Venezia

"Once you see Venice, you will never want to leave," so says my Italian friend. "It is magical!"

That, I’m afraid, was an understatement.

We arrived, on a full moon, during Carnivale. With celebrations, masks and music at every turn.

This was my first visit to the water born city, sadly sinking back into the sea.

The ‘street’ to my hotel was so narrow I could barely fit a suitcase down it. (Savvy travelers arrive there by boat.)

The street to my hotel.

But, I had a hunch it would be a great find the second I made a call to the desk clerk.

Can I get directions? I asked. We’re walking.

Oh, don’t try to walk here, came the reply in broken English. It is too complicated. 

If you've never been to Venice it is a small island of incredibly narrow streets, twists and turns that often leave you dead-ended at a spot where there is no bridge to cross the canal.

People are forever scurrying one way, only to turn around and go the other way on a quest to who knows where.

This is the entrance to my truly Italian, 4 star hotel, the San Cassiano.

Are you sitting down? $94 U.S. dollars a night and it's on the Grand Canal. 
Perhaps the reason it's empty is because no one can find it. :)))

Okay. True confessions: I agreed to work this month in Italy because, back home, I was feeling a little bit lost.

The view from my (affordable!) hotel.

So I guess, in a way, it was good medicine to push that feeling to the limits in a city where people are perpetually lost.

Where even the locals look at your map and admit they don’t know where they are.

But, if you give up on those worrisome feelings and give into the idea that – sometimes – being in control of things is hardly worth the effort...

Well, then it’s all so easy.

My 2 favorite Gondola Guys.

You buy a mask.

You dance in the moonlight.

And, you start thinking maybe your life is not so broken after all.

And, yeah. I haven’t a clue where my hotel is. But, hey. Life could be worse.

* A note for the directionally challenged (that be me!) Bring your iPhone. When things got really hairy that bouncing blue dot on the Map Quest app tracked my every step and got me back to my hotel in the blink of an eye. (Even when I thought, for certain sure, I was marching in the wrong direction.)