In highschool, I went on a trip all over Italy. Truthfully, it’s what got me started on traveling. After all, when you’re 17 years old and wandering around a beautiful, exotic county, how could the travel bug not bite?
We spent the first three days in Rome/Vatican City (it was Easter Weekend, and I went to a Catholic high school… so you know, it was a pretty natural thing to spend the first three days in and around the Vatican, and it is honestly an amazing thing to be in the Vatican during Easter Weekend), then went to Florence, Pompeii, Assisi, Milan, Lake Como and of course… Venice.
Sure, Venice might have lots of interesting history and cool old buildings and architecture – I’ll grant you that. But you can learn all about that from books and documentaries, and you’d be better off doing so. An actual visit to the city isn’t so great, and I’ll give you five good reasons why that’s the case and its one shining star.
1) Since smells can make a bigger impact on people than almost anything else in life, let’s start there. Try to imagine what Venice smells like…. garlic and basil? Hardly. Maybe you’re thinking it smells like the sea at least, with all it’s water? Not quite. It smells like diesel and garbage. All the boat-traffic means constant diesel fumes permeating the air, and the canals are also their sewer system. So unless you think the smell of a train-depot mixed with a septic tank is appealing, you might want to take this town off the itinerary.
2) Venice is a tourist magnet. Look up “tourist trap” on Virtual Tourist’s guide to Venice and it’ll show you a picture of the whole city. And the locals are a little tired of it all. This notion of grumpy locals who are sick of tourists cemented itself in my mind when our group was standing on the Bridge of Sighs and someone came barging through, pushing girls and boys aside and blowing a whistle. We asked our guide (after she finished yelling and waving her hands at him) if he was some form of Police Officer. Nope, just another one of the locals that was so sick of tourists they actually carry whistles on them to scare and trick people into getting out of their way. Not exactly a friendly welcome.
3) Venice is essentially Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” come to life! There is no escaping these things; they swarm all the piazzas and try to eat your food, wait on all the towers and tops of buildings to flock around intruders, and their is pigeon poo everywhere. Everywhere! You’ll walk in it, probably get pooped on at least once, and just when you’re far enough from the canals to stop smelling the diesel and garbage is when the smell of pigeon poo starts creeping in. I never thought of pigeons as a nuisance bird (like seagulls are) until visiting Venice. Now I know how bad they can be.
4) As noted in #2, there is no such thing as a “tourist trap” in Venice because the entire place is a tourist trap. If you’ve ever wondered what Vegas would feel like if it was built on the sea and made of buildings many hundreds of years old, then go to Venice. It might be missing the overbearing glitz of the neon signs, but there are just as many street vendors and hawkers doing everything they can to get your attention so you’ll buy their wares. If your idea of a vacation is constant pestering and people getting in your face so you’ll buy something, head to Venice. If not, move along.
5) High tides (acqua alta) are something that any coastal city has to deal with, but Venice’s have been getting worse and worse over the centuries. It sits on stone slabs that in turn sit on soil, and the soil has been sinking. To make matters even worse, the sea level around Venice has been rising as well. This combination has led to flooded streets anytime a decent storm blows up. And lets not forget that the canals are their sewer system. Not an ideal vacation when you’re walking through sewage-laden flooded streets.
Want to start budget traveling around the world? Or read a vacation guide steering you away from trip letdowns? Check out DiscoverWithAndy.. Unique version for reprint here: Top 5 Reasons Why Venice Isn’t Great.

