A Sublime Winter Weekend in Venice, Italy, Venice, Italy (B)

I spent one month in a 500-year-old apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The time was December. In fact, December is the only time I’ve been in Venice — some nine or more trips to the lagoon city, always in the still of winter’s onset. Tourism is at its lowest.

The air crisp but not biting with the occasional spring-like sun that warms you in its light and leaves you cool in the shadows. Spending an entire month here in Venezia was a different kind of immersion. A wise Venetian told me, “your body must slow down to catch up with your mind,” or was it the other way around? The pace, the livelihood — it’s one of detail.

Now, some year and months later, I still every now and again peek at flights to Venice believing there is going to be a $300.00 transatlantic escape, and I dream of what that weekend nonpareil might be.

Arrive. Rested, energized, and cleaned up in a pair of boots made for walking, the sun is up, which means it is time to drink in Venice. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).