I live in VENICE!
Venice - a beautiful, unusually romantic place, just after the Roman Coloseum, one of the most recognizable places of Italy. The city of lovers, coming to mind with the tender moments of couples, floating in the famous Venetian gondolas on the Grand Canal, bathed in the rays of the setting sun. A perfect place for romantic walks for two, amid the atmospheric narrow streets and enjoying the best Italian food in the best restaurants overlooking the majestically floating boats.
I moved here a few months ago. For some, it's a surprise, others know from the very beginning, but now is the time to share it with all my readers.
The very fact of getting offer to move to Venice was a big surprise for me, because thinking in my standard categories, I would never suppose that I'd ever stay in Italy for more than a week on holiday, not to mention living there. Well, it happened. In life, and especially in life of the cabin crew, you should expect an unexpected, so here I am. Now I'm writing this post sitting on the stairs with a view of the Canale Grande, looking at all these tourists, whose faces are expressing delight and I wonder how big is the difference in our view of this place. The description at the beginning of the post sounds beautiful, right? However, does it really look like this from the backstage? Is living in this city on the water and its surroundings really so romantic, colorful and charming?
The answer is no. Yes, of course, the heart of Venice is a beautiful and climatic place, but living here every day, it looks completely different. Just a few weeks and a marvelous, fairytale land becomes a regular town, a place of life, work and survival. No wow effect anymore.
In fact, people who come for tourism purposes often forget that in addition to central Venice there are also other parts of it, much more crowded by local residents, where instead of the ancient houses growing out of the water stand skyscrapers, blocks, and even modern villa estates and apartment buildings. There are no souvenir shops at every step, no tourist information or crowds of souls looking for adventures and photos, and all the luck - the prices of everything you can buy are not as high as in Central Venice (read - the cost of buying anything, from bread to usable and ornamental objects, is on average four times lower than in a tourist paradise). What doesn't change the fact that here too the cost of living is exorbitantly high, but comparing the price to be paid to live at the good level in "floating" Venice to the one to be paid on land adjacent to it, you can get the impression that it is moving from the earth to heaven.
Expensive apartments, expensive houses, expensive food, expensive cars, expensive clothes, but at least ... Buses and trains free! I mean... Not free, but there is no such a thing as ticket control, so 99% of citizens don't acknowledge the existence of tickets, and yet they get everywhere without spending a cent, what is funny, but how much easier it's making our life, what also I am very grateful for. Fundamental elements of survival, about which tourists looking for souvenirs and good pictures, have no idea, because where from would they know it, are the reason why the viewpoint of the wanderer and the resident is so diametrically different.
To sum up, Venice is a beautiful city, a fabulous place, has this specific climate, however, it's sad that tourists only close in hotels, and later massively flood the streets of the historical center, when in order to really feel the soul of this city you have to go outside and get to know everyday habits and life of residents, people for whom this place is a home, not just a base for a few days stay. However, personally, I like to admire it from a bird's eye view the most.
That would be enough to start with, because a specific, more detailed post is going to be provided for the specificity of life in Venice and Italy in general.
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