1On my first morning in Venice, the narrow lanes near the Rialto were already impassable by eight o'clock.
2Cruise ships the size of apartment blocks towered over the fragile bell towers of the lagoon.
3The woman who ran my guesthouse said her family had lived there for six generations.
4She now rents her childhood home to visitors because locals can no longer afford the city.
5More than twenty million visitors arrive here each year, while the resident population keeps shrinking.
6The city has finally begun charging day trippers a small entry fee during the busiest months.
7Critics argue that a fee alone cannot save a place that is becoming a theme park.
8Yet without the money that tourism brings, restoration of the crumbling palaces would be impossible.
9Walking home that evening, I felt both grateful to be there and guilty for being there.
10Perhaps the real question for travellers like me is not whether to visit, but how to visit.