Relying on your hard-earned confidence and energies, it's now high time you finally EXplored this unique city. Besides some aimless wandering, a good way to start your sightseeing is climbing the stairs (or riding the elevator) to the top of the Campanile di San Marco for an aerial view that will help you familiarize with the layout of the city, which stretches over 116 islands and islets joined by 400-something bridges spanning 176 canals. But don't forget to extend your ramblings to some island-hopping that will take you to charming villages like colorful Burano in the northern lagoon, or pretty Malamocco midway down the Lido island, where a few dozen Euros will buy you a night's stay in a bright, marble-floored, period-furnished 15th C. palace (http://www.cadelborgo.it).
A luxury destination like Venice has plenty of EXclusive – money-wise at least – opportunities to EXhale, but by the time you feel like celebrating the New You, I guess you' wil know how to outwit the masses and take the ferry back to laid-back Torcello instead. Here you may treat yourself (and maybe a special someone) to a star-class meal at Locanda Cipriani (http://www.locandacipriani.com), a favourite restaurant with VIPs ranging from several members of the English Royal Family to movie stars like Charlie Chaplin, and from internationally acclaimed artists such as Marc Chagall to legendary authors like Ernest Hemingway, who penned his “Across the River and Into the Trees” during his stay here in November 1948. Just don't forget to drink a goodbye toast to the gloomy Old You that used to tread these shores not so long ago!
A trueborn Florentine and inveterate Anglophile, Maddalena Delli is a freelance writer and translator specializing in the arts, travel, lifestyle and environment. A qualified member of the Italian journalists' guild, she has also been writing for the web for ten years and is the mind behind some award-winning web sites. She is always on the lookout for projects that allow scope for some lateral thinking and can be reached at maddalena@delli.it
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