A Wanderer in Venice

I have no doubt whatever that, if the diversion can be arranged, the perfect way for therailway traveller to approach Venice for the first time is from Chioggia, in the afternoon. Chioggia is at the end of a line from Rovigo, and it ought not to be difficult to get thereeither overnight or in the morning. If overnight, one would spend some very delightfulhours in drifting about Chioggia itself, which is a kind of foretaste of Venice, although notlike enough to her to impair the surprise. (But nothing can do that. Not all the books orphotographs in the world, not Turner, nor Whistler, nor Clara Montalba, can so familiarizethe stranger with the idea of Venice that the reality of Venice fails to be sudden andarresting. Venice is so peculiarly herself, so exotic and unbelievable, that so far from everbeing ready for her, even her residents, returning, can never be fully prepared.)