Back in 2008 I was working in a depressing office job and dealing with ongoing issues with my father’s health as he battled with cancer. As I was on the verge of burning out, I made the decision to take a long holiday and go overseas. Fortunately I had accumulated a large amount of money to support myself on such a trip; even if most of my leave was unpaid I was in no danger of going broke. Still, I had never been on an overseas trip by myself before, and I did feel quite nervous about it. I decided to book a Contiki tour of Mediterranean Europe, with a few stops before and after to extend my holiday. My first stop would be in Venice, an iconic Italian city, before heading to Rome to join my tour. My four days in Venice would be a baptism of fire for me, encompassing both some of my worst and best travel experiences, and would ultimately become a city that would hold a special place in my heart.

A Bad Start

The flight to Venice was easy: I flew via Emirates to Dubai, then connected a flight through to Venice. In hindsight I could have used Dubai as a stopover and seen more of that place, but I was still a nervous traveler and was worried that I might not be safe there. It would be a few years later before I actually visited Dubai, but that’s a story for another time. The flights were comfortable, and I was lucky to have an empty seat next to me on the flight to Venice. Looking out over the vast circular oil fields of Saudi Arabia while eating custard was an experience I remember fondly. Sadly, once I landed and made my way through customs, my introduction to Venice became less pleasant. I’d booked private water transport to my B&B, and some confusion over whether I had a valid ticket or not, as well as the huge distance between the ticket office and the transport itself, caused all the passengers on the transport, and transport operator, to become angry with me. I always fear these moments, as I’ve never been able to resolve them safely. Ongoing trauma in my life, both from the past and in the present, mixed with difficulty in communicating myself to others (not helped in this instance by the language barrier) meant that my behaviour became erratic and panicked. Looking back, I probably didn’t need to run 20 minutes back to the airport only to find out that my ticket was valid, then run 20 minutes back to try and explain, through a combination of exhaustion and frustration, to a fed up transport operator what I’d been told, while the other passengers glared at me with contempt. Even as the boat made it’s way to various drop-off points around Venice, I tried to keep my head low and avoid the sneering faces of everyone around me, cursing myself but also afraid that the boat operator might take me out to some quiet corner of the lagoon and throw me over the side with the help of the passengers. Thankfully that didn’t happen, and eventually I did make it to my accommodation, but the experience left a sour taste in my mouth and made me wonder if I was able to last the journey without completely screwing everything up.

I stayed in the Palazzo Cendon, which was a pleasant and comfortable B&B in a 15th century palazzo located in the Cannaregio region of Venice. The area certainly had a lot of character, and seemed to be a popular location for other young travelers from around the world, as I listened to conversations in various accents as I ate my pizza in a nearby restaurant. Someone was playing guitar in the square outside the church of San Geremia; the music was very haunting as day turned to night. I listened for a while but after the flight and traumatic water transport experience I was pretty tired and decided to call it a night and do some exploring the next day.

The following day I decided to take a walk around Venice in order to experience the city for myself. I had no particular destination in mind, so I just headed west down Rio Terà S. Leonardo. One thing I noticed that made Venice feel unique, other than the canals and old buildings, is that there are no cars on Venice. Even the largest streets in Venice could not handle such traffic, and so all transport is either done on foot or on water. For me this only added to the mystique of the place, although it would be a while before I could fully appreciate this aspect of the city. I was still feeling a little uneasy about my ability to travel solo, and was too busy trying not to overthink things to the point where I’d become upset. On my way I entered a few churches and felt impressed by the paintings and frescoes within, which felt alien compared to the brick-and-concrete blandness of the local churches I grew up with back home.

Eventually I ended up at the Rialto Bridge, a very ornately carved stone bridge that dates back to the 16th century. Here I decided to take a break from walking and try the Vaporetto. The Vaporetto is the main public transport in Venice, in the form of water ferries that take you to various stops around Venice and the surrounding islands. I took the Vaparetto down to St. Mark’s Square, home of the Basilica, the Doge’s Palace, and the Campanile. As I headed towards the square from the Vaparetto stop I passed by the Royal Gardens and saw a pop-up toilet building that was charging €11 to use (€20 if you wanted private facilities). Now, I admit that public toilets are a bit harder to come by in Europe, but you’d have to be extremely desperate to pay those sort of prices. I’m not sure if those facilities are still there today, but if they are I’d recommend paying for a museum ticket and going to one of the toilets there instead, as that would be cheaper and better value for money.

I entered the massive square, flanked at the entrance by two marble columns, each depicting one of the patron saints of Venice. The winged lion on one of the columns depicts St. Mark, who’s remains are interred within the Basilica, while the other depicts St. Theodore, who was apparently martyred for burning down a pagan temple (proving that even the early Christian church had its own share of extremists and terrorists). Walking around St. Mark’s Square I decided to grab a quick bite to eat before doing anything else, and ended up buying a sandwich. This leads me to another thing I noticed about Venice, and it is a negative aspect that some may disagree with me on, but that’s how unfriendly quite a few of the locals could be. I already mentioned the negative experience with the private water transport operator, but even buying a sandwich from a shop or going to a local restaurant and you could be made to feel incredibly unwelcome. In some ways I can understand, as the constant onslaught of tourists in your home can be tiresome. Nonetheless, I did find it fairly confronting and found it difficult not to take it personally, particularly as I was on my own with no one to turn to for help. At least the sandwich I bought was nice.

