Escaping the Tourist Hordes of Venice
posted on 27 February, 2025 by Dan Vonk in travel, personal
I’ve long been putting off visiting Venice as it has a reputation of being one of the most touristy places on Earth, where the streets are clogged with Chinese and American group tours and everything is absurdly expensive to match. And then there’s the government’s response to the overtourism–fleece the tourists even more. Nope, neither of those sound particularly appealing. However, now that I live in Munich, it’s pretty easy to get a coach there and it’s not only cheap, but traverses some of the most beautiful countryside in Europe on the way there–it going directly the Alps over the Brenner Pass. So it was finally time to make the plunge and visit.
I stayed in Mestre, which is an industrial port city on the land-side of Venice. Its skyline is marked by the firm Fincantieri, who have their large marine cranes towering over the place. This firm constructs the mega cruise-ships for Norwegian Cruise Lines and the like. So the Venice isn’t just an open-air museum, at least for now! Another suprise was how international thee employees were as well, with many East Asians but also plenty of people from all over Europe. This was only an advantage for me as Mestre had some great cheap restauraunts catering to them, which I frequented before and after commuting from the Venice proper on the train.
But back to Venice: as soon as I stepped out of the train, I admitted to myself that the tourists are on to something. The city is really a feast for the eyes and unlike anywhere I’ve visited before. In fact, it’s probably the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited. No matter if the weather is gloomy or sunny, there is something truly unique about wandering through the meandering alleys that squirm between or even underneath those ornate and time-worn buildings–sometimes with your path astride the turquoise coloured canals or sometimes them leading you astray into resedential cul-de-sacs so narrow that you can’t even open your umbrella.
Most of the signs in Venice lead to St. Mark’s Square and after some fruitful accidental circumnavigation of the districts, so did I. This was another magnificent location and I found the history of Venice’s maritime and democratic history on display in the museums and palaces around the square captivating. There was even some Empress Sisi intruige (yuck).
