This past weekend, guide book in tow, I took the train to Venice with a couple of friends. Admittedly, I had low expectations for the city, as I didn’t really understand what it was all about.

I was not at all expecting to fall in love with the crumbling, elegant area, but I did.

When our train pulled into the station in Venice, all that surrounded us was a body of water and an ugly station. I was a bit disappointed by my first impression, but I chose to ignore my initial surroundings and silently prayed that my three hour train ride would not be for nothing.

Sure enough, immediately after exiting the train station, we were spit out onto a picturesque area filled with everything from the movies. All the docks, canals, and bridges were at our fingertips, and I was slightly star struck when I saw my first gondola.

We made our way to the touristy area and naively thought it would be easy to wind our way through the streets. But in a town where streets lack proper street signs that us Americans are used to, it proved to be way more difficult than anticipated.

All we had to lead us to the touristy area were allusive “S. Paolo” signs a vendor pointed out to us, San Paolo being the part of town where all the visitors flock to. These signs, accompanied with an arrow, were on most of the streets, so once we figured out the signs, it was just a matter of winding through mazes of buildings.

Because streets don’t have to accommodate cars (Venice being Europe’s largest urban car-free area), the “streets” in Venice are extremely narrow, with only enough space for a few people to walk alongside each other comfortably. I’d also like to add that, coming from an extremely car-dependent atmosphere in America, seeing no cars anywhere took some getting used to. These people walk EVERYWHERE.

After we found San Paolo Plaza, we snapped a few pictures and immediately left. While seeing the touristy parts can be important, we found that getting lost (though it’s an island, so that’s kind of impossible to do) can bring more authentic experiences. We ventured off and found THE BEST cheap pizza at a shop called Pizza 2000, and savored our moments away from all of the tourists (they’re like ants, they’re everywhere and sometimes they accidently step on you and it’s so annoying. And no, I am not considered a tourist at this point…)

Venice is also known for its lace, so we were so thrilled to find a lace shop where my friend and I both got beautiful gifts for important people back home. We hit up a couple more streets of shops and by the time we boarded the train to come back to Milan that night, we were all completely content and mesmerized by the charming little town of Venice.