2005

No literary lover is as intimately connected with Venice as Giacomo Casanova, the legendary lover of more than 120 women (at least by his count). Soldier, diplomat, adventurer and spy, Casanova was born there in 1725. He travelled widely in Europe, was involved in many political and sexual intrigues, was imprisoned during the Inquisition and wrote an autobiography called The History of My Life. It is a guide not only to his adventures but to a sensuous way of living.

Curiously, it was Casanova the man, rather than Venice itself, that inspired Canadian writer Susan Swan to write the novel What Casanova Told Me, a romance about a decrepit but still lusty Casanova (Swan calls him Jacob) and Asked For Adams, an adventurous Puritan and fictional cousin of the second U.S. president. Although the notorious womanizer seemed an unlikely subject for Swan, the provocatively feminist author of The Biggest Modern Woman of the World, The Last of the Golden Girls and The Wives of Bath argues that Casanova loved women for their wit and intelligence as well as the sensual rapture he found in their bodies.

What Casanova Told Me : A Novel by Susan Swan "There is something both titillating and fantastical about this type of historiccal fiction, and Swan is adept at spinning facts into vividly imagined scenes and characters."

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In the novel, Adams writes a journal in the 18th century about her adventures with Casanova, a memoir that is passed down to Luce Adams, a 20th-century young woman who is trying to find a sense of self after the death of her mother and is about to travel to Venice. In reading her ancestor's diaries, Luce finds a list of Jacob Casanova's Ten Primary Principles of Travel.

Although they are attributed to Casanova, they really reflect Swan's own wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of writing, reading and roaming the world as an adventurous and mostly single woman. Swan, 59, thinks writing and travel inspire creative introspection. Certainly that is true of her own adventures as I learned when we discussed Casanova's travel tips: 1. Do not set out in a spirit of acquisition, but go forth in the utmost humility, experiencing the same fervour you feel when choosing a lover, knowing a world of possibilities awaits you.

A lot of us want to take our home with us when we travel by packing cultural assumptions and pre-conceptions of where to stay and what to see. That's wrong-headed, Swan says. Instead, embark in a curious and accepting manner and set out to experience and enjoy whatever the place, or the lover, has to offer.

2. Write down what it is you desire and tear your wish into a dozen pieces. Then fling the scraps into a large body of water. (Any ocean will do.) Take the time to anticipate what you want to have happen on your trip, write it down and then let it go telepathically into the universe. Because you have focused and articulated your desire, you are more likely to recognize it when it crosses your field of vision. Be prepared to embrace your desire when you recognize it, even if it comes in an unexpected package.

3. Travelling is like breathing, so exhale the old, inhale the new and allow your heartbreak to fall away behind you.

Don't hold tightly to old sorrows when you travel, or you will make yourself too guarded to enjoy the wonderful experiences that may be right at your elbow.

4. What you desire always awaits you if you are brave enough to recognize it.

We are very tied up with external appearances, Swan says, but you must be prepared to shed stereotyped expectations. In her 40s, Swan, who is 6-foot-2, was travelling in Greece and became pals with a short stocky man from Athens. She enjoyed his company, but dismissed him as a lover because of the height differential. The more she relished his conversation, the taller he became. Eventually he became her lover, her travelling companion and, a decade later, the germ of her novel about Casanova.

5. Go only where your fancies take you. The path of pleasure and freedom is the best path for the traveller.

Travel is not work. There are parts of it that are like work, because you have to arrange tickets and transportation, but you shouldn't impose your will on travel as though it is a job with a rigid agenda to be accomplished. Adopt a spirit of lightness and give in to what the moment is offering, and you will never be disappointed.

6. Arrange easy entrances and exits. Refresh yourself at comfortable lodgings. Then move on to other quarters, and forgive yourself the indulgence of necessary luxuries.

Swan admits that it took her years to acquire this principle. Put your frugality aside. Don't waste your vacation seeking the lowest price on the ferry or the cheapest meals. Tell yourself you are entering a new world, treat yourself generously and find a pleasing and comfortable way to travel.

7. If you find a place that suits you, by all means stay. But you will not know the soul of its people until you can speak to them in their own language.

Be flexible. Home is supposed to be where you feel complete. If you find a place where instinctively you feel at home, explore it and forget the itinerary the travel agent drew up. Conversely, if the place you thought would be wonderful turns out to be a nightmare, move on.

8. Accept others as you do yourself, but see them for who they are.

There are parts of the world that are dangerous, so you have to travel in a spirit of good will, but not naivety.

9. Your journey is not over until you bestow a gift on the lands you have visited, knowing full well that you will never be able to repay half the riches they bestow on you.

Good travellers want to pay homage to a place that has given them pleasure and a deepened understanding of the world. Swan thinks of her Casanova novel, and the seven years it took to write it, as her gift back to the Mediterranean because it has nourished her so much.

10. Go now and at once, taking Jacob Casanova's words to heart: Un altro mondo e possibile! (Another world is possible.) Travel is an imaginative construct to house a political impulse to show you that the way we live in North America isn't necessarily the best way. There are other ways to be in the world and other cultures to comprehend.