ArcaMax

Walking home to our apartment in Venice, we shared a wave through the window with the owner of Baba, our local osteria. When we left for a day of sightseeing, a cup of my favorite pistachio gelato awaited me, despite the early hour. Later, at the Bar Dugole, we relaxed after a day of sightseeing and ordered the regular: vodka for my husband and amaretto for me. Then we sat and watched everyone else in Venice try to figure out where they were. But more on that later.

Welcome to Untours, a wonderful, well-kept secret that may change your concept of travel forever. The program offers tourists an opportunity to not be tourists. Serving close to two dozen European countries, Untours inundates you with information, puts you up in unusual accommodations, provides whatever transportation is necessary to get around and voila! You are a local.

We were learning about our neighborhood but on our terms. Rise early or sleep in. Sightsee or stroll around town. Cook in or eat out. And whatever the choice, we returned to our roomy apartment with its warmer ambience than any hotel would provide. The orientation told us where to get the best produce, meat, fish, pastries, and of course, wine and gelato -- the aforementioned shop that just coincidentally was directly next door to our apartment.

Our favorite local discovery? The Filler-Up Wine Shop. Bring in any empty bottle and fill it with the wine of your choice for $2.50 to $4 a bottle -- less than you would pay for a glass at a local trattoria. What a terrific way to recycle empty water bottles.

Venice is an old city. The water-logged foundations date back to the 11th century; the newer building facades are as recent as the 15th. So many buildings were stripped of paint and plaster on both sides of a small alleyway, I expected them to crumble before my eyes until I reminded myself they have looked pretty much the same for more than 500 years.

We were immediately transformed into another world filled with canals, gondolas, water buses, cobbled streets, alleyways, bridges and cafes. Picture everything that makes any city run -- buses, taxis, fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, postal services, FedEx deliveries, garbage pickups -- but they're all boats.

Expect to get lost. And thank goodness because that is the best way to explore the city and find those gems that are not part of the major tourist itineraries.

Among those gems is Pinocchio Island, home to a local Geppetto whose real name is Roberto Comin, maker of magical marionettes. These brilliant little string creatures represent all aspects of Venetian historical and theatrical culture lovingly produced by Comin for 25 years in a workshop more than 350 years old. Requests now come in for characters from Shakespeare to Cleopatra and yes, a Johnny Depp look-alike that was given to the actor for his birthday. Want a marionette doppelganger of yourself? It's doable, but it'll cost you about $600.

As I mentioned before, getting lost is a given. People spend as much time looking up at the signs designating different sections, squares and churches of the city as they do looking down at maps and phones. My favorite response from a young street vendor: "Go right over the next bridge, then ask someone else." And then when you don't think things can get any worse, you see the sign you've been searching for and it points in both directions. I thought about giving up and going home, but I had no clue how to get there.

We wandered everywhere, sitting at cafes to eat or drink wine, always aware of how little English we heard -- again reinforcing the idea of living like a local. And the more we wandered, the more enjoyable the discoveries: a delightful mask store, street musicians in jeans playing Vivaldi, an out-of-the-way Leonardo Da Vinci museum.

Not every stop in Venice is off the beaten path. There's the de rigueur visit to Piazza San Marco, so if you want to avoid tourists, don't go there. But one reason they are there is the pigeons. In my unfiltered 19-year-old memory, the square was covered with them. Decades later, my first thought was, "Where are all the pigeons?" Then I saw them. "Oh yes, over there by that guy with all the bird food."

The island of Murano, world famous for its glass figurines, jewelry and home decor since the 11th century, is a must destination if you want to be absolutely sure you're buying Murano glass and not a knock-off, though it'll cost you. I was amazed at the intricate convoluted shapes in colors so vibrant and translucent that the light passing through intensifies the whole experience. I wanted to decorate my whole house with cups, vases, dishes and elaborately designed decorative pieces, but I settled for a pair of earrings.

It was a fun diversion, but I was so happy to get back to our apartment, pick up some branzini from the fish market along with a water bottle full of wine from the Filler-Up shop and sit on our porch, savoring our most recent exploits while looking forward to the next one.

And feel reassured that no one has ever been irretrievably lost in Venice, but if so, how lucky for them. They're still there!

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WHEN YOU GO

For more information: untours.com.

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Fyllis Hockman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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