I thought long and hard about whether or not to travel the Silk Road alone or whether to share it with someone, and from a security and companionship point of view. Nevertheless it was difficult to find anyone I could travel with who had several thousand pounds and 6 months spare. So ultimately I decided to go it alone. One of the things I find difficult is the fact that there will be lonely moments and no matter how good a book you are reading, nor how relaxing the music you are listening to is, it can feel awkward.

And so I set out for dinner last night a little downbeat. Seeing people in the bar chatting and laughing kind of hammered it home. I needn’t have actually worried though as before long a guy sidled up the bar of the Café Del Feri and before long we were engaged in conversation. I hadn’t realised it, but I’d stumbled into an artist’s bar and looking around me at the characters seated it became obvious. Crazy clothes, strange mannerisms and even more weird hairstyles. As we chatted I became acutely aware that my take on modern art was not quite up to scratch! Eager to hold my own, and having visited the Guggenheim Museum earlier that day I thought I could bluff my way through Brancusi. And while this worked for a while sadly my lack of knowledge on cubism and my difficulty to express even this in Italian got the better of me. I left before I damaged my reputation any further. 

I strolled around the streets looking for somewhere nice to eat and found a lovely Osteria. It looked fairly empty but I thought it might fill up and so entered. I hadn’t got past ordering my meal before the words “young man” came my way. I looked around foolishly expecting them to have been aimed at someone else when it was quite clear there was no-one else. Once again “young man” and I knew that I’d have to answer. I smiled and enquired “yes?”. It was a group of American tourists who had just landed that day and where in a state of super excitement. They immediately thought that I was Australian, on account of my accent, and we started chatting. It wasn’t long before I knew the life histories of Ned, Patsy, Shauna, Tommy and Greg from South Louisiana. Nor was it long before they knew about my trip and they invited me to their table to finish my meal. Indeed we spent most of the rest of the evening toasting the Queen, international relations and, somewhat less heartily, the Bush Administration all to the toast of Limoncello liqueur which they decided was the best Italian stuff they’d tasted. I didn’t dare mention Grappa as they had had quite enough to drink already! 

Today my research started properly. I made my way, somewhat lazily, to Treviso to visit an Exhibition on the Silk Road in China. While it was quite interesting and was well presented it wasn’t really much more than a bunch of old artefacts with descriptions of what they were but nothing more as to the history of the Silk Roads from where they came. Still it was a taste of what I might see in China. I spent lunch it what seemed to be a student hangout and the food was undeniably cheap. My fellow diners on my table did enquire why I was drinking beer at lunchtime though so I had to explain that I was actually just a tourist and an alcoholic tourist at that. 

I returned to Venice this afternoon in a hopeful search of Marco Polo’s legendary house, but alas without luck and have hence taken the opportunity to write and upload some photos – ignore the grumpy-looking one of me displaying my beard, but it is cultivating itself nicely. 

 My hotel view... not the Gritti Palace, but still charming and cheap!

 Mad Old Americans at Supper ... Sadly not the stunning student ladies I'd seen earlier but good company!