If you’d asked me during the planning stages what the most “unexpectedly exciting” part of the journey to Venice would be, I don’t think I could have anticipated it would be Passport Control. The planning is always half the fun – sketching out routes and waiting for booking dates – but sometimes the reality is a bit more of a puzzle.
Arriving on Thursday, we had our first encounter with the new EU check-in service. It started simply enough – a digital screen, a passport scan, and the strange, clinical task of scanning four fingers on my right hand. But then came the true test: the queues. I was certain the digital check-in had told us to use the e-gate, but David wasn’t so sure. We joined the e-gate line, only to be told by fellow travellers that we were in the wrong place. So, we moved. We tried the manual process, only for the same thing to happen again – more voices telling us we were in the “wrong” queue. It became a bit of a comedy of errors; there were only two options to choose from, and yet, somehow, we were being told they were both wrong.
Eventually, the lines sorted themselves out, and we were back on track. We navigated our way to the Alilaguna water boat – the first real sign that we had truly arrived. With the help of digital maps and some handy travel blogs, we began the trek to our apartment, planning a quick stop at a local Coop along the way. All the shops here close at 9pm, which left us with a swift fifteen minutes to grab a few essentials to see us through the night. Being in Italy, the frozen mini pizzas were far too tempting to pass up; it felt like it would be rude not to.
However, leaving the shop is where the logic of the map met the reality of Venice. Our directions simply said, “from the Coop, exit and turn right” – but suddenly, nothing made sense. It was only after retracing our steps that we realised there are actually two Coops sitting right opposite each other. Turning “right” could have been the correct right, or the other right – which, of course, was the wrong one.
Even once we found the correct path, the narrow streets began their usual trick of confusing us. We were looking for a “green house,” though we weren’t sure if that meant a house made of glass or a house painted green. It turned out to be a bit of both: a big glass house with the exterior painted green.
On finally arriving at our apartment, we settled in quickly. It is small and probably quite old, with all the character you’d expect from this city. Then came the final puzzle of the night: working out how to cook a frozen pizza with no oven! We ended up pitching them in the microwave against a glass of water to stop the bread going soggy – a bit of makeshift kitchen science that actually did the trick.
To top it off, David discovered that the box of “apple juice” he’d picked up was actually white wine. We aren’t huge wine drinkers and had really been looking for orange juice, but when he couldn’t find any in the shop, he settled for what he thought was apple. He did wonder at the time why it was sitting on a completely different shelf, but it wasn’t until he took a drink that he realised exactly what he’d bought!
The adventure definitely has begun.
Travelling Fletchers 
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