A week ago, I was nearly going to skip Venice, thinking I didn't really have much time to play with in Italy. It turns out I'm now spending five days in Florence and six days in Rome!
Venice or Venezia is a pretty cool city. Being set on an island almost completely surrounded by water and with no road traffic, makes Venice very unique. When leaving today, we saw cement being made and wood being chopped on a boat in the river. It really makes you wonder how the city was built and what compelled the people to start building it the way it is.
I spent all my time in Venice with Andrew, an American guy who has been teaching English in Barcelona for the last six months. He's currently travelling around Europe before he goes home. Together, we explored the city, getting lost in quiet alleys where only the locals were and making full use of our time to enjoy food and drink the Italian way. We felt guilty not delving on sights like Basilica di San Marco or Palazzo Ducale, so we ended up going for an Interpreti Veneziani concert in Chiesa di San Vidal last night as suggested by my friend, Kyna. While we didn't get to hear Vivaldi's Four Seasons, we still had an hour and a half of very awesome classical music. The musicians exercised (literally!) so much passion and precision with their craft, it really blew us away.
Although Venice is very touristy, it was interesting to see the crowds disappear at night and experience silence in certain places even during the day. Personally, I think Venice is at its best at night - quietly beautiful but also enchantingly dark and mysterious.
Andrew and I had some interesting conversations in Venice, particularly about "what if's". What if he didn't go to Barcelona? Before going to Barcelona, he was set on going to law school. After having been in Barcelona, he's decided on a different path having had the idea and time of looking into the profession more deeply. Similarly, I think, what if I had not embarked on this journey? Recently, I've been thinking a lot about my life at home and what it would be like to return. There are also a lot of questions I've been trying to figure out that I probably would not have thought about if I hadn't left Brisbane. This makes me wonder, is travelling really good for the soul? Obviously, it opens us up to new opportunities and horizons, but would we have been peacefully content with our old lives had we not decided to opt for change?
I know that I definitely would have been unhappy if I never took the plunge and travelled this year. I just had to do it. Funnily enough through the conversations with Andrew, I realised that before I left, it was the thought of being away from home for so long that spurred more anxiety in me than the thought of travelling alone.
I'm now off to Florence (or Firenze) on another set of three trains. I have a feeling the Renaissance city will not have me lazing about like I did in Venice. Thank goodness for the five days I'm going to have there!
