A Day Trip to a Sinking City

Shannon O'Leary
Mar 21, 2017
3 min read

During our orientation when my fellow classmates and I arrived in Italy we were show that the country of Italy is about the size of New Mexico. Which is really put to the test when you decide to cross the country for a day trip to Venice.

Another early Sunday to Centrale (the train station in Milan) had me on a 2 1/2 hour ride to the beautiful city on stilts.

If you're like me and you have a habit of finding a story in everything and seeing the world through rose-colored glasses, then Venice is truly amazing. Once I arrived I decided before being smushed up among other tourists I would take the morning to get lost. An important thing, I think, to remember about Venice is that it is so much more than one bridge, one canal, one square. It's a real place where people live and exist on a daily basis. That Venice was people's home long before you dreamed about your first gondola ride. You see that in the small, stone bridges, in the laundry hanging on the line between a narrow canal. You can see it in the Sunday mail still sticking out of the door because the owner hasn't come down the stairs yet. I think Venice is magical because it is real.

My favorite bridge was a small iron masterpiece hidden and stretching across a small piece of water. My favorite canal was too narrow for any boat and was greeted at the end by a few worn stone steps.

There were times when I was the only one around, standing at the edge of a city looking at the ocean that was slowly devouring it, one small wave at a time.

That was when Venice felt timeless, beautiful, and magical. The Venice you don't travel there for but are lucky to experience if you let it.

Mainstream Venice, however, was not wasted on me.

St. Marc's Square was bustling, though relatively quiet since it is still the off season. The Basilica was a short line and five euro to explore and even though Italy is full of these breathtaking cathedrals there is always something new to see about each one. The balconies offered beautiful views of the Square and even the sea.

Did you really go to Venice if you did not window shop the elegant, hand painted masks? I did purchase a few more cost effective masks (if it has the sticker original made in Venice it can't be a lie, right?) and a few samples of the famous Murano glass.

The Grand Canal and the Bridge were packed, as expected. Once I had seen "the sights" I was content to find an off-the-beaten-path gelato joint (though still more expensive than Milan) and spent the rest of my time in Venice quietly exploring and enjoying my Sunday.

Though I haven't dug into my fiction stories for a while I identify partially as a writer which requires challenging yourself to think about things outside your beliefs and opinions. As I wandered the quiet streets I thought about why people may come to Venice. Is it because it is a beautiful, unique city on the sea? Or is it because the ocean is going to knock it down and we'd better see it before it's gone?

At first I had the grand thought that people could see life a lot like they see Venice: a one of a kind place full of adventure and opportunity if you look for it or something that you have to hit the main points of before it's destroyed. The problem is, life is not that black and white, just like Venice.

The city is both beautiful, and sinking into the ocean, just like life is sometimes good and sometimes not as good.

To be fair I'd like to see any of us stay on stilts for hundreds of years. If anything, we should be asking Venice her secret: how to live beautifully and bravely day after day even knowing one day it will all come to an end.