Meag Rad

Venice checked off the list!! While fascinating that an entire city can sustain life dependent upon water buses and tourists… I do no think I will be going back. 

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The flight in from Paris went well!… (Aside from going to the wrong airport, spending $70 on a taxi and convincing the driver to go 20+ over the speed limit so we could make it through security in time for our flight)… 

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When we got to Venice we took the bus to the main drop off point (as vehicles were not allowed past this point)… We asked a local how to get to our apartment in San Polo, he pointed us in the right direction (literally) and we were on our way! We were not prepared, however, for the 7 step bridges it took to reach our AirBNB… (Now that I think about it, it seems quite logical that there would be bridges connecting the islands of Venice)… Nevertheless, I no longer appreciated my “good packing skills” because even though I only had 1 bag… that bag was 41lbs of regret. 

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Eventually, we reached our apartment with a few other hiccups along the way and it was absolutely gorgeous! We stayed in a flat on a smaller canal off the grand canal. We were close to shops, food, gelato and the Rialto… what more could you ask for?! This apartment like the others in Europe did not have air conditioning (which was fine, Europeans are very good at natural ventilation). We had a fan and wifi to compensate the hot days and all was great… until our power went out when they decided to drill into our exit bridge. Fortunately, we were back up and running within a few hours. 

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While visiting, we were able to explore the town, take a gondola ride through the canals, visit a few Biennale exhibitions, take the water bus to Morano to watch them blow and sculpt glass, tour cathedrals, visit the DaVinci museum, stumble across a Frank Gehry architecture gallery in a Louis Vuitton store and much more! The city is truly something worth seeing if you’re interested in visiting the world’s next Atlantis but the towns were flooded with tourists, the famous Rialto bridge was full of construction, shops and cheap trinkets, the food wasn’t anything special, the buildings were covered in graffiti, it smelled and I am pretty sure I have west nile from all the bugs… Perhaps if we only stayed for three days rather than four I would feel differently about my experience…

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…I used to hear people say, “You should visit Venice before it sinks!”… Well, now I have. Onto the next adventure, the reason for my whole Eurotrip, my design worskshop in Volterra, Tuscany!