hull in my head

Out of every experience I’ve had so far, somehow I find Venice the most daunting to describe. Maybe because there is so much mysticism and romance built around the city. People talk of it in a tone typically reserved for places only known to our dreams or wildest imagination and because of that thoroughly convincing tone no one objects when they regard it as the most beautiful city in the world. A place where miracles happen, where love is real, where heaven exists on earth.

However to counter that,  there are those odd clumps of people who claim to hate the city. That claim that it’s a smelly-hypedup-EuroDisneyland reserved for cruise-ship-Americans to see for the day and blow wads of cash in.

So it was hard for me to know what to expect. One thing that did seem pretty consistent however was the advice to not visit Venice alone.

Colleague: (amidst reminiscing about a glorious time spent in Venice) “Yeah my girlfriend and I just loved it! Are you going with your girlfriend?”

Me: “No, um, I actually don’t have one.”

Colleague: “What! Don’t tell me you’re going to Venice ALONE!?”

Me: “No, no. no, I’m actually going with three girls.”

Colleague: (cheeky smile while nodding his head approvingly) “Nice mate, I like the way you think…”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him they were just friends. I mean that would have been rude, right? Better to just let him assume I was some kind of legend-of-a-man.

Anyway the point of this is to say that including landing and taking a bus, it took less than 3 hours for me to fall in love with Venice. The girls (although also coming from Dublin) were taking a later flight and were to meet up with me a bit later so when I first got there I just wandered the canals for a while finding it much easier to get lost in then I intended. Rather than try to fight it I opted to just sit on the side of the canal, dangle me feet in the cool water, eat gelato, write, and listen to music. And that my friends, may have been one of the warmest, most tranquil, moments in my life. A place I can neither fully describe or compare anything to.

The rest of my Venice experience was much of the same. I can’t think of one stressful moment, just memories of warm days, laughing with the girls, eating great food, drinking cheap but delicious wine* and just appreciating the beauty. Both the city and the people. I do have to add (with probable embarrassment to the girls) that I throughly enjoyed their man-watching tactics. They’d (and even I eventually) would call out directions like 12 o’clock when a hot Italian man would be walking by. Or my favorite, they’d have me pose and then pretend to take a picture of me only to take a picture of the man visible over my shoulder. Not that I blame them.

So if someone were to ask me if they should visit Venice I’d probably say something like: By all means, yes. The architecture and atmosphere are like nothing else, photos just don’t do it justice. But Venice is probably better spent on lovers. Personally I will only go again with someone special. Also I was embarrassed to realize that i didn’t know that Venice had no roads. I knew it was a city of canals but I thought it’d be like Amsterdam with wide canals and roads lining the canals. Nope, beautiful 118 tiny islands that make up Venice is totally car free, you’ll have to walk or take a boat. (The idea of being a water-taxi driver excites me. How cool of a summer job would that be?) Anyway I’m telling you this so that you are not embarrassed with lack of information as I was. And while it can be true that Venice is half fairy tale and half tourist trap, it’s also true that you can just stick to the half fairy tale side and have a magical time.

And lastly no, I didn’t see any Venetian blinds while there.

*(There are wine makers who will fill up any bottle you bring in for them, saving you loads of money. As ghetto as it sounds, we brought in an empty 1.5 liter water bottle… but they did fill it with GREAT wine for something like 5 euro. Amazing.)