The Venetian Quest

While on a FAM trip (a FAMiliarization, or scouting trip for those in the travel industry) earlier this year, as I walked with several other travel advisors to our hotel in the darkness of night somewhere in the south of Spain, one advisor went down the line asking each person how many countries we had visited in our lifetimes. As she called each of us out one by one, anticipating one large number after the next, it occurred to me that I had never tallied the number. Names of countries were shouted into the night air, listed like conquests. When it came to my turn, I don’t believe I even broke thirty.

Some people wear the number of countries visited as a badge of honor. While I understand these lists and the goal to one day reach all 195— 195!!!— this has never been a goal of mine. Out of the number of countries I have visited, there are those that have so captured my heart, that I return to again and again and again whenever I have the chance to travel and go deeper, to find the true essence of their cultures and their uniqueness. Hence the name of this Substack— I prefer to wander and nest— and it’s no secret that one of these countries for me, is Italy.

This summer I returned with my daughter Lulu, with 10 days of our summer stay reserved for a deep dive into Venice. It may be the most written about city in the world, the destination attached most to the term overtourism. And yet…I knew it had more to offer than the surface impression the majority of visitors see…