Letterboxing in a Maze

Today we had a full day to explore Venice and of course I wanted to do some letterboxing. We started by looking for a box that was marked as unknown. We followed the clues and came across the road we needed (at least we think it was the right road) but we didn’t find the box. I had done some research to find the street and noticed that there was more than one street with that name so it is possible that we were in the wrong spot. So it was time to move on. We stopped to do a little window shopping and had some lunch and then we continued our letterboxing activity. 

Carnevale in Venice

I was looking in specific areas to hide boxes so that they kind of made sense. I had a box to hide that I called Masked in Venice. I wanted it to be close to St.Mark’s Square since that is where Carnevale is held but the place is way too busy. So we ended up in the Castello area (where there were lots of mask shops) where I found a great spot to hide the box. I found a Poste box with a lip on the bottom that worked well. After jotting down some notes for the clue we continued our walk. We headed to the Rialto Bridge for a box in the area. We had a little trouble finding the right street and the right Madonna in the wall. We found three streets with the same name and we found countless Madonnas in the area. Finally we found the right spot and found one of the boxes that were listed there. One was definitely missing because you could see right into the spot and there was nothing there. I stamped in and then we put the box back into the hiding spot and made our way to one of the main streets. Here we consulted our map and headed out to hide two more boxes.

As we zigged and zagged through the maze known as Venice we enjoyed finding tiny, narrow streets and wonderful shops. Each turn was a surprise and most of the time provided a photo opportunity. Eventually we made our way to the Dursoduro area. The next box I wanted to hide was of a gondola and gondolier - voga alla veneziana. I had read information that there is a boatyard in the San Trovaso Square area and I wanted the box hidden there.

Gondola

We found the church and square and what we think was the boatyard (it isn’t open to the public). We looked around and found an old metal pipe partially embedded in a wall with pieces of brick missing. As I was looking for a good spot I encountered a geocache. I was disappointed because I wanted to hide the box there after searching around I found a spot lower than the geocache and hid the box nicely. I sat and wrote the clues out and then took a few pictures. And then we moved on. Now I wanted to go to San Samuel area to plant my next (and last) box – Giacomo Casanova. He lived in this area and I had first thought it would be nice to plant the box near his home but writing clues for Venice proves to be a bit challenging. So I choose a square that you could identify on a map. Then it took us a while to find a spot but then I located a pipe about half a block down that worked out well. I didn’t stop to write clues, I just took a few pictures of street names and landmarks to help me write them later.

It was starting to get dark and we were going to look for one more box but decided not to worry about it and just head to the Ferrovia. We looked for signs for the Ferrovia and headed that way. We had a great day of letterboxing in Venice and maneuvering our way through the tangle of streets really helped us to see the city. You can read about our day there at A City Built on Water or you can read about the whole trip at Viva Italia Letterboxing Tour.