Venice

Last time I went to Venice, I must have been about 10 years old or even younger. I can't really remember anything. In the last days, i took a little mini-honeymoon with my wife and we spent a few days in Venice. The first thing I noticed was how insanely great and soft the light was. I looked like it wasn't from this earth with its pink-ish color palette, soaking the whole city into beautiful soft pastel tones. The second thing I noticed were the thousands of tourists. Although it was the end of October already and not very warm anymore, most of the main streets were flooded with people and hard to walk through. My wife and I did, what we usually do: We tried to escape the tourists and take exactly the streets that other people didn't take. We ended up in sometimes quite narrow walkways and squares, sometimes quite smelly spots but at the same time very authentic and beautiful places. We walked through streets that the Venice residents live in and enjoyed a sunset by the water nearly alone. Something that's not very easy to do in Venice. We even found some spots where the restaurants weren't as crowded and had some typical and delicious pizza and pasta. We walked between 15 and 20 kilometers every day but it was so worth it because we saw nearly every corner of the city. When our feet were tired, we took the Traghetto, the waterbus which also brought us out to some of the little islands. Venice is a uniquely photogenic city. Wherever you look, you see beautiful architecture, surreal scene with doors leading directly into the water. Venice can also look quite dirty and rugged in places that tourists aren't supposed to see but i guess that's what creates it's charm and at the same it's nice to see all of those facets. I've always felt quite drawn to the water and I got a bit jealous looking and those laid back people, traveling the canals in their little boats, imagining how easy it is for them to escape the hectic and noise of the people just by driving out onto the ocean a few kilometers, catch some fish and then come back into this very special city to have some authentic italian food.

If you drive to Venice from southwest Germany or western Europe, you might drive through Austria and north Italy. Beside the beautiful mountain ranges that you drive through, you'll also cross a few italian towns worth visiting. On our way there we stopped at Trento to have our first italian coffee on the main square and found ourselves in Riva Del Garda, a town by the lake Garda to have some dinner. On the way back, we stopped at a suspension bridge, the "Highline 179" which we found out is the longest suspension bridge for pedestrians in the world and quite scary to walk on. We did it anyways of course and enjoyed our last sunset in the mountains before driving back home.