Expectations and Imaginings

I have really come to imagine Venice as a city simply bursting with art and culture. When I traveled to Italy before on a school trip in 2006, I remember the churches, St. Peter’s Basilica in particular, as being completely covered in frescoes and statues and paintings. I think that I have somehow come to expect that in Venice, not just from St. Mark’s, but from the rest of the city as well.

But within this city that I expect to be just covered in fabulous works of art, I also hope to see areas and streets which exhibit that remarkable quaintness that is the flipside of my impressions of Italy. Not only do I hope to see works of art scattered throughout the city, I also look forward to seeing laundry hanging over balconies and well-tended flower boxes dotting the sides of buildings. I suppose this suggests that my perception of Venice is that it will be a city which combines the elegance of a culture long renowned for its contributions to art with the simplicity of typical domestic life.

I have to admit, though, that one of the things I am most looking forward to is the central aspect of water in Venice. I love boats and being near and on the water, so I am very excited about using the vaporetti as the central method of transportation around the city. I am also curious about the differences involved in using boats as primary transportation as opposed to cars. I have grown up near busy roads and not having the constant background hum of cars will, I am sure, be very strange, for the first few days anyway.

Having heard from co-workers who have been to Venice before and a close friend who traveled there just this summer that the city really is spectacular, I have to say that I am very excited and ready to get on my flight and go!