Venice, Italy, Stop No. 4: Amazing Honeymoon

Venice.

Art installation in a church, Venice Biennale. 

How do I begin? Well. We didn't ride a gondola. Criminal, I know. On a honeymoon in Venice and we didn't ride a gondola. But it's not really like it looks in the movies. In fact, I watched the tail end of a Rick Steves' Europe segment today on Venice and wondered where in the world he actually was. Our Venice was so crowded with boats and people you could barely move. His was serene, with his gondola the only one in the canal. He suggested a late evening ride, and that is probably a good idea, but by evening we were done. And we were out in the evening and it still wasn't that serene.

See that motorboat behind the gondola? Yeah. It was like that everywhere and didn't seem like the most romantic and relaxing ride to us.

I'll start with some positives. First of all, we encountered lovely, friendly people in Venice. Not quite as friendly as Greece, but still friendly. Everywhere we went the people spoke some English, but seemed to appreciate the fact that we could speak a few words of Italian and that we were trying. We picked up a few words here and there. Quanto, prego, pronto, allora, grazi are a few.
We were able to see quite a few art installations for the Biennale. We didn't make it to the main exhibit area, but encountered a few of them as we walked around and went into some churches.

There are some interesting things in Venice, and we found a few of them. One was "The World's Most Beautiful Bookstore." I loved that place.
Venice has absolutely no vehicles. The only wheels are found on carts that are used to transport goods from storage areas to shops, or the trash carts. And they work hard to keep the city clean. They do a great job.
The whole city is just one beautiful building after another. Even the old residential areas are really cool.
We had some really good food in Venice, but it's because we were directed to authentic neighborhood restaurants. The one time we plopped our tired asses down at a restaurant in the touristy part of town we paid more for lunch than we had paid for dinner the night before, and that lunch sucked. Hard. And our dinner had been AMAZING.

And while we ate at a tiny table in that amazing restaurant a sweet old man made me a paper gondola from his receipt.

I usually try to soften my language, but the Venice part of our trip was the worst. I don't want to sugar coat it. It's a long way to go, and it's expensive, and I wish that we could have taken more time to truly plan this part of it and figure out exactly where to go and how to get there the quickest. Despite my attempts to get advice from a couple of friends who had lived there, and to read some books, we just didn't have enough time to plan successfully.

As hard as we tried, we were never able to fully avoid the crowds of people that filled the narrow streets. It was really hot, and it was difficult to get anywhere in a timely manner. And the canal smells awful in some places.

Although this was my least favorite of all the places we visited, it did provide plenty of beautiful photos.

Our Bed and Breakfast was nice, and was tucked away in a residential neighborhood. Our room was on the canal side of the house, and it was definitely a new and quite cool experience to hear a gondola passing by our window.

The windows were able to open several ways, and open fully. The shudders were on the outside, different from the shudders in Santorini. In the morning we woke to the sound of neighbors across the small canal and beyond opening their wooden shudders with a clunk-clunk sort of sound. I tried to notice small things like this so I could redeem this visit in some way. Just when I would become enamored with something, there would be a string of bad experiences to test my mood.

 It was really hot during the day. I estimate the high 80s, and just like the other places we visited, the shops closed at lunchtime and only the restaurants opened in the evening. Our B&B was not air-conditioned, which doesn't really bother me, except they don't believe in screens in Europe and the mosquitos come in full force if you leave the windows open. And we had a fan blowing on us, but it was stifling hot. I hung clothes on the line at around 8 p.m. and they were dry the next morning. The beds in Europe are different. A full bed is two twins pushed together. Not comfortable.

We explored a lot, walked forever, found some beautiful architecture, and there was never a place to sit down. To sit we had to go to a restaurant. My biggest complaint was the bathroom situation. There were bathrooms in the restaurants, but the public bathrooms cost 1.50E. I felt like I was always thirsty and always needing to go to the bathroom, and we were constantly dodging someone, walking quickly to avoid being trampled, or trying to find a back alley to escape. It really felt like an adult amusement park or something. The streets were narrow, and there were so many people that we couldn't just stroll around. It was a single file, don't-stop-or-you'll-cause-a-traffic-jam type of situation in most areas.

While we were at our B&B several people came and went, and as we arrived back at our B&B one evening after dinner I thought I recognized a lady sitting at the table in the garden area. But I dismissed it because after all, we were on a honeymoon in Venice. How could I run into anyone I would know?

