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way you once saw it and what lies before you now. Or perhaps not. Late in life, Jan Morris, a life-long student of Ven- ice who died in 2020 at age 94, said she couldn’t remem- ber her first sight of Venice, a city she re- visited enough times to fill four books and, in her words, “a cou- ple of million” articles. But Morris said of Ven- ice, “In my experience, anyway, it remains a place of unpoisoned and unmecha- nised welcome. But there, it’s all in the mind.” SOHOWDID THE VENICE inmymind compare with the city I returned to? Venice was not at all what I’d re- membered. Nor was it what I feared. The city, it turns out, has not been ruined. It was certainly crowded, but its crowds were tolerable, perhaps because they circulated along the same well-trodden paths. And the city compensated, thrum- ming with contempo- rary art as much as with its preserved history, with palazzi turned into private museums boast- ing exhibits by artists such as Pierre Huyghe and Christoph Büchel. My 17-year-old son, freshly graduated from high school, came along for the trip, and I got to look on as he saw Venice for the very first time. I, too, felt as if I saw it for the first time. If I never end up returning, I’ll have left with no regrets. This time, I’ll remember it well. THE NEW YORK TIMES (JUNE 13, 2024) © 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY “VENICE WAS NOT WHAT I REMEMBERED, BUT NOR WAS IT WHAT I FEARED” The Zona delle Zattere promenade edges the famous Giudecca Canal readersdigest.com.au 13 Journey Back In Time