She started snoozing not long after—Lou, who couldn’t sleep sitting up. She must have been shattered, the poor woman. I gently took her empty takeaway cup from her. Our Mama Lou—so busy looking after everyone else.
***
The campsite at Fusina, where we would be sleeping in tiny caravans for two, was dreadful. As soon as we stepped off the coach we were swarmed by mosquitoes, our caravan smelled like stale urine, and it was a good five-minute walk to the ablution block.
And we had exactly fifteen minutes before we were due at the dock to take the water taxi into Venice. Merde, merde, merde.
I prioritised the following: changing clothes and brushing my teeth—hangover teeth are furry and disgusting and must take precedence when you are about to spend six hours exploring a fifteen-hundred-year-old city.
The first priority was easy. When we got to our caravan, I flung the contents of my case about until I found a dress I hadn’t worn yet and changed into it, slipping my jacket on over the top.
To brush my teeth in the ablution block would have taken far too long, so I did a camper’s brush, which included swishing from a water bottle and spitting into the bushes next to our steps. Lou made a face to indicate I might have slipped out of her good books once again. With these two tasks completed and three minutes left until we were due at the dock, I took a moment to zhuzh my hair with some leave-in conditioner, slather on some SPF30 tinted moisturiser, and swipe on some lip gloss.
We sprinted to the dock and made it onto the water taxi with thirty seconds to spare. And even though we weren’t late, we were the last ones on board and, once again, I’d put us in Georgina’s firing line. If glares were bullets, I’d have been dead about a hundred times over.
You know what, Georgina? The schedule is too frigging tight! Fifteen minutes to get our bags, get our caravan assignment, find our caravan, then get ready for an evening out in Venice? Im-bloody-possible. Grrr.
It didn’t take long for me to forget all about Georg-bloody-ina, because Venice materialised ahead—and gawking in awe became involuntary. Ah, Venice. The first thing to hit me was the smell. We were inside a water taxi, yet the heady brininess of the water and air permeated. It wasn’t unpleasant, just distinctive, just Venice.
As we docked, which took an incredibly long time, I succumbed to apprehension. With regards to sightseeing, I had no idea where to start and I didn’t want to miss anything important. Plus, I was still mildly hungover, and the boat ride had unsettled my stomach.
Lou eyed my bouncing knee. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I’m just excited—and a little daunted. I mean, look, Lou. How are we going to see all that?”
Dani leant across the aisle. “You should come hang out with Jaelee and me today. She’s been before.”
My head spun towards Dani and I got a little dizzy. Am I still drunk? “Really, Jae?”
“Oh yeah, I came here after college with my boyfriend, Roger.” Jaelee did not strike me as the type of woman who dated guys called Roger, but I let it go.
“I’ve already pre-booked for us to go up the campanile,” said Dani. She must have read the blank look on my face. “That.” She pointed to a giant tower and I peered up at it through the window.
“Oh. Wow. I want to go up that. Lou?”
“Oh yeah, for sure.”
“You’ve already got tickets though. Do you think we could get some?” How had I not done any research on Venice? What was I, a tourist? Actually, a tourist would have done all the research, and what I quickly realised was that with only six hours, we needed to act like bloody tourists.
“Done!” Dani held up her phone triumphantly.
“Done, what’s done?”
“I booked you and Louise tickets for the same time as us. Four-thirty.”
“Dani! Thank you. We’ll fix you up, of course.”
“Yeah, no problem. Buy me lunch or something.”
I grinned at Lou. “We’re going up the camper-thingie.”
She shook her head at me. “Uh huh.”
We disembarked and, though she was hardly my favourite person, I listened carefully to Georgina as she told us the pick-up location. I peered down at my phone, which was a little blurry—good grief, how much did I drink yesterday?—and compared my map pin to Lou’s, so if I got lost, I didn’t actually get lost. “Yep,” she confirmed.
The tour group dispersed in pairs and small groups and Lou and I walked over to Jaelee and Dani. “Right,” I said, unable to contain my enthusiasm. “What’s first?”
“I need to eat,” said Jae. “I want a pizza.”
I blinked twice, once for each thought. First, I was in Venice. Did I really want to waste time eating? And second, I knew that Jae actually ate sometimes—I’d seen her do it—but pizza? It seemed a little “off-brand” for Jaelee.
“Well, do you know a good place? Like, from when you were here before?” asked Lou.
Jae threw her a look to convey how stupid she thought the question was. “That was nearly ten years ago, and this is Venice. It’s impossible to find anything again. I mean, the whole point of Venice is to get lost.”
At that moment, I wanted Jaelee to get lost. How rude. I opened my mouth to say something, but Dani stepped up.
“No need to be a bitch about it, Jaelee.”
Jae was clearly taken aback. I wondered if it was because she didn’t know she’d been bitchy or because she was used to being bitchy without anyone calling her on it. I’d been on the receiving end of it a few times and I’m a big girl and all, but still, Lou was Lou and she definitely didn’t deserve it.
“Oh, sorry.” She shook her head, as though shaking the bitch away. “Sorry, Louise. Can I start over?” It was a rhetorical question and we stared at her, waiting. “Venice is … well, the best thing to do is just to wander and soak it all in. If we find a place we want to stop, we will, but the walkways and bridges and streets—they’re the real drawcard.”
“Okay, sounds good.” Lou, always so quick to forgive.
“So, if it’s all about getting lost, how are we going to find our way back here?” Dani looked up at the camper-thingie.
“There are signs. I’ll show you when we see one.”
“All right, great,” I said, hoping to get us moving. Pizza sounded good and I was getting hungry.
“Let’s go have a quick look at Saint Mark’s first, though,” said Jae. “We won’t have to line up for long and it’s definitely worth seeing. It’s, like, a thousand years old. Then I’ll take you around to the Bridge of Sighs.” Oh! I’ve heard of that! “Then pizza. Okay?”
We agreed and let Jaelee lead us from the waterfront, past a giant pink building with lots of arches (I later learnt it was the Doge’s Palace) to San Marco’s Basilica. When we arrived, I almost didn’t want to go in. The outside was so ornate and interesting I could have stayed right there just soaking in all the details. Unexpectedly, I decided to do just that. “Hey, I’m not coming in. I’ll wait for you here.”
“You sure?” asked Lou.
“Yes, totally. This is …” I looked up at the wondrous structure. “I’m happy here.” How very traveller of me. While the others joined a short queue to get inside, I took out my phone and did a quick search on Wikipedia.