the Venice effect

Two strange but opposite things always seem to happen in Venice. First, you have completely bizarre coincidental meetings with people you know. Second, when you try to arrange to meet people you know, it often seems to fail. Things come up for one or both of you, and the scheduled meetings never take place.

For obvious reasons, it’s also the easiest city in which to get terribly lost. You can easily be heading in the opposite direction from what you think, and even the ubiquitous yellow signs and arrows for the train station, Rialto, and San Marco, while somewhat useful, can sometimes fail you at key moments. Plenty of time must be allowed for going anywhere in particular.