confusion

Ah, Venice [wikipedia.org]. Possibly the most romantic city in the world. But… like most well known romantic cities Venice knows how romantic it is which means it’s really easy to spend a lot of money and get jaded by too many tourists, expensive hotels and overpriced food.

Luckily this did not happen to Candice and I. I think, despite my being a bit depressed over the loss of my camera, that we have a good time in Venice. We only stayed three days and did not get to see everything but we had a good time. We even did a few overly touristy things; a gondola [wikipedia.org] ride with accordion and live singing accompaniment, and a trip around the lagoon to three of the other islands, Murano [wikipedia.org], Burano [wikipedia.org] and Torcello [wikipedia.org].

The food in Venice was very good. We ate at a couple of local taverns suggested by one of the staff at our hotel and while it was not the best food we ate in Italy it was quite good and not too expensive. The atmosphere was fun too; cramped into tiny tables back to back with other customers with waiters squeezing past to bring the bowls of soup and plates of pasta. Perfect.

I think that the reason Venice is such a wonderful place to visit comes down to only a few things; the lack of cars and roads, the canals and water and the age of the buildings. These combine in Venice is to create a wonderful ‘living ruins’ feeling. The water is slowly eating away at everything making sure the old building always look old, the small twisting streets make the place feel more ancient, you can’t even see a car and the fact that people really do live in Venice—and the shops and services for the people who call the islands home are mixed with the shops and services for the tourist hordes.

I think I would really like to take Candice back to Venice in the summer so we can sit outside at cafes along the canals and drink a good bottle of wine. Take long walks in the warm evening air and explore more of the back streets away for the Grand Canal [wikipedia.org] and see the many sites we did not have time to take in in the few days we were in Venice.

Verona [wikipedia.org] is supposed to be a romantic city for lovers. A good stop you would say for a honeymoon? Well I won’t be remembering it for it’s romantic qualities, not from this trip. You see it was while getting off the train in fair Verona where I lost my camera. Not quite a Shakespearean tragedy but a quick way to ruin my day nonetheless.

I tried to enjoy Verona. Took a few photos with the Ixus I purchased for Candice before the trip—she insisted I keep it to make me feel better, which did make it easier to put aside my desire to sit in a pub and try to find my missing camera in the bottom of a few too many bottles of good Italian wine (and maybe something stronger.)

So. Only a few photos from Verona but I feel I should still post an entry for completeness. On the bright side I should mention that we had our first really good Italian food at a small tavern in Verona. Possibly the best gnocchi I’ve ever had and it was not even on the menu. The chef made it because they did not have any other vegetarian dishes that day. One more reason that Italians are better than French in my worldview.

You can see a few more photos in the Verona, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com]