We'd heard so much about La Serenissima, we'd instantly jumped to the conclusion that it was too good to be true. Of course, people have a lot of mixed reactions to Venice and on any given day you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was the closing day for the Art Biennale, given the crush of people, but no, that's just the way it goes. The first "hitch" in the holiday that went off without a hitch, so to speak, was the early morning flight. We hadn't thought through the logistics of a "first thing" flight to Venice from Paris, we'd just found it perfect that it was possible to get the first flight in on Saturday morning and the last one out on Sunday night. We were content in our role as weekend warriors - just as long as we got there.
This isn't a story about a missed flight - more so every other passenger's ability (and they all came in couples) to ignore the ungodly hour that we'd all risen at and maintain the ability to kiss, canoodle, look lovey-dovey into each other's eyes or sleep in an angelic pose on their significant other's shoulder. Not us, we were mid-way through chapter two of a trivial tiff that had started the previous evening about hand luggage, and it continued from there. Hmm....
Arriving in Venice we soon realised that try as we might, we couldn't find the hotel that we'd planned to stay in and of course hadn't taken down their telephone number or any concrete directions. Never fear, we'll just ask at the next place we stumble across, which strangely turned out to be a youth hostel with a very accommodating host by the name of Archie. A dirt cheap accommodation option in an expensive city, we were charmed by Archie and decided to do an about-turn on the romantic weekend plan and stay at his very comfortable and conveniently-located youth hostel.
It wasn't just the welcome from Archie, who speaks about eleven languages fluently for the record, but the friendly vibe of the place. Archie makes sure that all his guests not only feel at home at the hostel, but also in the city. On check-in, each and every guest is provided with an informative overview of the city and given a handy map with Archie's suggestions of where to go in Venice (depending on your time frame) and where to eat to try some irresistible and authentic Venetian and Italian food. Part hotelier, part tour guide: Archie was probably one of the prime reasons that our stay in the regal city of Venice, "Queen of the Adriatic", was so memorable.
After spending a truly magical weekend in Venice, and discovering several "off the beaten track" sites thanks to our host, we made our way back to the airport where I had a minor stress-out. You see, original plans had been to take the flight together back to Paris, where I'd booked us into a hotel (I'd learned from the last time - there was no way I wasn't pre-booking our Paris hotels!) because I had some business there during the weeks prior to and following our Venice weekend. My partner however had been roped in, at the last minute, to attend a conference in Rome. So there we were, saying our goodbyes at Venice airport before his flight when it hit me: I'd later be catching the same Paris-Venice-Paris flight back. With the couples. Alone. What would they make of that?
Come time for my check-in, I almost felt compelled to announce to randoms that yes, everything went well thank you, that the arguing couple made it through the weekend and is still together, and that right now my partner would be checking into one of those Rome hotels, I just wasn't sure which one, and that we weren't together at that very moment as he had important business to attend to, otherwise we'd be... Oh forget about it! Stifling my inner-Bridget Jones, I instead slunk into the waiting area... in which, to my relief, I didn't recognise a single person.
