The return from Stansted to Venice

August 22, 2026

The Moment

On 22 August, it was time to go home.

I took the train from Cambridge to Cambridge North and then continued to Stansted Airport.

Once I arrived, I went up to the terminals and headed towards departures.

This time I did not need to find a member of staff to drop off my suitcase.

I did everything myself.

The Resonance

I put the whole suitcase on the scale.

Then I scanned my boarding pass.

The machine printed the baggage label.

I put it on the suitcase, placed the suitcase on the belt and pressed the button.

The system took it from there.

Done.

It was one of those moments when you think: okay, that was it.

The Friction

After dropping off my suitcase, I went through security.

I scanned my boarding pass, went through the security check and then put my hand luggage through the scanner.

Everything was normal.

After that, all I had to do was go to the gate.

The only problem was that I had arrived very early, so I had a lot of time to wait.

The flight was originally scheduled for 19:15, but it was moved to 20:15.

The gate process was also quite slow.

But honestly, it did not seem unusual to me. Boarding can take a while almost anywhere.

The Quiet

Eventually we left.

One thing I noticed compared with my arrival in the UK was the way passport control worked.

When leaving the UK, I did not have a passport check like the one I had experienced when entering.

The border check happened instead when I arrived back in Italy, in Venice.

The flight was supposed to arrive at 22:20.

I actually arrived at 23:05.

About an hour later than planned, but nothing dramatic.

Train, airport, suitcase, security, gate, flight and finally Venice.

After two weeks in Cambridge, I was simply home again.