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Published: July 27th 2009
Venice is probably on all the "50 places to visit before you die" lists. Lorenza insisted we visit, I was curious and wanted to see what this famous city was about.
In his book "The City of Falling Angels", John Berendt wrote that ...
"Venice could be a disorienting place, even for people who lived there and thought they knew it well. The narrow winding streets, together with the serpentine course of the Grand Canal and the absence of any landmarks visible from a distance, made it difficult to keep one's bearings."
Ernest Hemingway described Venice as ...
"a strange, tricky town".
From the beginning of our stay in Venice I felt a bit disoriented. Perhaps it was because of our aborted ferry trip from Rovinj? Or perhaps it was the affect of the narrow streets with no horizon to give us any perspective? Or perhaps Venice is simply a strange and tricky town? I felt a bit like I had lost my land legs, the ground seemed to be rocking gently, as if I were walking on a pontoon for the length of our visit. It was a curious and unsettling feeling! (Now, no smart friends should suggest here that it was the effects of anything I had been drinking in Croatia, because this would simply be making a mockery of how I felt.)
Following Lorenza's Cute Little Italian Snoz Oddly enough, Lorenza's ancestors owned a hotel not so far from Venice. Perhaps
this explains why her sense of direction in Venice was perfect (well almost - I could write about one instance with map in hand when we exchanged some interesting words in English - but) ... we decided to follow Lorenza's nose and made it to all the places we planned on visiting.
We saw the sights and Robert became a Rabbit With the aid of Lorenza's Cute Little Italian Snoz* we visited all the major attractions, plus the islands off Venice - Murano, Burano and Torcello. I noticed that a lot of tourists spent great amounts of time with their faces pressed to maps of Venice trying to find their way, luckily I had the help of the "Snoz" to guide my way- grazie!
At one stage we took time out for a few beers and got talking to the barmaid, who just happened to be a Chinese university student studying in Venice. She asked our names and managed to pronounce Lorenza without a problem thanks to 2 years in Venice, but somehow Robert got lost in translation and became Rabbit. That really cracked me up! All I heard all night from then on was Lorenza asking
"so does the Rabbit want another beer? or perhaps a carrot instead?"
That was certainly an amazing few days!
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