I’m back from a few days in Venice over New Year’s. It’s as wonderful as everybody says, from the first glimpse of the grand canal outside the train station.

It’s big too, and irregular. You can walk across large parts of the city through tall narrow streets that are often only wide enough for one person. Even with a map I got lost for an hour just getting croissants from the bakery one the morning.

Venice is expensive but worth it for the unique experience. We took the train from Munich and stayed in an apartment to save a little money and pretend that we lived there.