Venice is a city unlike any other. All cities have their unique identities, but mostly they are variations on a theme. Most cities have entire neighborhoods that you could transplant into another city with no changes. At no point in my rambles did I ever feel like I could be anywhere else but in Venice. And I almost didn\u2019t go. As a child, I dreamt of visiting Venice, but in the last decade or so, I took it off my \u201cmust see\u201d list. Pictures of the cruise ships and the crowds convinced me that the experience wouldn\u2019t live up to my dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the last 5 years, my plan had been that once Buster passed away, I would go to Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a year. This has been my grief therapy plan since his pancreas first tried to kill him back in 2017. When he shuffled off his mortal coil in May, Thailand wasn\u2019t a good option. My old boss at Edge of the World Tours<\/a> in San Francisco invited me to return and spend the summer giving wine tours in Sonoma Valley. In three months, I earned enough money to pay off the credit card debt I gained in Buster\u2019s last days, plus enough to finance a modest trip around the world for the next 8 months. It also gave me a chance to figure out where to go next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was tough deciding where to go first when I had the entire world to choose from. It was tougher with COVID constantly closing down locations, and which countries you could travel to and from. A problem likely to hound vagabonds for years. My plans changed many times during the summer. Not surprising to those who know me. I think the only reason I like to plan is so I have something to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a fair amount of time, I planned on spending 3 days in Venice, 3 days in Florence, and 3 days in Rome. I came up with this idea after watching 2 of my favorite travel vloggers, Kara and Nate, return to Rome in July. They contrasted that with their experience visiting in 2017, when the line into the Coliseum was 3 hours long. This time, they walked right in. The city was practically empty compared to recent years. That\u2019s what got me thinking that now might be the ideal time to visit Italy. I decided to stick with a week in Venice rather than running all over so that I could really appreciate my time there. I’m so happy I made that choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhere Would You Go, If You Could Go Anywhere?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n