All my life I’d heard of Venice, my Mum’s favorite place she had travelled. I’d seen it countless times on television, even had scrawled in my travel journal to make sure I get to Venice before it all goes under water.
It was exactly as you imagine it. A city, surrounded by water. Big Italian personalities, Gondolas, canals and a few bridges.
It was exactly not as I imagined it.
A city, surrounded by water- Can be so still at night without the roar of car engines and the never sleep feeling that you get in most cities wasn’t present at all. It sleeps.
Big Italian personalities- nearing the end of summer and tourist season I’m sure the locals can’t wait to see the other end of another English speaking visitor who’s only italian comes from the Dolmio adds, and in some places it showed.
Gondolas- you’re told before you go that they are expensive, but what you don’t expect is that just so that they can say that they have done it every other tourist jumps on a full gondola so that they can split the cost (and also, I think the experience) Gone are the days of a romantic gondola ride.
Canals and a few bridges- I generally have a good sense of direction. I did home delivery driving for a Chinese restaurant at one stage. We got SO LOST in Venice. By the time that we found someone to point us in the right direction we were 1 and a half hours walk from where we needed to be. But I’m not saying that is a bad thing. We probably saw more of Venice than a lot of visitors do there. Twice. At one point we somehow ended back in a Venetian glass shop that we had been in at the beginning of the day and not even realized it, we were even commenting on how weirdly the same as that shop we were in earlier it was. It was.
