City of Love

“Getting lost is the only place worth going to” – Tiziano Scarpa

There is so much to stay about a city on water. On Sunday the 29th of September, my last day of summer vacation, I traveled to Venice for the day with a few friends and a new friend from Venice Mestra. When I stepped off the passenger train and walked out of the station to view the outside of Venice for the first time with my naked eyes, I was stunned at how beautiful it was and I hadn’t even ventured into the walls of the secret city yet. At first we crossed the canal and decided to follow the signs to S. Marco Church. Arriving at 9:04am, there were hardly any tourists yet, for the morning was early and the weather was brisk. I never feel like a tourist for some odd reason even though I am lugging my five-pound camera around. It felt like a dream. We stopped at a small bakery named Majer for croissants and cappuccinos to wake up our sleepy bodies from the two-hour train ride from Trieste. Coffee is good for the soul. Continuing our walk to S. Marco’s Church, we took our time viewing the homes to hundreds of locals who deal with tourists visiting their city everyday. We arrive to the Grand Canal of Venice and it looked just like every photo I have ever seen. The colors were vibrant and the gondolas were full of tourists and singing Italians. The misty sea air created a fantasy atmosphere. I could stare at the city on water forever. We looked at Venezia Masks and handmade glass; walked the outside of the city until we were tired of the busy bodies surrounding us. For me, I was tired of walking like a slug, pressed too closely to other tourists all trying to just buy silly souvenirs rather than enjoying how beautiful this place really was. It was time to get lost.

I’ve never been afraid of being lost. To me being lost is just a way of finding new places and things that you wouldn’t have other wise seen. With the others following me, I walked where I wanted. A small cobble stone street looked beautiful, so I would take it. I would see a door I wanted to photograph, we would walk that way. There was nothing stopping us until the path we took led us to a canal we could not pass, or the path ending at a doorstep. It was relaxing having no one around but the locals in their homes making lunch for the families and the quiet sounds of raindrops.

The most beautiful sound was listening to the clattering of dishes in the locals lofts. It was like I was walking through a dream, and no one noticed we were there. I wish I could have walked into one of the homes and introduced myself asking how long they have lived there. People of this town fascinate me.

Traveling to historic places makes me feel like I am not living in 2013, but traveling through books like the 1994 20th Century Fox movie The Pagemaster, on my own little adventure trying how to find the "exit" of my story when I will arrive back in the States in 2014. I want to see where my story can take me in different places around the world and Venice was just in the middle of everything. 

I can only say so much about a city when visiting for the first time. I know that it was surely not the last Venice has seen of me. 

To view more beautiful photos of Venice, Italy please visit Hannah Swick Photography- Venice, Italy

-Ciao...Fino alla prossima volta i miei amici