Venice, Italy

The morning after the wedding in Lake Garda began with me saying my goodbyes to everyone. Still unsure as to where to travel next, there were three options on my mind; Rome, Venice, or Florence. I knew that I had a handful of friends still traveling around Italy that I could meet up with, but instead chose to to venture out on my own to Venice. But before leaving, I needed more cappuccino and to see everything around Lake Garda.

Usually after a wedding, my camera does not get used. I don't even want to see that damn thing for a week due to being so burnt out from photographing all day. So the camera stayed in my bag for the entirety of the day. After a three hour journey, I finally made it to Venice and walked out of the train terminal only to be immediately overwhelmed by the grandeur of Venice. I had no idea where to even begin, and just walked around taking in the sights, drinking beer, eating, and talking to random tourists. At a certain point, I made the decision to find a hotel to stay in, but all of them were too expensive, and instead decided to find a hostel. Arriving there, I was so relieved. I was sick of the backpack and wanted to take it off, and hurriedly walked up to the door, only to realize that the building was locked. I stood there disappointed and rang the bell, then knocked on the door to no avail. Resolving to find a hotel I began to walk away from the hostel, but low and behold, the door opened and a guy walked out. Luckily for me, the person that walked out was an American named Alston. He explained to me that the front desk guy was out for a walk and would be back in about forty-five minutes. So instead of waiting, we dropped my cumbersome backpack in his room, and decided to get some pizza and hangout in St. Mark's Square. The best part of the night was honestly not having my camera or bag on me. It almost felt as if the weight of the world was off of my shoulders. I just sat there in the moment eating pizza and listening to an orchestra playing classical Italian music in the square for an hour. Sidenote: Brooklyn Pizza is still the best pizza that I have ever had.

The next morning I woke up in probably the shittiest room that I have ever stayed in my life. It was musty and looked like a jail cell with its concrete walls and two uncomfortable beds. I could feel the humidity in the air and on my skin. In the bathroom there was a toilet and drain to shower over, with little separation between the two. I looked at it and decided that I was just going to get a hotel room for the next couple of days and shower there instead. Alston and I decided to do a little more touring around Venice while eating breakfast quiche and drinking cappuccino before he left for his next destination. As a thank you, I decided to take some photos of him to have from his time in Venice. We decided to go back to the same square from the previous night and do a quick shoot. After we were done, he helped me find my hotel, and departed.

Americans in Venice outside of our hostel.

After sleeping in for most of the day, it was time to venture outside of my hotel to find some food. I had my heart set on something Mediterranean, but instead ate a steak and drank some bee. The steak was terrible. Now remember, my reasoning for going to Venice was so I could be by myself. Well while walking back to my hotel, I saw a something that I wanted to take a picture of, and ran back into my hotel room. Upon exiting, there was a young lady standing in front of the door, looking intensely at a map. She happened to notice me and looked directly into my eyes. While gawking awkwardly at each other, I finally snapped to and said "Molly"!?

Molly is one of my favorite classmates from the Art Institute of Colorado and an extremely talented photographer. She was on a summer art trip with her new school, and was studying in Venice for a week. When I saw her, she had gotten lost and was trying to figure out where she was while out shopping for a birthday present for her mother. After catching up for about ten minutes, she invited me to join her while she shopped.

While on our little adventure, Molly showed me some of the photos that she had taken on her trip so far. I don't know what it was about her photos, but it triggered something inside me, and I decided to actually start taking some photos. The way I figured it, I would probably never get to photograph in Venice again, and I needed to take advantage of it.

That five hours of walking around and taking pictures was possibly one of the most refreshing evenings that I have ever had. Feeling somewhat reinvigorated creatively, Molly and I ended the evening sitting outside of a restaruant drinking a bottle of wine and talking our respective trips thus far. She walked me back to my hotel and then we said our good byes.

Pain in my lower legs woke me up the next morning. All of the walking that I did over a week and half with the wrong shoes and a heavy back pack had finally caught up to me. I felt it happening a few days before, but just attributed it to being out of shape and kept powering through. Pretty much most of the next two days was spent in bed editing wedding photos, only venturing out for food. At one point I happened to find a barber shop next to a restaurant that I was dining in and decided that I needed a shave. When I went in there were a few people ahead of me and I was the last person. It was my first time with someone using a straight razor on me, but I wasn't scared until the barber shut the curtains and then locked the door. As soon as he did that, I instantly thought about Sweeney Todd and started to freak out while formulating a survival plan in my head just in case anything happened. Luckily I lived through the ordeal came out with a smooth shave.

My final night in Venice was spent drinking with a lovely Irish couple that I met in the bar down the street from my hotel. We drank and laughed our asses off until they had to call it a night, which left me to wander around and take pictures of Venice's night life. After sleeping a few hours, I checked out of my hotel at five in the morning and then walked down eerily empty streets to catch my train and head back to Paris to complete the final leg of my trip.