If you look at a map you can see that Venice is surrounded by water and there are many streams and canels running through the city. What you might not realize is that Venice was built on top of the water. There are no vehicles polluting the air everyone travels by boat. I grew up on the allegheny river and have always been very interested in boats and boating. Walking through Venice, seeing that this is how they get around, it was like a dream come true.

I was not the ambitious teenager who couldn’t wait to get their drivers license; I was the girl whose parents eventually forced her to get her drivers license at the age of 19. Instead I preferred to travel by boat. Before my 15th birthday I obtained my boaters license and asked for a boat for my birthday gift. Of corse I was joking when I mentioned this to my father because I thought there was no way they would ever buy me something worth so much. To my surprise, it was a miracle when I was handed the keys to my own boat. Ever since I did not need to drive a car I wanted to drive a boat around everywhere. Sadly there are not enough, nor deep enough, waterways in Pennsylvania that would allow for such travel; however, there is in Venice.

There are no cars or trains or buses to lookout for, the streets are narrow and maze like and all of it is a beautiful puzzle waiting to be solved. As I gazed at a map that was hardly labeled I knew that it doesn’t get better than this. Boats everywhere used for every type of transportation imaginable, the challenge of navigating the streets and waterways, of getting supplies to and from, and the fear of the water rising too high keeps it interesting. For what a challenge it would be to live in a place like this. This place that fulfills my wildest dreams, could you one day be my home?