Venice, Italy

 After arriving in Venice, the next adventure for me was to find my hotel. Normally, I'd hail a cab and be escorted to the front door. Venice has no vehicles. Everyone walks everywhere. So, I head off over the Rialto Bridge in search of my hotel. Sadly, I headed North instead of South. Forty minutes later, after wandering the picturesque streets and alleys of North Venice, I stop and ask the sweetest girl who was working a gelato shop for some help. I flipped open my wonderfully laminated, completely inaccurate tourist map and asked her where we were. She looked the map, smiled sweetly, and said, "Bad map." I smiled back, appreciating her honesty while agreeing wholeheartedly with her opinion. She walked with me outside and started giving me directions, speaking in English, and pointing and directing me back to where I had disembarked from the water taxi. However, once she reached the water taxi in her mind, she switched over to speaking in Italian. I thought I was understanding most of the directions...I could understand the words left, right and bridge. It was the word straight that I didn't understand and that word is very useful when following directions. Off I went and soon I found myself deep inside another section of Venice. So deep in fact, that I had walked clear across Venice and was now looking out towards airport. Sigh. I turned around and headed back to the starting point of my disembarkment from the water taxi. There, I stopped at a tourist shop which sold carnival masks and begged assistance from the friendly lady working there. She was able to direct me to the neighborhood I needed. It was actually quite sensible the way the streets are located. After each address is the neighborhood that the street is associated with. The neighborhoods are set up around squares. Just go to the square that shares the same name as the one listed after the address. Once there, you check every side street that branches off from that square. And then check each alley behind the side streets which branch off of the square. And then you check each dark, poorly lit corner of streets that branch off the alleys which branch off the main streets from the square. Systematically, I started checking each street off of the square, which was thankfully, still being lit up by the lights of an all-night pizzeria. The workers were taking a smoke break outside while watching me disappear down each street only reemerge a short time later from the same street. After my fourth reemergence from the side street, I decided it was time for a break. I stopped and chatted with the two men while I gulped down a liter of water. Finally, I pleaded with them to direct me to my hotel. They directed me two streets down and one alley over. They warned me that it was hidden around the corner behind the alley. In the end, I played a two hour game of hide and go seek with my hotel. The hotel put up a valiant, impressive fight, but I finally found it sitting majestically behind an alley, off of a side street from the square which bears its name. The hotel has been residing in this spot for over 500 years. It is truly a hidden gem.