Venice Carnival, Winter Olympics, and enjoying “la bella vita”

The trip started with a bang. Right when we were at the gate, ready to wait for the gate to open, an announcement came up saying our aircraft had a problem and our flight to Venice was cancelled! The airline proposed a next day flight late in the evening, which was not the best alternative for us, so we had to find another option. In the end, we managed to find a route through Amsterdam with KLM (which we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was), and reached Venice at around 10pm, only 6 hours delayed.

The main reason for our trip was to go to the Winter Olympics. We felt it would have been a bit of a missed opportunity landing in Venice and not enjoying the city for at least 1-2 days.

Pro tip: The room we rented was in a city just outside Venice called Mestre. If you are looking for a place to stay around Venice, we really recommend this city. In my opinion, it is a win-win-win (triple win!) choice. My reasons:

1) you are closer to the airport
2) it is convenient to take public transport (tram or bus) to get to the city of Venice in under 20 minutes
3) cheaper than staying in Venice

Breakfast in Mestre

We were looking forward to our special checklist we had created of everything we wanted to try while we were in Italy, mostly drink and food related! 😀

First on our list, was to start the day with a typical Italian breakfast! Croissant and cappuccino! As a bonus, because it was Carnival season we also tried a typical traditional Venetian pastry with custard inside called Frittelle. Unfortunately, we were too full to try the Chiacchere, light fried pastries with some dusted powdered sugar on top, which is also very common to eat in February during Carnival season.

Left: Chocolate croissant with cappuccino, Middle: Frittelle, Right: Chiacchiere

Venice

After our breakfast we were ready to experience the beautiful city of Venice! This was maybe my 3rd or 4th time visiting Venice, and it was C. second time from when she visited as a child. The weather was absolutely fantastic, and we felt very lucky as we had just heard the day before it had poured with rain.

Arriving to Venice with the T1 tram, we noticed right from the start it was going to be a very crowded day, there were lots of people dressed up for carnival and heading to the city center.

We decided to not head immediately to the center but go through a less famous sestiero (district) of Venice called Cannaregio, and reach the center in this way.

Carnival in Venice

We felt so lucky to be able to see one of the most famous carnivals in the world. The first mention of the word “carnival” dates back to a document from 1094 (!) of the Doge Vitale Falier. Only 200 years later in 1296, the celebration is finally officialized as a public holiday by the State Republic.

Looking up the origin of the carnival, they day was established to provide an opportunity for different social classes to celebrate and have fun. People could use masks to disguise themselves and conceal their identity.

Venice is world renowned for its carnival. People dress up with masks and elaborate costumes

Aperitivo

Second on our checklist, after an Italian breakfast, was to have an italian aperitivo. A refreshment before lunch. We ordered an Aperol Spritz and accompanied it with some traditional Venetian Cicchetti, slices of bread with ingredients of your choice on top. It was a beautiful break in the sun, enjoying the bella vita = the beautiful life.

After a well deserved refreshment, we continued our walk in the labyrinth of small streets, getting lost, and enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

Lunch – where to eat in Venice

All this walking made our tummies rumble, so we found a nice restaurant called “Ristorante Da Rioba“. I chose a homemade pasta with ragù dish, while C. had grilled beef steak, vegetables and porto sauce meat with a seasonal mixed vegetables side-dish. We really liked how colourful the vegetables were. The restaurant was good and we recommend it 🤗

We were very surprised by how fresh and colourful the vegetables looked!

With the renewed energy boost received from the food and an after-lunch espresso we continued our exploration and set our objective to reach the center of the city.

St. Marks Square

As we approached the epicenter we noticed how the streets became increasingly crowded until we reached the square which was full of people! It was hard to move around and we struggled to get out of there. We still managed to appreciate the beautiful landmarks in the square and my personal favourite, the Doge’s Palace.

Beautiful façade of the Doge’s Palace. Observe the two red marble columns that stand out. There are different theories on why they are a different colour, some mentioning it was where public executions would take place, others where the Doge would observe executions or other where the Doge would hold speeches. As it is often the case, there is a certain level of mystery in history.

