Benvenuti!

Welcome to my blog about Italy!

After four years venturing around many beautiful places, from mountains and islands to cities and country villages, I have decided to create a blog. One of the main reasons is to keep all of my photos and memories together in one place - even though many photos were taken with a small, cloudy smartphone lens!  And to remember all of the fantastic restaurants I have stumbled upon.

Venezia

So, starting off with one of my favourite cities - a truly charismatic place - Venice!

Venice was my first glimpse of Italy! It was a cold February evening. I had been shuffled out of the airport taxi and onto a water taxi, studying my map and feeling a little disorientated. I remember a dark, icy and very wet place. It would have been intimidating if hadn't been for clusters of other lost tourists studying their maps as well and disagreeing with each other in various languages about which way to go - the language of being lost is universal. I know now that I was below the steps of Santa Lucia train station, at the foot of the Ponte degli Scalzi, and I should have been staying at a hotel I had booked at nearby. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the hotel. So I was cold, laden with baggage, tired and lost - in the snow. I remember going into a random hotel and asking if there might be vacancies - "of course" replied the man at reception "all our rooms are vacant". I accepted the room, despite feeling unnerved that the hotel I had chosen was completely empty of other guests - suitcase behind the door that night then.

On the following morning, once I had my train ticket for the onward journey to Vicenza safely in hand, I headed out of the main entrance at Santa Lucia and - wow. The sun was shining down on the Grand Canal and Venice became everything I now know it to be. It was colourful, busy and eclectic. Clumsy water taxis bobbed around whilst the gondolas glided across a back drop of greens, oranges and yellows. Tourists gathered everywhere, taking photos, buying maps or tickets for the boats, eating ice-cream and lounging on the Ponte degli Scalzi. Pigeons watched from the ledges of the Scalzi church or dodged the many pedestrians in search of crumbs. It seemed completely different from the previous evening.

On that first evening trip, my journey on a water taxi was relatively calm and peaceful but I have to say, that wasn't really the norm. I remember many occasions when we were packed onto the decks of the boat. One particular time, I had slotted in at the last moment and thought there would be no way any more people would attempt to board. I was wrong. As the taxi gate was fastened tight, I was pushed up against the side of the overcrowded vessel wondering if the catastrophe cover on my travel insurance extended to a boat capsizing.

This was all in the late winter and springtime of 2005 as a fresh-faced Erasmus student and I no intentions of returning to Italy long term. However, I would visit Venice again 6 years later as a far more savvy Italian resident- taking my Pugliese boyfriend along with me, speaking the language with the locals and well, still getting lost.