24 hours in Venice

In a city that is notorious for its tremendous masses of tourists, how long is too long? For me, the answer is 24 hours.

It’s not that I didn’t like Venice, on the contrary. It’s utterly beautiful in its imperfections and laid out in a way that was completely new to me. I didn’t fully comprehend the omnipresence of canals and water in this town until I had to navigate them – foolishly, perhaps, I was convinced that my idea of Venice was simply the result of a carefully constructed, hyped-up aura of picture-perfect Pinterest images and glossy magazines. I can definitely see why Venice such a crowd-pleaser.

And indeed – if the number of new likes I got on my Instagram from my Venice photos are any indication, people loooove them some Venice.

But just a few hours into my visit I faced the realisation that it wouldn’t be love at first sight. As someone who daydreams about moving to each city I visit, it was unsettling to not have that feeling in Venice. No one could pay me enough money to live here, I thought.

Venice is a unique city – and that is not an understatement – that I’m happy to have seen. But for me, it’s just yet another place you have to visit once in a lifetime for the sake of it, kind of like the Santa Monica boardwalk or the Eiffel Tower. Deep down, I know I’m not in any rush to go back.

But Venice deserves come credit – if anyone enjoyed Venice that day it’s my camera. here’s everything I did in my rather short, bucket-list-friendly, but somewhat underwhelming 24 hours in Venice.

I ate ALL of the Italian food.

I aimlessly wandered in Venice’s maze-like streets.

I took in the iconic sights.

I ticked items off my photography bucket list.

I only stayed 24 hours in Venice. And then I left without looking back, with a feeling of a mission accomplished.