I got to read the book ‘Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare. I fantasized how beautiful Venice must be and how lovers spent everyday sitting by the canals as they serenade each other and watch the sunrise and the sunset. I always wanted to go to Venice since then. What to do in Venice? I asked myself. I finally had the chance to draw the line between this fantasy and the reality – it was the first time in my life that reality had beaten fantasy in magnificence! Venice is not just the beautiful city where lovers sit along the canals as they watch the sun rise and set, it is the magical capital city of romance in the world! It exceeded my expectations and so far, it ranks amongst the top fun travelled-to places in my wander-book.

In addition to romance, Venice is full of mystery and glorious architecture. The first step I took there was like walking into a different world, time stood still and all my worries vanished into thin air. Venice is built entirely on top of water. Its streets are the wide and narrow canals that run throughout and linked by bridges and accessed by boats and water buses. I had a whole day to explore this lagoon city. I randomly and aimlessly wandered around going nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The city played an overwhelming game of insatiable curiosity on me. It was so powerful that it drove me to wander deep into its alluring streets. When my feet grew weary I paid for the services of a handcrafted historical gondola. The gondolas flooded the water streets of Venice for lovers and wanderers to use to move from one enchanted house to the other. They floated on water like enormous fallen leaves as a single man drivers maneuvered them in control. The gondola driver that I hired was very nice, he patiently took me around as I satisfied my curiosity-hungers with spectacular sights of the city.

I wrapped up my Venice wanderlust with lunch at a big infinity Hotel and Restaurant near San Marco, Hotel Cavalletto. I sat at the terrace having a quintessential lunch by the canal as I watched fellow wanderers arrive as others pay for gondolas to continue with their quest for treasure tales. Afterwards, I proceeded for a wine tasting tour at a local winery, Enoteca al Volto. When I was high in wine, I found myself indulging in shopping at the popular Boutique del Gelato. I went ahead and explored the Rialto Market near the Rialto bridge…Big mistake, never drink wine and shop in Venice!

After the tedious sweet day, I wanted to go to the Club Piccolo Mondo later at night, the only discotheque in Venice, but I kid you not, my feet were so sore that I could not put them through the agony of dancing and my eyes so tired that the discotheque lights could have pushed me to blindness. I called my hotel and they picked me up since I was staying in the mainland. I could not sacrifice comfort to get accommodation in the not so nice hostels of the lagoon. My fellow wander friends did not care much about the accommodation conditions of the hostels. They had opted to stay in the lagoon and when we compared notes later, I realized I missed on a lot of things including a soothing jazz dinner in the clear starry night full of the moon’s glory. My consolation is that Venice is too small, yet too big that it cannot be explored in one day. I used TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet and Viator to look for things to do but nothing could have prepared me for the treasure tales I collected and the ones that I missed.

Below are some of the main things to see in Venice, enjoy.