Some people don’t like Venice, and I used to be one of them. I found Venice to be too crowded, too expensive, too prettily twee. Then, after spending six grudging weeks there one winter for work, it dawned on me: I didn’t love Venice because I didn’t know it. I’d flitted between the main sites and the must-visit bars and restaurants.

I’d ticked off the major churches, island-hopped around the lagoon, and crossed off the guidebooks’ sightseeing list. But Venice isn’t just any old destination with a list of sights to tick off. The floating city that shouldn’t exist, the city whose fortunes have risen and fallen as often as the tides, the city that is still the world’s longest running republic, is a place you have to live and breathe. Once I understood that, I fell in love with it. By the time I moved here in 2020, I’d been making monthly visits for some time.