So we’ll start with the first city…Venice (or Venezia as the locals call it.)
Oh Venice. The most romantic city in the world people say. So what I was doing, going there alone, I’ll never know, but I figured why not. I was arriving at 11:00 at night. Knowing my hostel was only a ten minute walk away from the train station did nothing to calm my nerves about the possibility of having to venture down a deserted alley with my worldly possessions strapped to my back in search of an unknown building. But when I walked out of the train station…it was breathtaking. I actually stopped and said “wow.” Now I’ve been to the Venetian in Vegas. And yes that place is completely romanticized, and much cleaner, and smells a lot nicer…but they got the gist of it…
Ahead of me lay a canal and above a clear midnight sky sprinkled with stars. As I walked down a (perfectly lit) street, past shop owners closing up, I admired all the elaborate shop windows filled with Carnival masks, blown glass, and the odd Tratoria with the chairs up on the table and a lone staffer mopping the floors. Yes it sounds like a storybook…and that’s honestly how I felt. We all know that Venice is a city with canals. But I could never really imagine it. There are NO cars. And every “crosswalk” is a bridge. And the buildings are all bright colors. And it is honestly just…beautiful.
When I got to the hostel, I was let in and not two minutes later, ambushed back out along with around 15 other guests as we headed to the local bar. Immediately making friends, we soon learned where everyone was from (including two girls from Northern California!) Once at the bar we celebrated a birthday, watched some football, and gave some much needed advise to some young Aussies looking to pick up chicks. (And yet us Cali girls were the ones that got free drinks out of it.)
The next day I headed to the one must see sight in Venice – St. Mark’s Basilica...
The square itself was great for people watching – from the violin band playing outside of the café to the little old man with the camera taking pictures of you surrounded by pigeons...
Before heading into the church, I made my way down to the water – not a canal, the actual Venetian Gulf connected to the Mediterranean. There I admired the boats cruising by, the couple strolling by, and yes…the gondolas floating by.
The church itself was incredible. Although a note to all travelers…when they kindly ask you, out of respect for the sanctity of a place, to not take pictures…DON’T TAKE PICTURES!!! I was getting fairly annoyed. But what was I to do? So I silently strolled through, my camera holstered, and admired the breathtaking architecture. Now this was my first experience with an Italian Church - little did I remember I was about to be in Rome and by the time I got to Athens I would be warmly embracing the Polytheistic way of life (kidding 99% of modern day Grecians are Orthodox.)
Taking the long way back, I stopped to admire the various canals as a peek into civilian’s life. Laundry hanging to dry, personal boats anchored to the side, and gelato places at every corner...
When I got back to the hostel I joined a game of poker with some fellow travelers. Little did I know three would be Philly Phans, and although at the time I considered them new found friends, for tonight, and possibly Monday, they remain mortal enemies (GO GIANTS!) Soon this tiny card game turned into a table wide one. And soon this table wide card game turned into a drinking one. And by the time free dinner rolled around, everyone in that hostel was friends. One of the Philly boys was even victim to an explanation of Linguistics. Poor guy never saw it coming when he asked “and what exactly is that?” But I loved the breaking down of everyone’s accent, which is made all the better when you’re surrounded by people from different cultures.
The remainder of the night was spent wandering the streets of Venice with my new friends. Of course all this walking around and traveling was reeking havoc on my hurt ankle (don’t now how it happened) so by the end of the night I was hanging on a guy, not out of flirtatiousness, but out of necessity to navigate the up and down of the cities thousands of bridges.
The next day, three girls and I joined up to explore. What’s great about meeting people in Venice, is that the majority of them are doing the same thing you are…Venice to Florence to Rome, so we made plans to meet up later (some of which actually happened!) We wandered the city crawling through every side street we could imagine and having fun with photography...
(this one's my favorite...this cat was just sitting there staring at me!)
Our sites included a flooded street (a common occurrence in a city built on water)...
Some beautiful bridges (upon which I actually got to be in some pictures)...
And of course, a different view of the city from the seat on the obligatory gondola ride...
After, we decided to call it an early night and headed back to the hostel for a much more subdued version of the night before.
And the next morning, it was off to Florence. Although there wasn’t much left to do in Venice, I would have gladly spent a couple more nights in that beautiful city.
Word of the day: canale - canal (Italian)
Thank you for taking me along on your trip. I could feel like I was actually there. Well done!
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