My day trip to Venice was an interesting experience. I was amazed by the amount of tourists all around and the beauty of the small streets within the canals. It was not the nicest of days but the experiences we had made it worth it, even though there were a few strange occurrences. Overall, I was able to walk around the squares, go on a gondola ride, and see the crowds of tourists on tours of the city.
Speaking of the gondola ride, my friends almost made the guy lose his license.
We didn’t do it on purpose, but there is a rule that there can only be six people on the ride at a time but we had seven people. Sure, we could have split up and gone on two rides, but it was the tale end of our trip so we were all running out of money and each ride was $80. I simply did not have an extra $30 laying in my pocket that I could spend on a ride (I would much rather spend that kind of money at a bar). So we stood by the gondola men for a while discussing our options when the guy says to us that he can take us on the ride, but only through the canals instead of the entire tour. We agreed because it didn’t matter how long we were on the ride, all that mattered was that we got to experience it. So we all squeezed in a small boat and went merrily on our way. Right when we got off the boat, the man mentioned that he could have lost his license for that, so we quickly paid him and the ran away.
That was not the only strange encounter my friends and I had in Venice. When we first got to the city via water taxi, we decided to get some lunch. We ventured to Piazza San Marco and found a small restaurant in the middle of the square. We figured this was the perfect place as it was in the middle of all the action. Wrong. It was the worst meal in my entire life. I went into the trip thinking that Italy had the best food so I would never have a bad meal. I was clearly mistaken. It was a sandwich and pizza place, things you would think would be hard to mess up. Wrong. My friends and I all ordered sandwiches and we were very surprised when they came out looking like a thrown together, not fresh, store bought pieces of crap. Unfortunately, we were in too deep at that point and way to hungry not to eat anything so we scarfed down those disgusting sandwiches. Not only was the food gross, but the service was not much better. My friend ordered the same sandwich as me but it didn’t come when everyone else’s food came. We waited and waited and eventually asked our waiter if her food was coming. It wasn’t. The kitchen did not have her order. So then she ordered again (keep in mind we already are aware the food is gross). We waited and waited again until finally her sandwich came out. Nope. It was the wrong sandwich. So they take it back. At this point we are all finished with our food and are fed up by this place so we cancel her order, pay for the pieces of cardboard, and leave. Lesson learned: do not buy food in the most touristy parts of the city.
Other than that, Venice was actually very beautiful and I understand why it is such a popular tourist destination. If it was any other group of people, I’m sure they would have had an amazing time without taking so many losses, but since it was my friends I’m not surprised at all by the experience we had.