myguideTravel Blog

I hate Venice

November 29th, 2007

I visited Venice for the first time, earlier this year and found it to be an extraordinary place. It must be one of the most well known cities in the world and I was familiar with it from countless TV shows, films and magazine articles. Even though I had a very clear idea in my minds eye of how it would look and feel, I still found it breathtaking. So why do I say “I hate Venice”? Well it’s not Venice I hate so much as people like you and me and how we get in the way of the experience. When I got to Saint Mark’s square it was so crowded that not even the unseasonally warm April sunshine could soothe my crowd-hating soul. I couldn’t wait to leave the square and retreat to an uncrowded back street where dogs barked and the water from a nearby drinking fountain splashed on cool dark cobblestones.

You see I’m in the tourism industry and spend my days working on innovations to bring people to my country Ireland, through myguideIreland the company for whom I work. What we all seek when we travel is of course those iconic places like St. Mark’s Square or in Ireland’s case the Cliffs of Moher, but we want it without the crowds and we want a story to tell when we go home. If you’re like me you will have seen the iconic sights but it may be in the middle of a crowd and the impact is very much diminished.

Finding a special story is much more difficult - the moment when you connect with someone, spend a few hours engaged in a special activity or discover something that none of your friends know. The story that gets told at dinner parties or over drinks or when you reminisce about great holidays you’ve had. How do you create that? What is it made of, this magical moment? Well believe it or not I think there is a way to, if not create the moment itself, to at least create all the elements in which that moment might take place. You see the magic part is still the connection between human beings. It might not happen with thousands of others in St. Mark’s Square but perhaps it could, not too far away, still in a group of people, but lead by someone with that special knowledge, the inside track as it were.

At myguideIreland Experience we aim to create those experiences here in Ireland which will make you come away with that insider feeling. Even the small town where we are based has a wealth of interesting stories, some of them truly astonishing. Imagine the fun of coming back from your vacation and telling your friends that yes you saw all the big sights but you also found out about the pirates who attacked West Cork and kidnapped a village. It may not be the Doge’s Palace but you know what, I’ll bet you remember it more clearly in five years time.

Entry Filed under: Travel