My time here in Venice will soon becoming to an end so it is probably natural that my conversation with Meredith would be on my mind. Meredith, is the Californian I met while having dinner the night before.
As a female traveler, Meredith usually joins some kind of tour when she travels alone. She was quite impressed that I usually travel alone and have never travelled with a tour group. Not only am I not a joiner, but, tours are too regimented and too expensive for me to ever really consider. They simply do not fit my travel style nor my pocketbook.
Meredith, on the other hand likes the social aspect of tours and the worry free traveling. However, even when joining different types of tours around the world she still has a random day here and there alone. Over dinner we talked about the challenges of being a female solo traveler.
We spoke of the occasional loneliness of being alone in a foreign country where you do not speak the language. Communication can be quite challenging if you move out of the city center where most locals speak at least a little English.
We talked about transportation challenges in any country and learning their public transportation systems. We both found the vaporetto system here in Venice confusing. She had taken the vaporetto in the wrong direction twice in her two and a half days here.
In a previous blog I talked about being frightened of taking the vaporetto and how I had viewed a you tube video to give me more confidence. This was only one of my Venetian fears. For all of my bravado about traveling alone there is a laundry list of challenges that I face.
The ones I have faced in Venice may seem silly... silly that is unless you travel alone. I think my concern is offending the locals with some silly gaffe that most tourists make. So generally, I avoid all these challenges.
This trip I decided to list all my challenges and pick them off one at a time. Besides the vaporetto, there was the caffe fear, the ombra and cichetti fear, the eating dinner out fear, the alla Vedova fear.
It literally took me 9 days to get the courage to enter a caffe bar and order a caffe latte and stand at the bar and drink it. I feel very fortunate that for some reason I didn't go through caffeine withdrawal. I am assuming it had something to do with the prosecco levels in my blood at any given moment.
It was day 6 that I finally broached a recommended restaurant at lunchtime and made a dinner reservation for day 8.
Last night I picked off another of my challenges. I stopped at a cicchetti bar that I had walked by for 9 days and ordered an after dinner ombra (short shot of wine) and a polpette (a breaded meatball).
The only challenge left on my list is to eat some polpette at the renown Alla Vedova Trattoria. Apparently they have the best polpette in Venice. It took me three days to even find this place in the warren-like alleys of Cannaregio and there was a line out the door. The staff is said to be rude to tourists, which makes this challenge even more intimidating. I have given myself until Wednesday to get this done.
So what have I learned from facing my fears and overcoming my challenges on this trip? The vaporettos are standing room only and painfully noisy and slow. Italian caffe lattes are lukewarm at best. I miss Starbucks. You need reservations at most restaurants if you are a tourists and locals get the best seats and sometimes even a different menu. And, the El Sabarlefo cicchetti bar make lousy meatballs.
But, most importantly I have learned to overcome my small fears before they become big and immobilizing. I learned that I make Shelly Morgan a stronger person because I am afraid of letting weakness get the best of me. Sometimes it is hard to be me... But, on days like today I feel invincible.
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