Get lost in Venice
Daily Life in Venice, Italy
The Multi-City Masterstroke (and the Newark Curse)
Multi-city tickets are an absolute game-changer. For our second trip overseas—this time visiting Venice, Florence (Firenze), and Rome—I flat-out refused to waste precious vacation days backtracking. Flying round-trip into Rome and spending hours riding trains back and forth just to hit northern cities is a massive waste of time and energy. Instead, we optimized our route: flying into Venice and flying out of Rome.
But getting out of the country turned out to be half the battle. After a string of delays leaving Cleveland, followed by massive thunderstorms and rolling delays in Newark, our transatlantic flight was ultimately canceled.
I was feeling ALL the rage. A cancellation meant losing an entire day and night of our hard-earned time in Venice. To make matters worse, because the cancellation was deemed weather-related, the airline wasn't obligated to provide a hotel voucher.
So, not only were we losing money on our pre-booked room in Venice, but I was also frantically emailing the property from the tarmac to let them know we were still coming so they wouldn't give away our reservation as a no-show. Add in the cost of an emergency, last-minute hotel room in New York, and the bill for this "free" delay was racking up fast. Pro tip: always, always prepare a buffer fund for the "Uh-Ohs"!
We were stuck in New York for 24 hours, so what else do you do? You catch a cab to a nearby hotel, drop your bags, and spend the night making the absolute most of it.
We ended up having a great, impromptu day exploring New York City. We paid our respects at the World Trade Center Memorial, walked through Battery Park, and caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty from afar. We ate real New York pizza, watched the street performers, and soaked in the insane hustle and bustle of the city. When it was finally time to head back to the airport, we caught a $75 cab, cleared security, and successfully boarded our rescheduled plane to Venice.
Welcomed by a Floating World
Upon arriving in Italy, we bypassed the standard land transit and caught a ferry boat straight to the main island. It was incredibly cool to watch the historic skyline rise up out of the water around us, traveling exactly the way the locals do.
I couldn't stop admiring the sheer engineering of this ancient place. Venice has survived for centuries by literally floating on thousands of wooden piles driven deep into the mud of the lagoon all the way back in the 5th century. Damn, that is some fucking old wood!
Because New York stole a full day from our itinerary, we only had a day and a half to explore Venice—and if I’m being completely honest, that was plenty. We didn’t have time to book formal museum tours, but we got to wander past all the iconic landmarks
Rialto Bridge, Venice Italy
efore arriving, I really thought Venice would have this proud, handmade, authentic artisan vibe to it. It didn't. In reality, the main pathways are lined with shops selling the exact same overpriced "Made in China" knockoffs and plastic replicas. The restaurants were significantly pricier compared to Rome, and most of them automatically tacked on a coperto (a mandatory sit-down service fee). Consider it a mandatory tourist tax added straight to your bill. Why? Because you’re in Venice, that’s why.
Finding the Magic in Getting Lost
The next morning, we awoke and had breakfast at our hotel (which, for the record, was a total bitch to find amidst the labyrinth of winding alleys and hidden street signs). The property had a lovely balcony looking out over the Venetian canals, and right on cue, there was a gondolier singing in the distance. It was a total cliché, but it was everything I had hoped to experience.
We spent the morning leaning over the stone railings, watching the morning mechanics of the city roll in. It was fascinating: gondoliers paddling tourists on their morning adventures, delivery boats dropping off crates of fresh food for the restaurants, and even specialized garbage boats coming by to clean up the alleyways. Absolutely everything in this city floats.
Nighttime in Venice quickly became our absolute favorite part of the trip. The second the massive crowds of cruise-ship day-trippers left, the island completely slowed down and breathed a sigh of relief.
As the sun set, every single stone road started looking identical. The legendary travel writer Rick Steves once said that getting lost in Venice is the best way to experience it, and he wasn’t wrong. We ended up completely turned around, eventually sitting down on a wooden dock at the edge of a dead-end street, looking across the water at about the tenth alleyway we thought led to our hotel. We just sat there quietly, watching the soft lights of the nightlife reflect on the calm canal. It was the absolute perfect ending to our time on the island.
Couple sitting on a dock in Venice, Italy.
The next morning, we headed to the train station to make our way to Florence. And yes—I left the big ass suitcase at home this time!