Lover's Paradise with my one, True Love - Myself

After visiting some friends in Ukraine and having a blast, I decided to book the cheapest flight to another country in Europe. I landed on Lover’s Paradise, also known as, Venice Italy. This trip, although seemingly cheap and seamless, came with missing a connecting flight in Austria, having to stay the night, and then meeting Andrea Bocelli’s production manager (former manager to U2, Beyonce, The Rolling Stones, and The Who, among many others) and getting somewhat drunk with him in Vienna.

Happy to say I danced next to the former production tour manager of Beyonce (he claims she really knows what she is doing) in an Austrian night club and the next morning I finally headed to Italy. Bocelli’s production manager offered me to crush grapes on his ten-acred vineyard one day in northern Venice and then guided me to the boat taxis to the little island of Venice. He told me I made the best decision coming here (although admitting he didn’t go back to Venice for 30 years after falling in love there) as we said goodbye and to that, I gave a weird look. A single, American girl in the most romantic city in the world made the best decision coming here? Interesting.

The second I arrived in the ocean that surrounds Venice, I felt lighter. Lighter? I guess that’s the best way to put it. Then, we docked and I was warmly yelled at by Italian boat operators to get off the boat. I put on my best “innocent American girl who is lost” act (which wasn’t really an act at all) until they guided me in the right direction with their broken English.

I felt the history of Venice in every step and could definitely smell the history in my Airbnb. It’s quite miraculous that an island, with a foundation of tree stumps and wood, is alive and still kicking after over 1200 years (yes, it is sinking at a very slow rate) and looks almost exactly the same as it did in the fifth century AD. That was the beauty of it. I have not been to any other place in the world that could make me feel like I’ve traveled so far back in time as this island did. That is to say until I saw a McDonald’s. And yes, Italy does allow fast food (I have proof).

And then there were the people. Languages surrounded me from all over the world (okay, mainly eastern Europe) as I walked the streets. I heard Italian spoken fluently by natives for the first time in my life and German and French. Walking the streets of Venice while being surrounded by so many people and couples without hearing a lick of English, I truly felt like I was all alone in Lover’s Paradise. And you know what? I fucking loved it.

I loved it because the experience was mine. Some say that experiences are better shared. At times, yes they in fact are but if I shared this experience with someone else, I likely wouldn’t have had the experiences I was able to have by myself.

But hear me out - traveling by yourself as a woman in multiple foreign countries is beautiful and enlightening but at times, it’s a lot. It puts you in risky situations, brings out fears and insecurities, empowers you, makes you prioritize what is/isn’t worth your time, and shows you certain confidences and abilities you didn’t know you had. One thing it doesn’t show you though is how to win a fight with an Italian. You just can’t. Give up while you can. You will not win.

In other words, I became exhausted. Happy, enlightened, incredibly grateful, and exhausted. There’s a photo of me happy, enlightened, and (mainly) exhausted on Rialto Bridge, after asking a stranger for photography assistance.

And with being on my own, came some mental breakdowns and intense feelings of loneliness, especially not having someone there physically to support me through them. But what I realized after a call with my therapist was that I can support myself in the way I have supported other people or others have supported me. When I think about all of the times my friends, strangers even have come to me with shit on their shoulders, I have this innate need to just be there and to comfort. Now, what if I did that for myself? What if, I truly became my own lover? And that’s exactly what I did. In Lover’s Paradise. I became my own lover.

So with that, I tell you that it’s possible to go to Lover’s Paradise with the best lover you’ll ever have, yourself, and still have a wildly good experience. In fact, I recommend buying yourself a rose (that you will be pestered to buy constantly in the streets) and a glass of wine and those Gosho pants that you were eyeing for 34 Euro in the window. Take yourself on a dinner date. Because at the end of the day, experiences are better shared and the best ones are shared with yourself.