and pesto sauce. Another amazing dish!

I think we were either stuffed at this point or I don’t have a picture if we got dessert. All in all, we made out very well with our impromptu Thanksgiving meal in a random town outside of the Milan-Malpensa airport!

Day 7: Fly to….?

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and went straight to the airport (the reason we chose a hotel at the airport). It was a very foggy day and we were a bit concerned that our flight would get delayed or even cancelled. We had a direct flight to….Helsinki, Finland! This was one of the odd routings that James does to be able to get us great flight deals, and Finland seemed interesting!

Shockingly, we were only a little bit delayed but still took off close to on-time. It was really foggy and I was surprised we were even still flying but we took off!

We got above the clouds and saw the Alps peeking out from under them!

The view was incredible! It was a pleasant and relatively short flight over to Helsinki. I will detail that portion of the trip in another post!

Final Thoughts

This was a trip that was planned a bit in haste because we really wanted to do another Thanksgiving-time trip but needed to find somewhere relatively covid-safe. Italy turned out to be a great option, with milder weather (even warm at times!) giving us the chance to spend most of our time outside, and the ability to visit low-population areas so we could reduce our chances of being exposed to covid.

Even Venice, a larger city, was a great option this time of year because even in “normal” times it is not very busy due to it being the off-season for tourism. I would definitely recommend if you’re dying to see Venice (which, it’s 100% worth the hype, and this is coming from someone who expected it not to be) that you should go during tourist off-season. I couldn’t imagine wanting to stroll down the small canals while being shoulder-to-shoulder with tons of people.

Verona was also a delightful city, and larger and busier than I expected (maybe it would be less busy normally if the city wasn’t hosting a marathon). I really enjoyed their Christmas market and walking around the romantic streets. Visiting the small towns along Lago di Garda was also great, although if you go this time of year don’t expect much action. The charm for us was just walking around and seeing the sights, even if we were the only ones around (kind of what we were looking for anyway!)

Overall, Italy is fantastic to travel to any time of the year (we’ve also been in early summer), but I thought going to Northern Italy in November was a great experience and I would definitely go again!

Next up: 2 Nights in Helsinki, Finland!