Venice, Venice, Venice. What can we say? If we said we were disappointed, you probably won't believe it. Let us say it now: Venice is beautiful. Don't get us wrong. The city itself IS the attraction. You will not get anymore romance than that. It IS the city that charms and seduces you, the walls, the alleys and tiny trattorias serving spritzes and chicattas that leaves you wanting more. The appeal and magic stop, however, as soon as you have tourists from all corners of the world with their massive SLRs elbowing you to get the a photo shot or when you have your toes stepped on while trying to get in queue to get some tickets for a church that stays open at the most inconvenient hours in summer time. It was anti-climax. Matrix 2 (and 3) if you know what we mean.
The moments that will probably stay in our hearts were probably the times Robin took us into darker and smaller alleys just to escape the crowds and we discovered a snippet of what Venice would be like if not for people, enjoying jazz music in quiet bar, sampling chicattas in a traditional trattoria. Another highlight will be stepping out of Venice main train station. What you see is breath-taking. Straight to the post card water views that you expect from Venice. So it is disappointing for us to tell you it was disappointing as well.
We didn't do the gondola ride, we didn't go into St Mark's church and we did not loiter around St Mark Piazza. Basically all the so called "major attractions". We are not suggesting that you don't do these things if you are ever in Venice but it felt like a wrong kind of romance. Overpriced and overrated.
We wandered to ourselves: How much of the "real" Venice is left today, we do not know. 20 million on average come through to this city on water... How much of what it is, is retained and how much is moulded from the simple economics of supply and demand?
The saving grace was that by chance before we arrived in Venice, we stumbled onto a posted advertising the 88th anniversary for the Arena in Verona. We had booked ourselves in for Aida after Venice. We were definitely looking forward to it.
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