"How do I get to San Marco?" is a question that sometimes begins a visit to Venice.

Very often at the entrance to Venice you can hear the same question:

— How to get to San Marco?

And every time I remember one scene from Alice in Wonderland.

— Tell me, please, where should I go from here?
"Where do you want to go?" the Cat answered.
“I don’t care…” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter where you go,” the Cat noted.

In fact, this short dialogue contains a surprisingly accurate thought about Venice.

Because in Venice It's not always worth rushing to get where you were going..

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🐈 Where do you want to go?

San Marco is, of course, beautiful.

Square.

Basilica.

Doge's Palace.

Campanile.

Everything that millions of people come to Venice for.

But if your only goal is to get to San Marco as quickly as possible, you risk missing out. Venice itself.

Because Venice doesn't start with St. Mark's Square.

It starts from the first turn you take by accident.

From a small campo where laundry dries.

From the quiet channel along which the boat passed.

From the door of the old house.

From an unexpected courtyard, where you looked simply because it was open.

And suddenly it turns out that you don’t know anymore, where exactly are you going?.

And that's wonderful.

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Venice doesn't like direct routes

Here you can walk for ten minutes and suddenly find yourself somewhere you didn't expect. You can turn left and, after a few minutes, realize you've lost your way.

You can ask for directions to San Marco and get the answer: "Go there, then right, then across the bridge..." And in five minutes you'll be back at the same channel. 🙂

But perhaps this is the main secret of Venice.

Getting lost here doesn't mean getting lost.

Sometimes it means finally starting to watch.

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Alice in Wonderland is a book that isn't afraid to lose its reader.

Alice in Wonderland — a brilliant book by the English writer, mathematician and professor Lewis Carroll.

And perhaps one of the reasons for its amazing vitality is that it remains interesting at any age.

Children love it for its unusual, exciting and completely impossible fairy-tale world.

But adults suddenly discover something completely different in her:

absurdity, logic, paradoxes, philosophy and very accurate observations about man.

And perhaps Venice is somewhat similar to it.

You enter the city with a certain plan.

And then the city starts changing this plan.

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So next time you are asked:

— How to get to San Marco?

Of course, you can show me the way.

Can I ask first:

— Are you sure you want to go there right now?

Because if you come to Venice just to go to San Marco, you will see the square.

And if you allow yourself to get a little lost -

You will see Venice.