So many photos have been taken of Venice that it's hard to imagine that it's ever anything but postcard perfect.

I had been to Venice only a month before, when the sky was a perfect blue and the piazzas were bathed in a tepid winter sun. Waiting for the train this February day, though, it was a frigid 4 degrees with heavy fog rolling across the railway platform.

When I arrived for the few hours I had available, the city was eery, magically so, as the canals disappeared into a veil of white, and boats and gondolas emerged ... (more)