Ciao Amici!
And greetings from Venice. This city is remarkable, and I
have some advice for those of you planning on travel to Italy. If you’re like I am, the last thing you
want to do when you’re in Europe on vacation (or anywhere else, for that
matter) is spend your time with other Americans. I don’t mean that in a snobbish way. (Well, ok, maybe a little lol) But… I’m
around Americans every day. When I
visit another country I want to experience the culture, the people, the natives.
Well, if you want to visit a city in Italy where you can
almost totally avoid other tourists, the best place I’ve been is Venice. No kidding. Of course you’ll meet plenty of Americans in St. Mark’s
Square. (And Germans, and English,
and Japanese.) But off the main
tourist locales, this is a city of small byways and tiny squares where only the Venetians visit.
You can walk for hours and hear not another voice, nothing but the click
of your own heels on cobblestone echoing from the surrounding stucco.
Pick another city in Italy – Rome, Florence – and your
fellow travelers are unavoidable.
Sometimes I think there are more Americans in Firenze than Fiorentini! Not here. I just sat for an hour in the most elegant square, soaking up
the sun, watching Venetian mothers push their children in strollers, the old
women gossiping on a nearby bench… This
is what we travel for!
So come to Rome. Come to Florence. You must see those cities. But when you’ve seen The Coliseum, and the Roman Forum, and
the Uffizi, and you want to take a few days or a week to immerse yourself in
Italian culture… come to Venice.
Until next week!
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