Growing up in a half-Italian family in a Manhattan suburb inspired lifelong dreams of visiting Italy through family meals and stories. In October 2022, at age 26, a six-day backpacking trip visited Venice, Rome, and Milan, delivering unexpected, memorable moments. Venice felt like a storybook with canals, gondolas, and buildings whose foundations sat in water. Gondola rides offered close views of homes. The trip included discoveries such as castles, striking train-window scenery, and an art-sculpture Airbnb that surprised and delighted the traveler. The trip fulfilled family-root curiosity and left lasting memories and reflections on cultural connections.
Growing up with my half-Italian family in a Manhattan suburb, I always dreamed of visiting Italy. While eating my grandmother's famous spaghetti and meatball dinners and listening to her stories about what it's like to explore the land our family came from, I longed for Italian experiences of my own. My dream finally came true in October 2022, when I - at age 26 - spent six days exploring Venice, Rome, and Milan for the first time while backpacking through Europe.
It didn't matter how many photos I'd seen of the over 1,000-year-old city - standing above the canals dotted with gondolas and lined with vibrant buildings struck me with awe. After wandering the streets of Venice, I took a gondola tour to see the city from a different perspective. Being in a narrow canal allowed me to see homes from inches away, and the moment I spotted their foundations immersed in the water felt surreal.
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