Trieste has nothing going for it other than nice sunsets looking toward Venice. You don’t need to go there. But you do need to hear the story of how I lost my nice watch.

Now that I’m in Italy, I can finally get some decent food. I go to a fancy wine store and restaurant where I’m able to talk Zinfandel with someone who knows. I taste one of his Zinfandels and I’m in heaven. He’s a friendly guy and we get talking about wine, and next thing I know I’m having a fabulous homemade pasta meal that is really the first good meal I’ve had since I left New York. He tells me he’s going to the cellar to get me a special bottle of wine. A 1984 something. I don’t know what it was, but it was just for me, so I couldn’t refuse. I told him I was just having one glass because it’s lunch time, and he says he doesn’t care, I’m going to love it.

So I have the glass of wine, and it’s nothing special. But the pasta is amazing! I’m thrilled. I’m so thrilled that I order another glass of wine because he went to all the trouble. Again, it’s not very good, but I’m having a good time anyway.

I stumble out of the wine bar in the middle of the afternoon, and I think to myself I’ll just go to the park for a nap in the sun. I put my stuff down, take off shoes and socks, and I lay on the grass, soaking up the rays. Then I realize I don’t want a watch-strap tan, so I take off my Tissot T-touch travel watch and put it on the grass by my hip. Forty five minutes later I wake up, groggy, put my socks and shoes back on and stumble back to my hotel room to drink water.

I laid down on the bed, dehydrated and ready for a nap, and then it hit me. I forgot my watch. I RUN back to the park, but I’m too late. I just stood up and walked away from a very nice watch, and now it’s gone.

I have got to stop walking away from my stuff!

How many things have I stood up and walked away from on this trip already? An umbrella (someone in the train station in Zagreb got it). A good hat (gone). My visa card and ATM card (the Romanian waitress ran after me and gave it back). I left my palm pilot and my camera many times in Internet cafes and always went back and got them. But enough is enough. I’m going to change my ways.

When you travel the way I do, you get up and leave a place forever about 15 times every day. I can’t afford to leave things behind any more. So I have a new habit – I always look back after leaving anyplace. It’s a great habit. I’ve kept it since my trip, and it’s really very useful. It takes a second but probably saves me, on average, at least half an hour a week of going back for things I’ve left behind.

I have one day in Venice, before I take the night train to Nice. The thing that makes Venice so wonderful is the exact thing that makes Venice so awful: it’s amazing. Practically everything is 400 years old and sinking. The good news is that if you get two bridges away from the main streets, you’re mostly out of the tourist zone and you can enjoy the town. My photos tell the rest of the story. I hope you like close-ups of doors and windows, because I do.

- by David Siegel