(Venice, Italy)

I had seen the pictures and the videos.  I thought I knew what Venice looked like.  I thought I was prepared for the freakish sight of buildings rising out of the water, gondolas gliding on the canals, and exquisite bridges leading from one island to another.  But there is one thing that photos and videos cannot capture:  the feeling of complete disorientation when you try to navigate around this bizarre city.

I *thought* I had a sense of direction.  It totally abandoned me in Venice.  There is no grid of streets.  Well, there really aren’t any streets.  Just a disjointed series of short alleyways, blind turns, canals and bridges that never intersect at a proper 90′ angle.  And there are no  landmarks, except when you are on the coastline, because there is no way to see the landmarks when the “streets” are only a couple of feet wide and all of the buildings tower over you.  If you’re lucky, you’ll find a piazza (square).  But it is never a “square” and the “streets” leading away from it never go in a useful direction.

I tried.  I really did.  I even used multiple maps.  Even with maps (which I think are deliberately erroneous), however, you *still* are helpless.  It doesn’t help that every corner reveals a new “Kodak Moment” that makes you look up, around, and lose your bearings even more.  I took a huge number of pictures, thinking that I had stumbled upon the ultimate Venice vista.  Until I turned the next corner…

This happens during the daytime,  Nighttime is even worse, but it is also even more beautiful as the tour groups leave the city and the moon reflects off the water.  More pictures, more disorientation…

Yes, anything near the Grand Canal is probably a tourist trap.  Yes, it is expensive and hard to get to.  But I have never seen anything like it and it was exhilarating to repeatedly get lost in this unique city.  I’m so glad that I stopped here for a day before heading into the mountains.