I’ve started off my Italian adventure in the north as I make my way south. Unlike with a lot of the other countries, I’m spending a pretty significant amount of time here – almost 3 weeks. This is for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that I decided that I didn’t want to rush through it when there were so many places I really wanted to see in Italy. I still really want to get to Greece, but it’ll have to wait for the next European trip I do.

For now, I’m spending a bit more time than typically while I travel through Italy. Technically, my Italian adventure started in Milan – but I only spent 1 day there and didn’t do much as it was a stop over for rest as I was feeling a bit run down. My main adventure started when I got to Venice…sorta.

Sick

So my big Venice and Verona adventure took an unexpected turn when I got to the hostel. I had felt a bit run down in Milan, and had started to get a bit of a cough, but nothing that was really impacting me in the grand scheme of things. That all changed when I got to Venice. It was raining all day the day I got there so while I had originally planned to head into Venice proper (I was staying on the mainland), I decided to spend the day relaxing instead. It wasn’t long before I started to feel even worse and not only had the cough but a runny nose.

I wasn’t excited about that, but I had built in an extra day so I decided to do nothing the next day and focus on nipping this before it could become something major. I stopped by the pharmacy to get something to help and hoped that one day would be enough. Except I woke up with a full blown cold. Was barely able to breathe due to build up, and was still coughing pretty regularly due to drainage. Frankly I was pretty miserable. I decided that I would have to extend my stay because I wasn’t doing anything until I felt better but I wasn’t going to miss out on seeing Venice or Verona. I even ended up moving to a private hotel room for 2 nights since the second night at the hostel a bunch of new people came in including at least one snorer (in the bunk above me no less) and the amount of sleep I got was pitiful. I needed sleep if I was going to get better. Hell, I moved over to hotel feeling a bit better but by the time I moved, got food for the night and next day, I was already dragging again as it took way too much energy.

I shouldn’t be surprised – the truth is that I’ve been pretty go-go-go for the last 3 months and while I’ve taken some rest days, I probably haven’t taken as many as I should’ve. So even though it sucked – it was also really good to take a couple of days for me and recover. The cold thankfully was gone quickly and I just had a slight cough that lingered for an extra day. I’m fully recovered now and planning to take it a bit easier (though honestly that might have to wait to be fully true until I leave Italy as I only have a limited amount of time left before I have to leave due to my visa).

Venice

On the day I moved back to the hostel from the hotel – I did it early enough that I had a full day still available to do things so I headed into Venice. It’s only a 10 minute train ride from where my hostel was and only cost 1.5 euro. Fast, easy, and convenient.

Mostly I did what I’ve been doing for the majority of my trips – I just wandered around the city getting lost and ignoring my GPS. It was great to see. I’ve always heard amazing things about Venice and have wanted to go for years. My mom for instance is a huge fan – she went to Italy when I was in high school and absolutely loved Venice – it was her favorite part of her Italian trip. While I can’t say I feel as strongly about the city as she does (okay – not at all), I did enjoy wandering around and seeing everything. I did absolutely love the canals, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise. I’m a huge fan of water of all types in case me setting up to eat at or enjoy time at ever lake and river I’ve come across on my trip wasn’t telling enough.

For me though – Venice is a true tourist city. It’s busy, loud, even a bit dirty compared to many other European cities. While there are definitely some places that are less busy – those are mainly the more residential type of neighborhoods. Not only that, but there is almost no where to sit at all – in fact it’s literally against the law to sit many places throughout the city. That vastly limits what you can do. I spent around 10 hours there and besides the one cafe I went into and the restaurant I ate dinner at – I wasn’t able to sit anywhere. The closest I got was near a university (I think) where there were some students sitting on a step of what I think was a uni building. It just wasn’t relaxing, it was a city you had to be constantly on the move. A great place to visit and see things – but not a great place to spend an extended amount of time in in my opinion.

That being said – I did end up doing a gondola ride! I had been keeping an eye on the chat for the hostel and saw an ask for people who wanted to split the cost of a gondola. There were five of us (the max who could sit on the gondola) and it took the cost from 90 euro to 20. Definitely worth the money, though I do want to go back one day and do one during the day or even right at sunset. Due to one of the groups schedule we ended up going for a night ride which was nice but it would’ve been cool to see more in the sunlight.

Verona

Unlike Venice – I liked Verona a lot more. It definitely has it’s busy areas but it also had areas where I could sit and relax without worry. Parks actually existed!

I only had a day trip there and it took an hour to get there and an hour to get back, so I went with a bit of an agenda. I’d love to go back and fully explore the city especially by walking aimlessly in the future. For this trip though – I had a bit of mission. I wanted to see the Arena and Juliet’s balcony. I got to do both and then some.

I started with the Arena, which honestly I didn’t realize was a big as it is. I wish that I could’ve gone down and walked onto the ground and seen it all from the center. It would’ve been great to see it all from the ground floor and see the magnitude of it all, but that wasn’t included in the general ticket that I paid for. There were also some back end type of areas that you could see if you paid for a tour. Maybe one day. As it was, the view from the top of all of the steps was amazing, both of the arena itself and the city. It’s crazy how big it is, yet made of stone and by hand. It is easily as big as most modern stadiums and yet it’s made completely by stone. It was a bit funny to see and hear the modern toilets in this stone structure, a true disconnect.

Juliet’s balcony, statue, and courtyard were definitely worth the trip. But also a bit of a letdown. I think that had more to do with the number of people there though. I would’ve liked to have gone early or maybe late enough that there weren’t as many people around – but I still enjoyed the time. I was able to get some great pictures of me too as a couple of people who asked me to take their picture were willing to return the favor. I didn’t go into the museum, nor did I visit her tomb (which is another site in the city), but I did enjoy the courtyard. One of my favorite movies is “Letters to Juliet” and while it was sad to see that some things (like the benches and letters on the wall) weren’t like they were in the movie – it was great to see that some are. And I learned the why – the benches wouldn’t be a good idea with the massive amount of people that frequent it everyday. As for the letters – from what I’ve deduced – they used to be left in the wall like we see in the movie, but it’s changed over time. There was still a wall with some letters – it was just fairly small. There was also a letter box with information on where to send letters. As there really is a club that answers letters addressed to Juliet.

After visiting those areas, I did do some wandering and that brought me to pretty high up in the city where I was able to watch a gorgeous sunset before I headed back to the station for the hour ride home. Back at the hostel, I was ended up having a fun game night with some of the people that I met in Venice for the gondola ride and then met some others that joined us. It was a great end to the day – though I definitely stayed up way too late overall.