@brittarnhild
I had to fall in love with Venice to learn about Mary McCarthy. Almost every day I have to pinch my arm and tell myself: "BrittArnhild, you still has so much to learn about this amazing world you live on!" Female travelers and writers are often on this list. I collect femal traveler books, and though my collection is not at all a small one, I still realise again and again that I am only yet at the very top of the iceberg. And I love that! Love to know that I still has so much to learn, to discover.
Venice Observed is originally from 1956, the edition I have is from 1963. How I would have loved to know Venice then.......but as I was born in 1958, well, how could it have happened. Time traveling may be? Yes, of course, that´s how I travel through books.
My first visit to Venice was in 1972. I was 14 then, and came here with my parents and three younger brothers. We have a Super 8 film from it, and I bring strong memories with me in my heart. I did not write a travel diary then though. I wish I had.
Back to McCarthy´s book:
And no word can be spoken in this city that is not an echo of something said before. ´Mais c´est aussi cher que Paris!`exclains a Frenchman in a restaurant, unaware that he repeats Montaigne
........which reminds me of Henry James´words in Portraits of Places where he writes:
Venice has been painted and described many thousands of times, and of all the cities in the world it is the easiest to visit without going there.
Well, I go there again and again, and in between I continue to visit without going there :-)