Roaming the World Series: All things Venetian

Before I even start listing out why I am in love with this city-island, let me begin from the time we first arrived at the hotel.

You must understand when we reached Venice, it was like we had run a marathon and finally, finally we had caught up with civilization and not just any civilization but it was one with beds, showers, gelato, pizza and where one can buy food without buying coupons, where one can have a bathe without pulling onto an archaic piece of rope hung on a pipe to release water. You must understand, Venice was that proper place for humanity especially for humans like us who had just endured three days of drunken music festivities.

The festival took place in Brussels and if you’re wondering why we ended up there out of all the awesome line-ups everywhere in Europe – it was simply because of timing. It was the only festival with acts that we fitted in our schedule and apparently it was the only festival with us as the only Asians in attendance, tanned Asians. I don’t mean to highlight this fact or single us out in a race-y kinda way but when everyone else there were majorly blonde and blue-eyed and we were constantly being stared at cause we were so tanned and tanned, one would really feel quite stared at.

I didn’t mind it at all, cause we were preoccupied at everything else and enjoying ourselves with the music, mussels and huge-ass watermelons we had around the clock but after three days of camping out and having to queue up for an hour just to shower (this too I didn’t mind cause there were many bare bodies to ogle at, even made more oglishable whenever they hosed us down with sprinklers to cool us)… so basically, after all that – we had arrived in Venice musically and mussel-ly fulfilled but tired and craving for a proper bed and water to meander down our dirty bodies.

We reached Principe hotel at around nine in the morning, too early to check in. There weren’t even any rooms available for them to spare us tired fools. So the plan was, to nap for a while at the swanky lobby before heading out for an early brunch. We sat on a sofa that felt unbelievably real and napped, till we were awoken up at around 1 pm by a suited up Italian porter – informing us that our room was ready and that he has brought up our bags. Yes, it was 1 PM! Four hours of sleeping and possibly snoring and drooling in the midst of Italian antiquity must have been quite a sight, one that’s frowned upon by the look on the porter’s face. We must have looked like illegal migrants trying to fool the government by staying in a plush hotel, I mean come one…we slept like babies for FOUR FRIGGING HOURS. Without either of us waking up to realize the time gone by!

The very lobby where we laid lifeless for a few hours

The bed where we laid down lifeless for a few hours

And that was how we spent the first few hours in Venice. The rest was pretty much spent with us, more appropriately dressed and definitely smelling more like eager beaver tourists instead of rugged up music pilgrims.

What I loved about Venice:

1. Principe Hotel

For letting us catch up on sleep like that. And for your buffet of croissants, for letting us spread butter, lick coffee and inhale tobacco next to the canals.

2. The bridges, that lured me for many walks and then most of the time, I’d end up on more unfamiliar but needed to be discovered alleyways.

3. Architecture, the postcard-perfect buildings and canals

4. Italian sweets and GELLLAAATOOO!

4. Three-course meals which educated and forced us to enjoy the art of eating in a leisurely fashion. Always to have a Kafe (expresso/dolpio) after every meal cause it helps to jerk us up from full and fulfilled to eaten and ready to go.