Venice, Italy

Venice is simply unreal. It's just like in the movies, with house doors sitting literally on the waterfront and the steps half covered by seawater, seaweed, and the occasional crab. There are no cars in Venice - where there would normally be roads in any other city, instead there are canals ranging from 2-6 meters deep where boats and gondolas float along at the strict speed limit of 7km/h (faster speeds create waves that damage the buildings, which are hundreds of years old). In this way, Venice is actually comprised of many small islands; over a hundred in fact. And they are all connected by over 400 bridges. The city has taxis, busses, police, and firemen just like any other city - but they are all in boats instead of automobiles. There are only about 54,000 Venetian residents, but the city accommodates 24,000,000 tourists per year. If you do the math you will see that this means that on any average day, there are more tourists than residents, especially during the summer.

Our hotel was not in the actual city of Venice for budgetary reasons (we learned that Venice floor space costs 7000-14000 EU per square meter, so I guess the high prices are justified). Instead we stayed in Mestre, the closest city that lies on the mainland. To actually get to the islands of Venice every morning, we had to take a bus or train along the only bridge that connects them to the mainland. Apparently this bridge was only built 80 years ago, before which Venetians considered themselves a separate nationality than Italians. To this day, the "Venetian" spirit and culture retains several differences from the rest of Italy.

Our tour through Venice was not as organized as our previous stops. The city is so small and the streets are so winding and confusing that we opted to just wander, hoping we'd eventually run across the major sites, and maybe see some less-touristy locales along the way. This system actually worked really well. The area is breathtaking no matter where you go so we enjoyed our stroll through the streets and along the canals. And we did eventually come to Piazza San Marco, the main tourist attraction of the area (well, I would say the entire city is an "attraction").

The Piazza was certainly beautiful, and bustling with tourists. The marble Basilica represented a nice change from the dull grey exteriors I've come to expect from churches, and the inside was even more colorful. We also took the elevator up to the top of the square's Campanile, which Berkeley's tower of the same name is based on. From there we saw a truly amazing view of the Venice rooftops, with the canals running through them and the ocean all around. We also took a 1-hour tour through the Grand Canal, which is Venice's equivalent of Main Street, if you will. From there we got to see all the great architecture from the waterside point of view, and learned all the fun facts I shared with you above. A common phrase during the tour was "This x00 year old building used to be [historical significance]. Today it is a hotel."

Later we continued to simply wander the streets and admire all the Murano glass in the shops (as well as the Chinese knock-offs). Throughout the day we had some great Italian food, many espressos and macchiatos (which are hard to find in the states prepared correctly), and of course a lot of gelato. Before going home we took advantage of the decreasing number of tourists and went on an obligatory gondola ride. The timing couldn't have been better, with the canals relatively empty and the weather cooling down. We asked the gondolier many questions, and were very surprised at what we learned about the life of a professional gondolier. Here's the short version: it's not easy.

The next day we essentially did more of the same, but one could never get sick of Venice. I visited the old Jewish ghetto which is the oldest in the word - in fact, the word "ghetto" was coined here based on the Italian word for "foundry," which is what the area used to be. Ironically, the area was NOT a ghetto during WWII, and I learned that Venetian Jews have been relatively well-treated throughout history compared to the rest of Europe. I took a tour of the old synagogues in the area, which are of course indiscernible from the exterior but beautiful inside.

Later during lunch I decided to be adventurous and try a traditional Venetian dish, which was spaghetti with Cuttlefish Ink Sauce. Turns out that "ink sauce" has only one ingredient - ink. Therefore I received a stomach-churning plate of black spaghetti that mostly just tasted like the ocean, and I probably would have even described it as delicious had I been blind. But I wasn't able to finish it, and ordered a plate of Italian cheese varieties to cleanse my pallet.

We ended our day early because it began to drizzle and the forecast had predicted thunderstorms, and we didn't want to be stuck on the islands when that happened. Although the thunder never came, it ended up being nice to get some rest. That night we were able to find a tiny little family-owned restaurant in Mestre where I had my first authentic Italian pizza (truly delicious) and finished my meal with some Tiramisu that the waitress said her mother made. At the end of the meal we were even treated to some Limoncello on the house. It was a satisfying way to end our stay in Venice, and I went to bed content.

The next morning we hopped on the 2-hour train to Florence. No more long overnight trains for us!

Thanks for reading!