The Vanishing Waterland--informative essay on Venice and my experince there.

The Vanishing Waterland Out of breath and relieved, I plopped down in the closest seat to the window. My boyfriend Andy and I barely made it to our train because the lazy alarm failed to get us out of bed. We were seated in a six-person compartment on the train, accompanied by two older women in their sixties wearing mink coats. In the seat next to them was an older man with a thick German …

…covers a compact area of 118 closely-knit islands, linked by 160 canals, at the centre of a lagoon approximately 50 km long and 15 km wide." (UNESCO). Andy and I got lost in the unending backstreets, dead-end alleys, and deserted squares that make up Venice. The brilliance and influence have long since faded, leaving a town of tarnished beauty, out of time and out of place, so beautiful it's hard not to look for the back of the set.