I left the Venice Santa Lucia station with high hopes for the day. My group and I had just spent the past hour on the train discussing our plans: find some Venetian street food for lunch, take a highly rated walking tour through Venice, visit St. Mark’s Basilica, eat supper at a hole-in-the-wall authentic Italian restaurant, and then catch our 8:00pm train to Verona. To me, it sounded like the perfect day in Venice. Little did we know what the next eight hours had in store for us.
We were starving and couldn’t stop thinking about the street food, so we immediately set about finding lunch. After walking down the narrow streets of Venice, we stumbled upon a small Italian restaurant serving tramezzini veneziani (a Venetian sandwich that uses crustless white bread stuffed with various fillings) and other classic Italian dishes, and we sat down to eat. I ordered a tramezzini veneziani stuffed with ham and mushrooms and was a bit shocked at the sheer amount of mayonnaise-like substance in the filling. But I was hungry, so I quickly ate it before we hustled out of the crowded restaurant to find the start of our walking tour.
After waiting for quite a while and wondering if we were in the right place, an old man finally approached our group and introduced himself as Francesco. Almost immediately, he bragged about giving the longest walking tour in Venice. It must be a great tour, we thought. After all, it had great reviews. Unfortunately for us, we quickly realized Francesco was the slowest, grouchiest tour guide in all of Venice. Possibly all of Italy. We’d been hoping to see the main attractions of Venice and learn about the history behind them, but instead Francesco dubbed himself a “Backstreet Boy” and shuffled slowly down a side street as the six of us and one bewildered German couple trailed behind. No wonder the tour was three hours long. From there, we sat through a painfully slow half hour lecture from Francesco before one of the girls claimed to be sick and gave us an excuse to leave early.
Feeling down and a little defeated, we decided to find somewhere to sit, warm up, and regroup. A café on the ground floor of a hotel felt sufficient, and so we ordered espressos as a little pick-me-up and left the café feeling a bit better than before.
Occasionally while walking, we’d remind ourselves “We’re in Italy!” as an attempt to bring back the excitement we’d felt before we wasted a very precious hour waiting for and walking with Francesco. Unfortunately for us, our excitement only lasted for a few minutes. Soon after leaving the café, I felt a rain drop. Before we knew it, we were wandering the streets of Venice in the cold February rain.
Cold and wet, we stumbled off the streets and into a nearby museum. This might’ve been the highlight of Venice for me, and it was entirely accidental. I’d never heard of or intended on visiting Scuola Grande di san Rocco, but I am so glad we did. It was a three-story building covered in floor to ceiling murals, and it was completely breathtaking (and warm and dry, which was an added bonus).
After spending quite some time in the museum, we decided to tough out the rain and make our way to St. Mark’s Basilica before the sun set. Although the rain had flooded the sidewalks and made walking through the streets a bit miserable, watching the rain drops hit the water in the canals was very picturesque.
Finally, the rain cleared as we walked into St. Mark’s Square, and we were able to spend the rest of our evening relatively dry. We ended the night with an affogato (a scoop gelato with a shot of espresso poured over top) from a café near the train station and felt very relieved to have no trouble catching our train to Verona for the night.
Although our day in Venice came with a few bumps in the road, it was still an incredible experience. Even in the rain, Venice is such a beautiful city with so many places to see and things to do. Although our day didn’t go exactly according to plan, I think it’s important to remember to look on the bright side. Traveling through Europe as a study abroad student is bound to come with some unexpected problems, but when I think back on my day in Venice, I won’t dwell on them. Instead, I’ll think of the raindrops on the canal, the affogato, and the laughs we had after our very odd interaction with the slowest guide in all of Italy, Francesco.
Until next time,
Sydney