My two weeks in Venice was an incredible experience and I can literally
spend every year for the rest of my life visiting it and not coming close to uncovering all that it has to uncover.
From the large Campos to the small and unassuming churches, there is always going to be something that I will find interesting
and beautiful.
First, I love Venice and it is probably my most favorite European City to visit. And
just why do I love it so much? I love it because it is unique, it's beautiful, there's so much history and art, the
local Venetian residents are wonderful, colorful and so hardworking, I love the beautiful churches (Thanks again AnnieNC),
the intimate Campos, the canals and bridges, the Vaporetto rides, the food, gelato and prosecco and I love the wonderful traditions
and celebrations. I miss it everyday that I am away.
I think I paced myself quite well, considering this was my first real Slow Travel
experience staying in one place for more than a week. I had a couple of Day trips, a couple of structured tours, an
overnight day trip and many days and nights of wandering around in a relaxing way. The transportation preparations worked
out really well (lesson learned from my previous two trips) and my dining experiences were much better (thanks to Chow Venice).
I had many beautiful surprises (thanks to Annie's Article) in visiting the many churches and intimate Campos throughout Venice
- - a passion that I will most likely continue with in Spain (my next destination). I think what I learned to do more
on this trip thanks to Annie was to also pay better attention to the details of what I was seeing and experiencing.
This is something I hope to improve upon more as I practice and get better at it.
My regrets: I really wished that I had had visited San Marco
Basilica. I did many years ago and I intended to visit it again on this trip, but waited until the day before I left
to do so. But on that last day we finally had clear, sunny weather (after about 2-3 days of rainy weather), and I decided
to spend it enjoying walking around the City instead. If I had to do it over again, I would have gone to visit
it. And same goes for the Accademia museum.
Although I don't regret doing the group tour to the Dolomites, if I were do return to Venice
again, I would probably rent a car and drive up or take a train there on my own and spend a couple of nights in a small town
somewhere. It really doesn't seem like it would be hard to do. When I was in the passenger seat of the group
tour van I really paid attention to the roads and know this to be true. Next trip!
There's really not much more that I would do differently.
What can I say? Another successful Solo Trip. I want to thank the
Slow Travel Community and to the founders Pauline and Steve for creating Slow Travel. Since I joined up nearly 4 years
ago, it has really changed the way I travel and it has improved my life.
