A tourist was left devastated when her birthday travels turned into a nightmare with her covered in what she claims was bed bug bites.
Vivi Shi decided to take a trip with her best friend Jackie to celebrate her 30th birthday.
The pair, from Toronto, Canada, flew nearly 4,000 miles across the pond to Venice in Italy.
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They had booked a hotel room for £400 and were excited to explore the historic city.
Unfortunately, disaster soon ensued.
“The shock hit when I saw [what looked like] blood stains on the bed,” Vivi, who works in education, told Need To Know.
“I checked the seams and there they were: Bed bugs.
“My friend killed one [a bed bug] crawling on her arm at 3am and ended up lying on the cold bathroom floor because it was the only place that felt ‘safe’.
“My dream trip started with us curled up on tiles in fear.
“We couldn’t stop itching and every tickle on my skin made me panic that something was crawling on me.”
Vivi claims the pair were unable to book another room due to them arriving late into the evening and the reception at the hotel allegedly being closed.
But after speaking with staff at the Ca’ San Polo hotel the next morning, they were moved to another room.
Vivi claims the horror continued.
She said: “By the third morning, we woke up with the telltale bites.
“The bites were in a row formation and were super itchy.
“More bugs and eggs kept showing up.”
Vivi claims that both she and Jackie ended up soaking their clothes in boiling water in an attempt to clean them off any sort of insect remnants, but to no avail.
They allegedly ended up throwing away over £500 worth of clothing after the trip.
She added: “We left the hotel carrying nothing but our passports and bank cards in a plastic bag.
“The city itself is magical but my experience was a nightmare.
“Looking back, the story is comical but in the moment we were suffering.
“I will never go back.”
The friends visited Venice between 18 to 22 July.
A representative from Ca’ San Polo hotel told Jam Press: “As we had already stated previously, those insects were absolutely not bedbugs.
“After an inspection by a specialized company, it was confirmed that they were simply insects that had fallen from the wooden beams.”
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