Getting Lost in Romance City, Venice 2013

Tiziano Scarpa once said "Getting lost is the only place worth going to."  If you believe that (and I do) then Venice is an absolute must visit!  It's not "being lost" that is exhilarating but it's what you unexpectedly discover along the way that makes being lost so much fun.

Venice is a city we think we all know because of how many times we've seen it in movies, or poems or novels.  We've all heard that it is the "City of Romance" that is full of canals, gondolas and tourists.  The truth is, you can't actually know Venice and all of it's magic until you've experienced it first hand.  Venice offers something that no other city that I have ever visited does.  It offers the opportunity to get helplessly lost with no negative consequences or safety concerns.  This is the magic of Venice that you can never experience through movies, books or travel blogs.

The quintessential scene that we all know from movies.  In fact, it is this scene that has been replicated in Las Vegas.  This is superficial Venice and it's beautiful but it doesn't go anywhere close to capturing the magic that the city has to offer

Life on the main canal.  I took this shot to show the volume of traffic that happens on the main canal but also the diversity in boats.  There is a specialized boat for everything!

Venice is a small island city that you can walk from one end to the other in a maximum 1.5 hours.  So, even if you are to make a few wrong turns (and you will) you're never very far from where you want to be.  Moreover, in making these wrong turns, you have actually embarked on a journey of discovery.  Around every corner, across every bridge (and there are hundreds!) and beyond every canal is something incredible and unexpected.

A shot up the canal towards the cathedral.  We stumbled across this place on our first day of exploration

A shot of the main canal at night taken from Ponto Rialto.  The large "boats" are public transport vessels that stop all along the canal.  

Fortunately, Venice is only about an hour away from Basel so the Easter long weekend offered ample time to get down and explore the city.  Recently, on city trips, we've trended away from staying in hotels and instead have rent apartments.  There is no better city in the world to take this approach than Venice.  Not only was the apartment that we rented cheaper than any hotel but it was also in an ideal location.  We were just minutes from Rialto bridge and therefore just minutes from Piazza St. Marco.  In other words, everything you really want to see is simply just around the corner.

I snapped this shot of Rialto bridge when we first arrived.  Arriving at night was a little daunting given how confusing the city is to navigate

Another shot of Rialto bridge, this one taken while on our gondola tour.  I was surprised that they don't do more to clean up the graffiti.  Then again, this is Italy

St. Marco's square.  A good place to come to feed the pigeons.  Interested to learn that during "high" tide in the Med (very little) this square actually floods up through the stone.  It's pretty impressive to watch

Now, what makes a trip to Venice the adventure that it is is that the city is a maze!  It is really impossible to navigate yourself around Venice with a map.  Sure, there are key landmarks and no way to really get lost but it is fair to say that you will never really find your way with a map...simply impossible.  The streets are simply too small, too numerous and laden with too many corners to be effectively navigated with a map.  Now, this might sound frightening to some, but to me, this was the single best part of Venice.  You simply have no choice but to get lost!  There is nothing more energetic then being lost provided you know it is consequence free.  In fact, what this offers is an amazing trip of discovery.  Because you don't know where you are, you are constantly stumbling across things that amaze you...whether it's a church, a tower, a museum, a canal, a cafe, a calzone or a wine shop.  What's even better is half the time you stumble across somewhere where you've been before but from a different direction offering a different perspective.  It's simply incredible.

All along the canal route, the gondola needs to list on it's side to go under the lower bridges.  It was incredible to see how reliably two way traffic was able to navigate under these things

Now, you might be thinking, "OK, so you guys got lucky.  It sounds like your trip was perfect".  That couldn't be further from the truth.  It rained almost every day that we were there and not just a light rain but absolute downpours.  So, how did we manage to have such a positive experience?  Venice, because of all of its restaurants, cafes, wine stores etc...offers so many places for shelter that whenever the rain got too much, we simply took some time to explore the local cuisine.  Moreover, the instant rain starts to fall umbrellas seem to be on sale at every street corner.  These guys know how to turn a buck regardless of the weather.

I have heard that Venice stinks in the summer and I can understand that.  There is no sewer in the city (given that it would be underwater) and so there is little processing of raw sewage before it hits the canals.  In fact, I think it could be unbearable in the hot summer months but that wasn't our experience at all.  During the main tourist months, Venice is also overrun with people and so the main routes between tourist sites will always be slow and crowded.  So, don't ever be in a rush in Venice or you will simply drive yourself crazy....that said, who is ever on a rush on holidays?

Getting lost is a luxury that is rarely afforded in major cities.  Venice offers this luxury and all of the magic of discovery that goes along with it.  Yes, the city is romantic because of gondolas and canals but the city's true magic comes from the fact that it forces you to find your own way (and you'll fall in love along the way).  After all, isn't this what life and romance is all about?