Whenever my mother goes away, she always tries to find a local pool to swim in. Even if there’s a pool at the hotel, perhaps especially if there’s a pool at the hotel, she’ll always try and find a nearby place to have a swim. My dad finds the spirit of new places by taking photographs and I go grocery shopping, but my mother finds her way into a new location by doing a mile in the local swimming pool. As a family, we’ve swum in Greek water parks, Italian lidos, French lakes and, memorably, in 1997, found out about the death of Princess Diana whilst swimming in a gorgeous Danish municipal pool. When she visits Venice, once or twice a year, my mother always makes sure she fits in a swim at her favourite spots and, on our last trip, I went with her to the pool at Sant’ Alvise, in the Canareggio district.