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tomb.” For me, the simple idea that 32 years could pass since my last visit to Venice seemed impossible. Surely my adult life couldn’t contain inter- vals that long. I first went to Venice towards the end of a month travelling solo in Italy after a univer- sity year abroad. Even during that time when guidebooks still boast- ed that you could see Europe on $35 a day, Venice was prohibitive- ly expensive. My only realistic option was a youth hostel housed in a former nunnery on an outlying island. It rained nearly every day in Italy that June. Tourismwas suffering, and even Venice had largely emptied out. I, too, felt sodden. In Venice, I hadn’t the time or the money to enter the famed basilica, which I admired under a flimsy umbrella from rain- drenched Piazza San Marco. I don’t remember much about that visit. When I dug my photo album out from a storage crate before leaving, my pic- tures of Venice were dim and unfamiliar. Today, of course, our travels revisit us regu- larly – our photos, more plentiful, are right here on our phones, served to us algorithmically through a Memories function. We watch Instagram stories of the same locations. It’s become harder to avoid losing your memories altogether. FOR OVER 32 YEARS, new infor- mation about Venice had filtered my own. I’d read the travel writer “YOU’RE VISITING A PLACE CAPTURED IN A MOMENT IN TIME” Returning to Venice after 32 years felt like a risky move. How different would it be? readersdigest.com.au 11 Journey Back In Time