Venice: the city of water, unfurling romance, fashioned gondolas and masked carnivals; a mystical place that immerses the 21st century with the sounds and views of the living past, as if two cinematic worlds collided...

After four long days in Rome, my feet began to drag. There was a tingling in my left arm, the sun seared my neck, and the relentless trickle of water from the fountains was carving a...