Venice for me represent my adulthood. I moved there when I was 19 for attending college and there I started my experience of living without my parents. The first time that I visited Venice I had to take the University entrance exam and even though I was nervous as soon as I arrived I started feeling at ease. Since I arrived in the early morning I saw the city waking up, people exiting their houses and greeting each others, tourists walking with a confused faces while watching a map (worst tool for Venice in my opinion) boat bringing in and out pallet of food and stuffs. Seeing all of that helped me to relax and fronting my exam with more confidence.
Finally after a month I discovered that I passed the exam and that I just had 1 week for finding a flat and moving there before the beginning of classes. This freaked me out, I didn’t know what to do and since I was running out of time and I had 0 experience on moving somewhere else. Fortunately my parents helped me a lot, they found that another girl from my hometown was going to attend my same college and that she was looking for someone. We met and immediately we were positive about living together, therefore on the same day we went to Venice for house hunting. The house hunting was full of: weird landlords, horrible flats, lots of steps and hundreds of thousands of runts. But in the end we found the perfect house. The flat was big an bright, everything seemed new and the landlord seemed a decent lady. And just with a simple signature my experience in Venice begun.
At the beginning It was hard getting used to this new lifestyle. First of all Venice is not a regular city, since there are no cars everything has to be done by feet or with a boat, therefore buying 14l of mineral water and bringing them home sometimes is as hard ad a workout (mostly if you are not an athletic person). Moreover, since maps are confusing and google maps doesn’t work in Venice, going somewhere when you are not familiar with the city can be difficult. I got lost hundreds times during the first two weeks trying to figure it out how to arrive at the train station or even to class. But don’t worry you’re going to get used to it soon and everything will be smooth.
I understood that getting lost in Venice is the only way to visit it fully, and that’s amazing. I know walking around San Marco Square, doing shopping and enjoining the “Italian” experience is extremely attractive. But if you are trying to look for the actual Venetian Spirit I think that seeing how people leave and enjoining the city’s routine is the bets method to be 100% involved in the city. Therefore If you have the occasion tear apart your map turn off the phone and start walking without a direction with only curiosity in your mind. How does that sound? Interesting?
After getting used to this new life time I started to enjoy the city to the fullest, visiting places, eating delicious food, doing aperitivo in the best places and meeting amazing people. Little by little this beautiful city became a huge part of me and even though I don’t live there anymore there is still a deep connection with Venice
Which city represent adulthood for you? Let me know because I am interested in knowing more about it.
Salut my dearest.
Am I an Adult? 