4-Day Venice Itinerary on a Budget - Day 1 & 2

Venice Day 1: 5th June Tue

At 1.30 pm, we reached Venice. We decided to drag our luggage to our Airbnb. It's a mistake. Don't do that unless it is really near to the port.

This place is supper not conducive for luggage. There are many bridges and stairs. The main bridge that bring you to the ferry station is also not conducive. There is even people selling the service of bringing your luggage over the bridge.

On the way to airbnb, we bought mushroom and ham pizza. Lunch at 2.40 pm.

After we checked in at our airbnb at San Marco, we went out again for grocery shopping. 

Lucky the famous Acqua e Mais is just nearby to Coop. Price was expensive for the small bowl. But it include warm, plain porridge at the bottom of all the seafood.

At 6.25pm, we went grocery shopping at the nearby Coop. The store was a bit smaller.

We took picture of Rialto Bridge as we walked past. There were many people on the bridge taking photos.

Venice Day 2: 6th June Wed

At 10.30 am, we walked to the St. Mark's Square to see the Saint Mark's Basilica, St Mark's Campanile, and Doge's Palace.

St Mark's Campanile

Famous place to feed pigeon

St Mark's Clock

Saint Mark's Basilica

The Doge's Palace is the building beside Saint Mark's Basilica, facing the sea.

You can see the Bridge of Sigh on the bridge on the right of the Doge's Palace. There were many people on the bridge to take the picture of the Bridge of Sigh.

After taking pictures, it was already 10.50 am. We decided to explore Venice by foot. 

At 11.20 am, we chanced upon Museo Della Musica. Entrance is free. 

We passed by many artist galleries. 

Many stores sold similar souvenirs. They are very interesting and beautiful but expensive.

By 12 pm, we arrived at the Santa Maria della Salute. There were no security check required to visit the churches in Venice. 

Santa Maria della Salute

Passed by the Gallerie dell'Accademia

We walked to Osteria Ai 4 Feri (recommended by some variety show) at 12.20 pm for lunch. We ordered 1 Seafood pasta. It was nothing impressive and the noodle was still semi-hard.

Interior decoration

Menu said is Seafood pasta $32 Euro for 2 people, $38 Euro (included service charge). 

Seafood pasta

At 1.50 pm, we walked to the Gelateria il Doge which claimed as the best geleto. The geleto was really nice and here they have peach and mango flavour where we didn't see it until now. The servings are huge. Venice gelato was the cheapest that we found in our Italy trip. Seriously recommend to come here to have your gelato.  

We walked all the way to Cannaregio caused previously when I researched, it was mentioned that the things here will be cheaper. But actually, it wasn't.

We passed by shops selling masks, churches and San Simeone Piccolo.

At 3.40 pm, we went grocery shopping (again, I know) for dinner. It rained a little but cleared after a while.

These were sweets!

These were sweets that looked like banana

By 7.47 pm we have dinner at airbnb.

At 9 pm, we went back out to the St. Mark's Square to see sunset. But we didn’t really see sun setting, only the blue hour. We sat there with the breeze, listened to the instrumental songs played nearby and played with our phones.

Doge's Palace at night

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Summary

Day 1

1. Acqua e Mais
2. Rialto Bridge

Day 2

1. St. Mark's Square 
2. Saint Mark's Basilica
3. St Mark's Campanile
4. Doge's Palace
5. Bridge of Sigh
6. Museo Della Musica
7. Santa Maria della Salute
8. Osteria Ai 4 Feri 
9. Gelateria il Doge 
10. San Simeone Piccolo

4-Day Florence Itinerary on a Budget - Day 3 & 4

Florence Day 3: 4th June 2018 Mon

Duomo di Firenze

We queued at 10.15 am to get into Duomo di Firenze. In the morning there was some place where there were shade. The queue was also supper long.

Do note that you can not wear sleeveless outfit. There will people walking down the queue to sell scarf.

Finally, at 11.35 am, we entered the place. The interior was nothing much though the exterior facade looks very grand.

It's 12pm, time to eat lunch! We walked to Mercato Centrale Florence: San Lorenzo Food Market. (The famous Il Porcellino was opposite direction of the place so we decided to skip it).

Passed through many stalls 

 12.15 pm we reached the San Lorenzo Food Market.

Mercato Centrale Florence: San Lorenzo Food Market 

The food here was a bit more expensive and nothing really catch our eyes. So we decided to check out another place.

Trattoria Mario Firenze

 We were led down to another room at the back. By 12.40 pm, we were seated.

Ordered pork chop (8.5 euro), and really only a piece of meat arrived...

Around 1.05 pm, the pork chop was served. It was not juicy but also not dry. But I prefer Singapore pork chop where we still have some sauce and fries to go along with it.

We took the train to Pisa. By 3.30 pm, we reached Pisa train station.

There was more than one route to the Tower. A bigger main road and a smaller route.

We checked out the Gelato store in Pisa. The Gelato in Pisa is cheaper than in Florence. So, we bought it!

Nice!

Walking to the tower...

We reached the Pisa Tower at 4.22 pm and took tons of picture till 5.13 pm. You will indeed see many people pretending to push the tower.

  

You need to pay 0.8 euro to use the toilet near Pisa Tower. It was located near the broken angel (not behind it).

There were restaurants on the way to Pisa train station but we decided to go back to airbnb and cook dinner.

Pisa is cooling in the late afternoon.

We left Pisa at 6.01 pm and reach Florence at 7.25 pm. The train stopped at different stops. There might have direct train back to Florence where you don't need to stop at any stops. Do your research!

Street art at train rails

Florence: Day 4 5th June 2018 Tue

We checked out.

The train to Venice was late. 

We were supposed to leave at 10.46 am but there was a 15 minutes delay. Only at 11.17 am then we sit on train. By 11.19 am the train finally moved. We reached Venice around 1.30 pm.

Stay tuned to know how we spent our time at Venice.

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Summary

1. Duomo di Firenze
2. Mercato Centrale Florence: San Lorenzo Food Market
3. Pisa - Pisa Tower