I decided to visit the Doge’s Palace, which was the seat of Venetian government for centuries. At first I was impressed with the old halls and facades, but I soon started to feel a bit overwhelmed, and being on my own and feeling isolated in a city that felt unfriendly towards me, I started to feel very depressed. I think I actually did sigh as I crossed the famous Bridge of Sighs, and found myself sighing as I made my way through the palace, trying to hold back tears. Afterwards I returned to B&B and went back to my room, where I cried myself to sleep. I felt as though I wasn’t up to this, and wanted to go home. Looking back I’m glad that I didn’t give up at this point as I would soon overcome this feeling of alienation, but perhaps I needed to get to this point in order to work my way back up to feeling adventurous again.

Finding Calm

I decided to take the next day a bit slower. It would have been tempting to just stay in bed and not face the world outside after everything I’d experienced, but I decided to push myself as I figured I might never return here. Fortunately the museum ticket I bought at the Doge’s Palace allowed me to also visit the Museo Correr at the other end of St. Mark’s Square, as well as the Archeological Museum and the National Library. The Museo Correr itself houses a collection of artworks and artifacts relating to Venetian history and culture, and also leads directly into the library, which is housed in an ornate room dating back to the Renaissance period and emblematic of that style of architecture. Thankfully on the day I visited it wasn’t very crowded, so it was a nice, quiet area to contemplate and sort myself out. being away from the crowds perhaps helped me achieve some calm and try to refocus on the experience of travel, while trying to put the previous couple of days behind me.

I was starting to feel my energy return, so after a bite to eat I decided to join the queue to enter St. Mark’s Basilica. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take any pictures inside the Basilica itself, which is a shame as some of the Byzantine mosaics and golden icons were quite amazing. Still, I did manage to take some pictures of the facade as well as on the roof, where I had a good view of the square and could get a closeup view of the Horses of St. Mark (the copper originals that date back thousands of years to the classical period are now housed in the museum, though the bronze replicas are no less impressive.

From the basilica I took a short elevator ride to the top of the campanile where I got an even better view of Venice. From up the top you could see just how busy the waterways around Venice are, with even cruise ships sailing past the city. From my view I could see the island of San Giorgio Maggiore and decided I would try and visit the following day.

I had previously downloaded an audio walking tour of Venice (the company was Walki-Talki who don’t appear to exist anymore) which took me around a few of the sights near or around St. Mark’s Square, including the bronze monument to Victor Emmanuel II, who became the first king of a united Italy in 1861, as well as the Bridge of Sighs, which was unfortunately at this time flanked by huge advertising due to the Regata Storica event that was taking place.

Getting Into the Spirit

As I made my way towards the Rialto Bridge I came to appreciate the different accents and cultures I saw along the way. Stopping off to get a gelato (I think I did this twice a day in Venice) I overheard a British tourist chatting with two women from Perth, and I must admit it felt strange to be that far from home but still be encountering people from there. Another thing I enjoyed was making my way from St. Mark’s Square in the south all the way back to my B&B in the north, and just getting lost in the experience of exploring this unique city along the way. Following any map (I didn’t have GPS back then) was hopeless as all the narrow streets and alleyways looked labyrinthine. On the way I might come across a piazza with some interesting monument or sculpture, or a restaurant where I could have some pizza or pasta (I’d alternate between the two each night). Maybe I’d come across another gelato stand, or see a group of people gathered under a balcony where a group of kittens were meowing at passers by. Some people might hate this, and it was very easy to get lost or hit a dead end and have to backtrack. I ended up leading a group of other tourists out of a confusing area to Scalzi Bridge, which made me the hero of that moment. But all in all, I enjoyed the adventure of it all.

The following day I took the Vaparetto to San Giorgio Maggiore, which houses a magnificent church as well as a monastery. There was another campanile there where I was able to get another view of Venice’s Grand Canal and surrounding area.

From there I took another Vaparetto to another basilica called Santa Maria della Salute (or simply Salute) which was undergoing some maintenance at the time (hence the scaffolding on the dome). I managed to capture some footage from inside both basilicas which you can see in the video at the end of this post.

The Final Day

As my last full day in Venice arrived I had one more museum available on my ticket, and had a choice of several options. Several seemed to be closed (including Ca’ Rezzonico, which was my first choice), but in the end I visited Grassi Palace which housed a number of contemporary Venetian artworks. That said there are many different museums and art galleries along the Grand Canal to visit, so any one of them is bound to have something to your interest. Nearby to the previous two museums is also the church of Chiesa di San Barnaba, which houses a collection of interactive wooden models based on designs by the inventor Leonardo DaVinci, which is worth a look.

The day was coming to an end, and I decided I’d take the Vaparetto to the nearby island of The Lido. The Lido is two long strips of land to the east of Venice, and forms barrier islands in the lagoon. There are a lot of resorts on The Lido, as well as popular hotels and sandy beaches. One other thing I noticed was that there were cars on The Lido, which felt strange after several days of seeing motor vehicles absolutely nowhere in Venice itself. I would have enjoyed exploring more of this part of Venice but as the evening set in I decided it was time to head back. The following day I checked out of my B&B and headed a short distance to St. Lucia train station for my 4-5 hour train ride to Rome. While going by train or coach is usually longer than plane, I feel you get to see more of the countryside by ground travel.

All in all, I hold Venice in a special regard out of all my travels. It wasn’t always pleasant, and I did come close to quitting, but I came out the other side a more confident traveler. I was able to experience a unique city that not everyone gets to see, and felt that taste for adventure and exploration that was missing on my previous holidays. One day I hope to go back and see some more of it, but I hope I can find a reliable companion to go with, just in case I encounter any difficulties again.

Below is some video I took from my time there. Apologies for the video quality (HD wasn’t quite in vogue yet) as well as some of the shakiness of my camerawork, although it does improve after a while.