Its so obvious, why hadn't I though of it before? It would have made Venice just a little easier to navigate, but then in hindsight it wasn't as hard as I was expectingto get around to see what I wanted to see. There was the initial problem that the cheap tourist map I had bought was actually quite inaccurate – that or the walls shift around on their own. So I abandoned the map and did it the usual way: time of day, position of sun and bascillicas. It worked pretty well and I only got turned about a couple of times. I hadn't been keeping track of the tides – I mean, who does? I arrived in Venice in the morning about an hour before the high tide, so in my meanderings I had to frequently check down allies for water, and find alternate routes through. The street plan in Venice is a hundreed times more frenzied than other Italian cities – which frustrates tourists who religiously follow maps.

I didn't get my feet at all wet. I did notice a small industry in use-once tie-on wading boots – for €10.00 a pop. Finding alternate routes is cheaper! The locals of course wade about in mud boots, which don't look fantastic with their dresses and suits but are obviously very practical.

What a weird but excellent city Venice is. It has wonky streets you wouldn't dare go down in other cities, but in Venice there are no main wide streets. If you follow any alley you can be guarenteed of one of two things: You will be blocked by a canal, or you will (after crossing at least five bridges) hit a wide open piazza with nice shops and places to get your bearings. Then you pick a different alley, not always in the direction you actually want to go, and repeat the process.

Oh, and in these tight alleyways often only wide enough for two people sideways, you find toy shops, mask shops (lots of these), glass blowers (nice but very expensive), pizza places and galleries.

I spent half my day wandering around in galleries. There are some fantastic works tucked away in never-to-be-found-again places: there's also a lot of rubbish for the tourists.I ended up with one poster print of a painting in a gallery, which had similar style prints and sculptures. Most everything else was too expensive.

I didn't go for a gondola ride – they were a bit crap for a single traveller. I did cruise from one end of the Grand Canal to the other in a boat. What an odd, trecherous was to travel! It would be like driving in Naples. Boats shoot out from canals with no warnin. Police, ambulances and crazy taxisdart around everywhere, often running gauntlets between oncoming traffic. I had had the idea that yhou could open a kayak renting place for the tourists but as soon as I saw the calas in action I put this idea to bed – Kayaks and canoes would be mince meat the way these people drive. The right of way is given to those with the biggest bulk.

I made it back to Ferarra in time for a meal and nice wander around this time. In one of the shops I bought the two things I sould have had from the start: an alarm clock and a compass.

Oh if I'd only had the compass in Venice.

What an amazing tool. You can align yourself with a wall at the start of a street and wander down it. Then you find yourself at the other end, fiftenn degrees off angle, because Italians couldn't make a straight line if it bit them – just check out their bathrooms. In a seemingly square room how can you end up with a whole extra tile at one end? They're just hopeless at it.

I'm off to Cinque Terra – La Spezia tomorrow. I've had enough of this “country Italy” thing for a while.

2005-01-24T19:32:32