Next morning we were eating breakfast and I saw a little girl I recognized from the school in Tacoma. I was sure it was her, and asked the owner of the B&B if the girl was from America. Yes. What state? Not sure, maybe Washington, D.C., and his wife said no, Washington State. I couldn't believe it. I called to her and asked her if she knew me and she studied me for a moment and slowly began to nod. We connected with that family a couple of times while we were there.

Chuck and I were not really thrilled with Venice, so we decided a break would be nice. Our second day there we hopped a boat taxi to Lodi, an island with a nice beach. We stayed there most of the afternoon. It was really hot, but nice to lay in the shade. Once again, no public restrooms, so we stopped at a restaurant as we walked through town to the beach and bought a juice so I could go to the bathroom. Once we got to the beach we paid 20E for a spot with an umbrella and two lounge chairs. I guess we weren't in the best spot, but the nice ones were farther and I was so hot and tired I didn't really want to walk anymore. That spot was fine for us. And that 20E got us into the bathrooms for free at the beach.

Although overall our experience was not what we hoped it would be, there were some highlights. One was the Ai WeiWei art installation for the Venice Biennale, and lots of other art installations throughout the city. We also enjoyed hopping on the water taxis to get around the city to different spots, and although those were not the most comfortable of accommodations, it was still a great experience. I enjoyed watching the whole process of everyone crowding onto the boat, the uniformed workers who didn't wait for anyone, and when it was time to go they closed the gate and we were gone. Even if someone was a step away from boarding. I really enjoy watching how people live, so the everyday mundane things appealed to me. We followed a couple of cops for a while one afternoon. They were walking with a purpose, but we eventually gave up and turned back.

The locals are always dressed sharply. Everyone from the little kids to the elderly believe in looking good. I took a picture of an older man carrying a "man bag," Louie Vuitton. And Birkenstocks like the ones I bought for myself.

Our experience with mailing our package was quite interesting to me.

By the third day we were feeling like locals, and we were so done with that tourist trap. I remember saying "If I see another *&;^%$ mask I'm going to go ballistic."

The day before we were scheduled to leave we decided to walk the distance from our B&B to the bus station to clock the time. Our flight was early, and we had to catch the bus to the airport, and the bus was leaving at 4:20 a.m. or something crazy. We had a few things we wanted to mail home instead of taking them in our backpacks, and just outside the area of the bus station was a post office. We stepped inside and found a nice box to purchase. We went back to the room and packed it up and headed out to find another, hopefully closer, Post Office.

It took a while to find the Post Office, and several times of asking people for directions. Thankfully we bought the box, because this post office didn't sell boxes. Interesting to me how bureaucracy is the same there, and so obvious that some of the people working there were helpful and others didn't really want to help at all. We had to take a number, and you had to watch the display screens above each window because if you didn't jump up and run to the counter when your number flashed, they were on to the next.
A couple came in behind us, English speaking, and needed a box. They asked their postal worker if he spoke English and he said, "No. NO English." They asked us if we spoke English and asked us where we got our box. Our postal worker was helpful and told them they had to get a box at another Post Office.
I actually really enjoyed this exchange. Crazy, because it was a lot like going to the DMV or DOL here in America, but I found it so interesting to be in another country trying to navigate it.

So my advice is to definitely go to Venice, but go in the off season. I don't really know when that is, but find out. Stay in one of the nicer hotels if you can, and be prepared to walk, and walk, and walk. And not sit down. And not use the bathroom. And prepare to pay dearly if you do.

As we walked to the bus in the dark and no one was around, I saw things I hadn't seen in the three days we were there. My favorite moment was when we were boarding that bus to get the hell out of Venice.

From Venice we flew to Athens and stayed one night at a Holiday Inn. I booked that hotel believing we needed some American-type comforts on our last night. We had already been to Athens, and although there were more things I would have loved to do there, we had no plans of doing anything that last day. We took a lovely shower in our wonderful bathroom, pushed our air conditioner button as low as it would go, climbed into the most comfortable bed we had so far, snuggled into the most awesome pillows, covered up with a wonderful duvet, and took a nap. We woke up, ventured down to the hotel restaurant, had dinner, and a margarita that was almost pure toquilla, came back to the room and turned on the television to watch an American movie.
Next morning we boarded our plane to Philadelphia, and then home to Seattle and married life.