Backpacking At 30: Venice: Been There, Done That.....Next!

Let me preface this post by saying that Venice is a beautiful city, or at least for the first 5 minutes.

Before I start my potential rant about Venice, let's first talk about our overnight train journey to Venice. There was this romanticized idea of what an overnight train experience would be like as neither Luke nor I had ever experienced it before, but um, it was not that at all. Most of all, they are loud and impossible to sleep in.

That being said, my opinions about Venice may be (slightly) biased by the lack of sleep, but I do not think my opinion would have been drastically changed.

Well, we arrived in Venice after a sleepless night, just wanting to relax and enjoy the wondrous city. Instead, we arrived among a sea of people. We were only in Venice for one day as it was on our way to Rome, but we shortened our time to only 6 hours and caught an earlier train. During our time in Venice, we rode the water taxis and explored the city. As I said from the very beginning, the city is lovely, but this was not the city for me.

So here comes the rant: The crowds were insufferable. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was in a massive line, even when trying to walk down the streets. The city was full of tourists and tour groups slowly gawking at every thing they pass and then stopping in the middle of the street to take a picture with such said thing. It was quite difficult to muster up the patience.

My other grief about Venice is the cost of every-thing. All we purchased during the day was the transportation ticket, a mediocre at best meal, and storage for our bags, but somehow that exceeded our daily budget.

Everything there is geared towards tourists. The gondolas seemed like pimped out Cadillacs on the inside, with tacky colors and fuzzy/furry chairs. When asking for the directions or following signs, beware, because you may end up back where you started. Also, it smelled. But, other than that, the city was great.

The funny part is that if you asked me if I regret visiting Venice, I would probably tell you no as I can say that I have seen Venice. Been there, done that. Next.