Yeah so it looks like I’m wearing fur – but it’s faux so don’t get your knickers in a knot just yet. I’m in Venice and pretending to be rich and fabulously non-chalant.
As soon as I arrive in Venice, I really need to take a good hard look at my surroundings and assess – is this place for real? Literally trying to imagine it in its hey-day when it was a bustling trading port, with cultures from all over the world meeting on the canals blows my mind. Like St Mark’s cathedral and its ornate gold tiles and fabulous paintings and sculptures, and the moving brass people on the top of the clock tower that actually strike their clubs when the time hits the hour. It really makes me wonder if civilisation will ever be so civilised again! The craftsmanship, the architecture, the marble carvings. The skills that people had in this time are skills that humanity may never have with such precision again.
We stayed at Hotel Bel Sito e Berlino. The room was everything that I hoped! Golden wallpaper, glass rose chandeliers – loved the rich Venetian decor.
Our favourite dinner spot was Vino Vino. Completely unpretentious good food. Go for the polenta dishes. I had polenta and calamari and could have eaten it a dozen times over. The local Venetian wine on the menu was on point too. They know their stuff.
I thought about Venice the next morning after my delicious meal and waking up to my lavish room – it really is the most beautiful place with its meandering canals and churches. But, and this is my only but – it to me is not a living city anymore. It is purely a tourist city. The immense culture that it did have is lacking now compared to other Italian cities that I have visited. My old man describes it as Disneyland for adults and it really is that. It leaves itself up to your imagination to transport you back in time. Still, despite this, it is really something to see – especially sitting down on a secluded edge of the canal with a bottle of wine in hand, watching the sunset with someone spesh.
Go, but don’t expect the real thing.
Pave & Pave Creative 