When I retired from art teaching, I decided to sell my home in Scotland and spend a year in Venice. I had been there before for short periods as a tourist, but wondered what life would be like all year round. I packed my stuff in storage and drove from Aberdeenshire to Venice. I had lived in Italy before, so knew the culture and the language. I arrived in Venice, found a flat, and not long after that, found a part time job in an art gallery near San Marco. I stayed for eight memorable years! My talk is not the usual talk on Venice - art, museums, churches, history, but it is rather my own personal viewpoint of how life is in La Serenissima. The differences in weather, how you get around, the people, the colours...all illustrated with many images of life in that beautiful, fascinating, difficult, crazy city.