Venice, or Venezia in Italian, is probably the most beautiful cities Minha Namorada and I have ever seen. Wherever we walked, we couldn’t help but stare at all the beautiful buildings nearby.

One important thing to know about Venice before visiting is that there are no cars, or motorized vehicles of any type. In fact, it was only on one island where we even saw bicycles, and those were owned by little kids. So, if you aren’t into walking, including many stairs, then Venice isn’t for you. Minha Namorada and I didn’t know this when we first arrived, and so we had some confusing times searching for a taxi stand; there are taxis, but only water taxis, which are expensive, and they can’t even take you everywhere. Generally speaking, you’ll do better to buy a water bus pass for however long you are there – Venice isn’t big, so you can easily walk lots of places, but if you need to get to the other side of the canal, a short distance can still be a long walk if you need to find a bridge. Minha Namorada also found it was wonderful to ride the water bus and see the sites.

Minha Namorada and I probably chose one of the best times to visit Venice, as we arrived when there was the Covid-19 scare, but nothing was shut down yet. That started about 36 hours after we left. So, we had a city that was nearly empty, but all the stores were still open. We got discounts at every store we went to, and never had to wait in line once. The only place we weren’t able to visit was St. Mark’s Basilica, which was only open for prayer – we still went and prayed, but there was obviously much more inside that we couldn’t explore. If you could be guaranteed to not get sick, I’d highly recommend you visit a place right before a plague hits.

When in Venice, you’ll see all these things that look like tables stacked near buildings. Minha Namorada and I couldn’t figure out why until out last day, when we saw first-hand an obvious fact about Venice; it floods a lot. The tables are actually mobile elevated walkways that they move so that you can get around the City even when the water level is high. Some stores get flooded, but they just discount that merchandise, and continue about their day. Flooding is just a part of life in Venice. As much as you might save money on the discounted merchandise, you don’t want it. The water in the Venice canals is not very clean at all.


Venice is a very expensive city. Even meeting other tourists, they complained about the prices. The cheapest places we found to drink were actually Irish Pubs. And, it is always interesting to see one culture’s take on another culture. McDonald’s was the same, as always, though. Even so, Minha Namorada and I spoke extensively about how nice it would be to move there.
The airport in Venice takes quite a long time to get to. It is over an hour from the grand canal to the airport (again, by boat – not included in your normal water-bus pass), and then probably a fifteen minute walk to get from one side of the airport to the ticket counter.