My debut novel, Burning Embers, is set in hot and sultry Kenya. Other novels I have been working on are set in Spain and Greece, equally passionate locations. But one other country has always called to me, begging for a love story to be situated amid its dreamy vistas: Italy.

My next novel, The Echoes of Love, will be published soon. For this deeply emotional and romantic book, I knew the perfect setting was Italy, and thus I set it partly in Venice and partly in Tuscany. In later blog posts I will explore in detail the setting for the book, but today I’d like to touch on Venice, where the story begins, and why I wholeheartedly agree that it is the ‘city for lovers’.

First, some basic facts:

• The city comprises 117 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges.
• Venice has been known over the years as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals.
• An average of 50,000 tourists visit the city each day.
• It is home to St. Mark’s Basilica, a stunning example of Byzantine architecture.
• It is the birthplace of composer Antonio Vivaldi.
• Writers Marco Polo and Giacomo Casanova were Venetian.
• The city has proved a popular inspiration for artists over the years, and was a major location in the world art scene during the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

All compelling reasons to find this city fascinating. But Venice is so much more as well, because time and again it tops the polls as the most romantic city in the world.

Why is this? There are so many reasons I can give: the stunning architecture, the sense of history all around, the romantic music, the sublime cuisine, the colours of the buildings and their reflections in the water, the Casanova connection, the passionate Venetians and their beautiful language, the dreamy drift of the lagoon, the blend of hubbub and calming serenity, the exciting carnival, the gondolas that bear you around the city in such a timeless, gliding fashion…

When I visited Venice and I wandered around the city, drinking in its essence – the smells, the colours, the tastes, the sounds – I fell in love with the place more deeply with every step I took. And yet I could never identify one solitary element that captured my heart: it is the sum of the parts, the whole, that is so powerfully moving.

But I think, were I pushed to choose one element of Venice that makes it the perfect backdrop against which love will blossom, it would be the instinctive collective agreement that this is a place for romance. It is as if upon crossing the city boundaries those who visit shed their inhibitions, their daily personas in which love is an afterthought, and the very notion that they are in Venice leads them to be unashamedly romantic. Lovers stroll across piazzas hand in hand, they stand on bridges embracing and watching gondolas float by, they sit, legs entwined, at tiny café tables, heads together, lost in each other. The result is moving and inspirational, and leaves the sense that Venice is unique on our planet – a place for beauty, for souls, for surrendering to the heart.

The perfect location for two strangers to meet and capture each other’s imagination; for the first, tremulous sensations of attraction to unfold. With Venice as their home, what chance have my characters in The Echoes of Love to shy from love?