The Visible City of Venice

by Jennifer Wright

Nothing is firmly rooted in Venice. As such, it is a city that lends itself to a great deal of missteps and wrong turns. Any traveler who has been there will tell you that finding any particular destination can be a great struggle, and not simply because the locals are apt to wave their hands about in a cheerful, vague way whenever you ask them for directions.

It is a city of mazes.

Unlike every other city in the world, where streets, if not always cleanly laid out and labeled are at least land based, walkways in Venice are forever being cut off by canals, or floode...