To start the day off, I realized that I did not have my camera anymore. It’s a bit of a mystery as to what happened to it, but I suspect I either left it in the rental car or it was taken out of my side pocket on the way to our B&B in Venice. Either way, it is gone 🙁 So we will only have either Kevin’s hi-def pictures or phone pictures.
Back to Venice — What is really interesting to me is how romanticized this city is. I honestly expected to be swept up in its charm and romance, but I really wasn’t. The city is pretty dirty – smells like dirty water and fish – and is overly crowded. I think the painters that were randomly painting scenery on the street made Venice look beautiful… I really debated buying one of the paintings, but I’m not sure how I would have gotten it home. But overall, we did not get swept away, and were thankful for allotting only one day here.
One thing that we did not do is ride a gondola. It seemed overrated and wayyy too expensive (80 euro!!). Plus it was crazy the amount of gondolas in the same canals fighting to get through. Seemed like an expensive mess to me. I think if I had truly been captured by the romance, we would have done it — but it did not seem worth it.
The most interesting (and most somber) area we visited was the Jewish Ghetto. This is really our first experience in Europe, and I’ve been intrigued by how they represent their actions around the Holocaust. With Germany and Italy both on the Axis power side, in both places we’ve seen monuments expressing deep sadness and regret for the genocide. It’s definitely a very dark part of their history, and it’s interesting how they have owned responsibility. I can’t help but think that the US would not do the same (ex. the Japanese Internment camps), however I suspect that Germany and Italy both felt, and continue to feel great pressure to recognize the wrong.
All in all, we did a TON of walking (12.3 miles!) today just getting lost which really is a huge draw to the city. You can just wander and wander and never go down the same pathways because there are so many of them. We did manage to find our B&B again which is definitely a plus. Plus we found gelato =)
While no doubt everyone has seeing Venice on their bucket list, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to visit, I do not foresee us planning a return trip. I actually think that Colmar, France has captured me so much that I’m not sure any other town is going to make such an impression.
Caption: Gelato for breakfast! I had milk chocolate and Kevin had cookie and dark chocolate. Pretty darn delightful =)
Caption: The grand canal – basically the center of Venice where you catch the Vaporettos (water taxis) since it’s the largest ‘road’ through Venice.
Caption: A smaller ‘road’. We explored the residential area as well, so this is a non touristy neighborhood.