We were quite tired struggling with the crowd after our long walk, so we had the brilliant idea (not really) to take the ferry back to Piazzale Roma, our bus/tram station. The ferry was absolutely jam-packed and we had to wait for a couple of ferries before there was enough space for us to get aboard. And let me tell you, the trip back was no fun either. Every stop seemed to have people wanting to take the ferry as well and we were all very cramped like sardines.

The heart and symbol of Venice. A view of St. Marks “Piazzetta”. Marciana Library on the left. Doge’s Palace on the right. There are also two large granite columns. One with St. Theodore, who was the previous
patron of the city before St Mark, the other holding the Lion of Venice, symbol of St. Mark.

Dinner

Once we finally got back to Mestre, it was dinner time and we were ready to complete our Italian checklist of things to eat and drink, with an ultimate pizza from a pizzeria called Pizzium.

A well deserved pizza after walking for the whole day!

It was time to go to bed after a long day to be able to get well rested for our next day.

Time to go to the Mountains

We woke up early to get a FlixBus which would take us on a 3h journey to S. Candido, a village close to the more renowned town called Cortina, the name from where the Milano Cortina winter games takes it name from.

As it is usually the case in Italy, we were a bit confused at the bus station on where the pickup location was. At one point, we also had an elderly person approaching us saying he worked for the bus terminal but had no id or uniform on, which added to the chaotic experience.

In the end, the bus stopped just a few meters from where it was indicated and we managed to get on the bus without any trouble. Most of the people on the bus got off at Cortina, but we went one more stop and took another local bus to finally arrive and settle in our cabin for the week.

Left: beautiful view from the cabin Right: I taught C. to make coffee using an italian moka

Tuesday: Winter Olympics

We were really excited to go to the Olympics and dressed up a lot as we were expecting to be outside and standing all day. We expected there would be many people and C. was adamant we would get good standing seats, so we woke up early and left our place many hours before the event. It was not easy to get there as we had to take a train, and two shuttle buses to get to Anterselva Biathlon Arena.

Thankfully, we found some good spots and just prepared to wait a long time for the event to start. Our first biathlon race was the Men’s 4 x 7.5km Relay. It was an exciting race and not decided right until the very end. One thing I found out about biathlon is, the result it is never decided right until the very last lap, as it is so easy for things to happen and athletes miss a shot which costs them a penalty round.

Great spots where we could see all the athletes, and most importantly the shooting!

Once the event ended and we stayed for the medal ceremony, the way back was a little bit less fun with all the queue! It was very slow getting out of the stadium. The stadium has a whopping capacity of 19’000 spectators. It took us around 3 hours to get back home!

Lots of queues going and coming back from the event

Wednesday: Cross Country Skiing

On Wednesday we woke up with some beautiful weather, and wanted to try some cross country skiing for the first time. The skiing was quite tiring but so reinvigorating to slide through the snow and feel in contact with nature. In some points where there wasn’t any sun it got also quite cold.

Our goal was to make it to the end of a valley where there was a rifugio, a hut which often offers basic accommodation and food. We arrived just by lunch time and ordered some traditional food of the area. We were really fond of the Kaiserschmarn, a sweet dish, very similar to a crepes.

Left: Schlutzkrapfen, South Tyrolean Ravioli Filled with Spinach and Ricotta
Right: Kaiserschmarrn, scrambled pancakes with rum-soaked raisins, caramelized sugar and applesauce

After a lovely lunch it was time to unfortunately go back and leave our skiis at the store we rented them at. During the evening we were dead tired but on the other hand slept very well 😂

Thursday

Thursday was such a different day! There was an absolute snow storm so we couldn’t do much. We decided to go for some walks and ended up in a beautiful coffee place where we enjoyed a nice hot chocolate.

I haven’t seen such a snow storm in a very long time

Friday

Luckily, Friday was much better and it was the day we were going to go see the Men’s 15km Mass Start. There was a full stadium and the weather was sunny, what else could we ask more for?

Taking a train in the mountains comes with a free view!

Conclusion

From a terrible start we managed to have a beautiful week. We were lucky to enjoy one of the most famous carnivals in the world and a couple of days in the mountains. We practiced cross-country skiing and went for walks in the mountains. We also attended our first ever winter olympic and C. managed to attend her favourite winter sports. On to the next one!