Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy.

The floating city nestled in the Mediterranean Sea.

It's a must-see place whenever you finally decide that you're going to travel to Italy.

I must say, it's more difficult to visit than I imagined it to be.

I didn't go to Venice on my first trip to Italy, so I knew that was the first place I wanted to visit upon my return trip to Italy.

As it turns out, everyone and their dog (almost literally) wants to visit Venice. Finding a nice place to stay when on a budget is somewhat of a nightmare.

There were four of us and we managed to book two separate Airbnb's because there wasn't room in the 'nicer' one for the nights we were going to be there.

The first night was a bit of a disaster. We stayed at the 'lesser' of the two Airbnb's. It was perhaps the most disgusting room I've ever stayed a night in.

It smelled of smoke even though it was supposed to be a non-smoking room. It was small and dirty.

I didn't even dare to go under the sheets and in the covers - even though they looked clean.

The bathroom wasn't all that clean either - but I did enjoy a nice, hot shower.

At any rate, that night didn't deter us from spending a full day in Venice. We left on the earliest train and made our way into the city (it's a heck of a lot cheaper to stay just outside of the city and take the train in).

It's honestly not that big of an island. You can easily walk through the entire place and experience most everything in a few days. We, however, only had one full day - so we made the most of it.

We hit all the landmark sites and took a ride on the infamous gondolas in addition to taking in the views from the edge of the city.

Try not to get lost in this small city on the water, though. We got lost several times because of the various avenues and small pathways that wind any which way. We didn't let that bother us, though, and enjoyed every minute in this water paradise.

We then took the train back late that night and made our way back to the much nicer Airbnb that we had book for that evening. It was a night-and-day difference and really helped me keep a positive attitude about the city and the experiences that I had had while there.