When you backpack through Europe for more than 3 months, you meet a lot of fellow travelers. You hear of the cities they visited, which were their favorites and which left more to be desired.
As it turns out, Venice is by the most polarizing city in all of Europe. Some people love it. Other hate it. It seems as though no one stands between these two extremes.
Hearing that I would hate it from roughly three-quarters of the people I encountered, coupled with the fact that Venice is exorbitantly expensive, I decided to not even spend a night there. I arrived late morning, dropped my bags at the train station and bought my overnight train ticket to Croatia.
I then left the train station and headed towards the airport to pick up Big Bri, a friend of mine from home. She had been working for a law firm in Ghana for the past 4+ months, and was going to backpack through Europe for 3 weeks. We decided that it would be best for us to spend a day in Venice and then spend 5 in Croatia before we went our separate ways.
I was waiting for her at the airport when her plan landed shortly after noon. I was greeted to a smile from ear to ear, but even more importantly, I saw she was donning a Cal sweatshirt that David Denney and I had given her a while back. It was nice to know that the African Community had been exposed to UC Berkeley, despite the fact that the sweatshirt had not been washed since she left the US back in January. And it showed.
We then dropped her stuff at the train station and embarked on our day of exploration.
I have never seen a city like Venice. The entire city is on water and all the streets are pedestrian-friendly. In fact, there are ZERO cars in the entire city. The only way people get around is either by walking or via water taxi. How crazy is that? Based on the testimonials from people who had visited Venice, I assumed I wouldn’t like the city, but this mere fact solidified my insistence on seeing the city for myself. Love it or hate it, everyone agreed that Venice was unlike any other.
The city is full of canals and touristy gondola rides. It is extremely easy to get lost in Venice; all the streets look the same, there are endless little alleyways and the buildings are too tall for you to decipher where the hell you are.
After some walking around, getting a feel for the city, we decided to stop at a pizza place (which turned out to be my final Italian pizza – a sad moment for all involved). We sat and ate as we caught up with each other. I found it really enjoyable to see a recognizable face for the first time in so long – someone who I could tell my stories to, as well as be able to hear all about her adventures. I noticed that there were a lot of differences between my adventures and hers, namely that mine involved running water and hers involved quite a large number of chickens and goats.
Once we got our food fix, we walked around the city some more and started heading towards Saint Marks Square, which we eventually found after turning through endless side streets and little alleyways. The square is absolutely huge. On the water, it is home to the Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the Basilica's campanile and more Venetian pigeons than you would ever want to set your eyes on. They were EVERYWHERE. The funniest thing I have seen in a while was when Big Bri took out some bread from her bag and threw it onto the ground.
Within seconds, hundreds of dirty, disgusting, birds swarmed to the bread, clawing and scratching each other to get a little nibble. I found it rather pathetic.
After a little more perusing of the city, some shopping and, you guessed it, eating, it was time for us to board our train. Even though I had only spent half a day walking its streets, I had come to a conclusion about Venice: way overrated.
People say Venice is romantic, but I just don’t see it. Not even a little bit. The food I had there was the worst I had in Italy. And the most expensive. The locals are not friendly. You can’t walk 20 feet without running into kiosks and souvenir shops. Even the oh-so-popular gondola rides are way overrated. I was astonished to see that they cost 80 euros. That’s insane.
I loved Italy because it felt real to me. The food, the landscape and even the people (I’m not the biggest fan of Italians at this point) had a feeling of authenticity. Yes, there were parts of Rome and Florence that were touristy, but these places were still a lot fun. Not Venice. Venice, much like the Bakersfield hospital and doctors (oh, and don’t forget surgeries performed) was fake.
The best way I can describe Venice is to say it felt like an Italian Disneyland. Without Space Mountain.
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