When vacationing to new places, it’s hard to think about the lives of the locals and how this grand new city you’re visiting is a hometown they can’t wait to escape. This weekend I went to the drowning city of Venice and, although beautiful, I couldn’t help but notice all the people who wanted to leave.

After making friends with a large group of Venetians, I learned their perspective on the city. As I took a picture of the colorful buildings lining the unnaturally blue canal, one of the locals remarked that Venice is a beautiful city to visit, but a horrible place to live. He indulged me with the facts of its horrible living conditions and that extending my stay past that of a visit would be a mistake. Before this, I was never actually thinking of moving to Venice, but I also wasn’t thinking about the lives inside those homes on the canals. After this, I noticed that everywhere I went, all I saw was the desire to leave.

The man steering our gondola tour, a gondolier, described his work as exhausting, and it seemed as if his extreme knowledge of the city made him despise it, in return.

Our student waiter dreamed of going to the U.S. but feared he would never have the money to actually fund a trip.

I don’t write this to trash on Venice, per se, but to remember that the residents of these magnificent travel destinations feel the same way about their homes as we do ours. You can be born in a city that will never be crossed off most people’s bucket lists and still want to have your own dream destination. Anywhere can be considered a vacation if it’s away from home.

Remembering that my dream vacations are to the homes of others, and my home is the dream vacation of the strangers I pass on the street was a hard concept to grasp at first. This realization then faded to something of an appreciation for my home and the limited time I have in each place I visit. I originally felt kind of boring for being American, but now I’ll think of my hometown as the Venice of New Jersey, somewhere people itch to see just once in their lifetime.

This weekend also gave me a new appreciation for my three-day speed runs of Europe; I’m seeing the beauty of each new place and learning the culture of those living there, but getting to leave behind the nitty-gritty no one wants to talk about… we have enough of that back home.

This is the largest scale of “everything’s good in moderation” that I’ve ever seen, but it makes perfect sense… I guess that’s why it’s such a famous saying. We’re nothing if not curious, and there’s nothing to be curious about in a place you’ve lived for decades — whether that be Central Jersey, Venice, or anywhere in between.

See you next week from yet another new city with some more locals I can get existential about…Get hype!

Love,

Isabella

Photograph: Pinterest

Hometown Heroes