venice

This city had a common theme: lost. The city lost in time, taking us back to a period before our modern amenities. A city lost to reality around it, as we discovered with no wifi or cellular service. And a city of getting lost, due to its very design.

Being in Venice in the off season meant virtually nothing. Venice is a place designed for tourism, and thus there is no “off season”, just how long you’ll wait for a table differs. It’s cold in the shade and warm in the evening sun, and enchanting for every angle. The everyday items here seem to captivate you by their simple elegance.

Visiting here with my school group was not my ideal form of seeing the city. Being shepherded from one museum or church to the next gave me the feeling of a dog on a leash. I am a person who thrives on experiencing places at their core, and feeling so heavily like a tourist (headset and all) was simply not my style. This works for lots of people because there is no thought involved, everything is planned out and done for you! For me, just being a hospitality major with a tourism minor, the feeling of being controlled when I know for a fact I could have done better was irritating. I normally wouldn’t have included these thoughts, but I want this page to be about reality. The ups and downs of my life over here and in general.

New friendships developed on this trip, bringing about laughter in huge amounts. On our first night in Venice, myself and 3 other students went to explore. So many travel blogs or online posts say “Oh just go and get lost!!”. These posts neglect to mention that after the ‘getting lost’ you have to actually find your way back, too. After wandering the streets for an hour, eating one of the greatest meals I’ve had thus far in Europe, and then 3 hours of wandering, we got ourselves ‘unlost’ over 12 miles later. Safe to say we got our exercise in that evening.

Venice is most definitely a place to see and to experience. It has a personality that cannot be described until you’ve visited it yourself. It is not a place to stay long term, but it is a mesmerizing weekend getaway while abroad. So I urge you to go; ride the gondola, eat the seafood, try on a Carnival mask. Venetian life is one of still waters and not rocking the boat too much.