When I travel to a new city, I’m always interested to see the main sights. In Venice, for example – where I went recently to get a feel for the setting in my latest novel, The Echoes of Love – I followed the crowds to all the main attractions: St Mark’s Square, with its Basilica and the Doge’s Palace; the famous Bridge of Sighs; the Grand Canal; galleries and churches and palaces aplenty; and of course the islands of Burano, Murano and Torcello. But I also like to go off the beaten track, and explore the true city – the face beneath the mask. My heroine, Venetia, lives in Venice and frequents the little boutiques and cafes popular with the locals, which gave me the perfect excuse to step into the labyrinth of tiny lanes that lead away from the throngs into the true heart of the city.

It was on one such exploration that I happened across a unique bookstore: LibreriaAcqua Alta, on the Calle Longa Santa Maria Formosa (Corte Senza Nome) in Castello. Regular readers of my blog will know that I am a bibliophile, and so the discovery of a bookshop will always be an exciting one! But this bookshop is really a sight to behold, not least because the first thing I saw upon entering was a gondola full of books…

The bookshop sells both new books and second-hand ones, but it does not have the stark, smart minimalism of a modern store; it has something of the feel of a French brocante.  The rooms are labyrinthine and filled with books, on shelves, stacked on the floor, in a bathtub, even – keep exploring far enough and you find yourself in a courtyard from which extends steps made of books (signs direct you to ‘go up’ for a ‘wonderful view’; and indeed, the view of the canals is stunning, though it feels slightly wrong to be climbing books…).

The scent of paper is pungent in the air, and the eye is continually distracted by the somewhat haphazard organizing, but if you love to rummage, there are gems to be found, from dictionaries and atlases to romance and sci-fi novels, in all different languages.

‘LibreriaAcqua Alta’ translates to High Water Bookshop, which brings new meaning to the bathtub and gondola – when the water level rises in the canal outside, and the store floods, the books are safe! That perhaps also explains the lifebelt artfully arranged against a book stack.

I spent a very pleasant half hour in the bookstore, whose welcome sign proclaims it to be ‘the most beautiful bookshop in the world’. Certainly, it is the most unique I have been to, and I love the owner’s sense of humour and whimsy.

Have you been to any unusual bookstores like this one? I would love to hear about them and add them to my ‘visit wish list’.