27/08/2026
Last few days in Italy, Venice
Wrapping up our European sojourn with Venice - a city I didn’t expect to love quite as much as I did.
I’d visited many years ago and remembered it as beautiful, but bewildering. This time felt entirely different.
Perhaps it was travelling with Miles, perhaps the extraordinary Biennale, or simply having places to seek out and stories to discover. We visited both the New Zealand and Ukrainian exhibitions - very different, yet deeply moving reflections on lives under threat, from endangered bird species to the devastating human cost of war.
There were rooftop dinners overlooking ancient Venice, warm evening walks through crowded squares, boats instead of taxis, and the wonderful serendipity of turning down a laneway and discovering the glorious garden of the Metropole Hotel - where we found ourselves sharing the space with its immensely stylish owner. I rather think we may have found our hotel for next time.
More than anything, this trip reminded me why travel matters so much.
It isn’t simply about seeing beautiful places. It’s really about learning - history, culture, art, food, architecture and, most importantly, the people. I feel it challenges our assumptions, widens our perspective and reminds us how differently, and yet how similarly, we all live.
We came home with photographs, certainly, but also ideas, conversations, stories and memories that will stay with us for years.
And perhaps that is the real luxury of travel: returning home seeing the world, and your own life, a little differently.
