In Favor of Small Hotels

I can’t imagine a better way to introduce the Youthful Adventurer to Europe than landing at Marco Polo airport in Venice, taking a water bus to Piazza San Marco as dusk descends, and then walking the narrow streets to tiny Hotel Riva at the Ponte dell’Angelo. To a young teenager, this was a different world and time. Yes, we had to roll  our suitcases around the tiny walks of Venice and up the stairs to our room in the old palazzo, but we felt like we were roaming through the 1700s. By morning, the Youthful Adventurer would be ready to reject his request for eggs and pancakes in favor of cappuccino and rolls with cheese. He knew now that we certainly weren’t in America anymore.

Hotel de la Tulipe in Paris, France. Photo credit: L. Tripoli

We enjoyed a similarly rich character when, a few years later, we headed to Paris and stayed in the Hotel de la Tulipe, again walking our suitcases up a narrow staircase to a room on an upper floor. But when we opened the door, we once again launched back into time and adored our short stay at this former convent not too far from the Eiffel Tower. No, there wouldn’t be the service we would expect from a larger place, or the cachet (I was astonished when the Youthful Adventurer’s eighth-grade friends asked how many stars our hotel had), but it was still the perfect place for our launch into Paris.

© Lori Tripoli, 2012