One night in October my roommate Joji and I were sitting in our living room doing homework until I got bored. I went on the app Omio and started looking at prices for different trips. I always wanted to go to Venice, see the beautiful canals and go on a gondola ride. In the spur of the moment I decided that I was going to go the upcoming weekend and invited all my roommates to go with me. Once I figured out the transportation, Joji went on a hunt for a place to stay and found us a nice little Airbnb just outside of the city center.
We spent about a day and a half walking around the city. We saw St. Mark’s Basilica, the love bridge, and even went on a gondola ride. The city was so beautiful, and like nothing I had ever seen before. There were no cars or bike, just lots and lots of boats. The water was gorgeous, a bright teal color covered the city everywhere you looked.
My other roommate, Bella, and I had been talking the whole trip about buying a classic Venetian mask, and we spent most of our time looking for a good place to get one. On our first day, when we arrived in the city, most of the stores were already closed so we did lots of window shopping. We went around the city looking for the best places to buy masks, taking price and style into account. We were able to find a couple of really nice stores that were all closed, and the next day we could not figure out how to get back to them.
On our second day we killed time by shopping. Just like the leather stores in Florence, Venice is filled with different tourist stores selling masks, Murano glass jewelry, and t-shirts. Bella and I had gone into countless stores, some were really touristy, and others were handmade original designs. Unfortunately, the original, locally made masks were way out of our price range, so we had to look for cheaper options.
We were both willing to spend about twenty euros on a mask, but neither of us really wanted to. We finally ended up at a tourist store, and both found masks that we really liked. I picked one that has an off-white base, covered with light and dark golden designs. Lining the outside of the mask is sparkly gold lace, with two black silk strings in the back so you can tie it to your head. The price of my mask was originally twenty euros, but Bella found a way for us to get it much cheaper.
She realized while asking the worker about prices, that nothing was set, and we could probably bargain for a lower price. She started by asking if we could get them for any cheaper, and he slowly brought the price down, and eventually settled on fifteen euros. That was not good enough for Bella, she told him that we only had ten euros each, and when he said no we started putting the masks back. That’s when he finally agreed to sell us the masks for ten euros less than asking price.
That might not seem like much, but to us it was a huge victory. That was the first time either of us had ever bargained, and it gave us a new sense of independence and confidence in ourselves. Although my mask has been hung up in my room for the last two months, every time I look at it, it is a reminder of our victory, and I can’t wait to wear it when I go back to Venice for Carnival.
Francesca's travels 