Dear Venice: Wish You Were Here #23

March 10th. Thought you might like to see the style of palace we are living in at the present. Two ticks over one of the upper rooms (indecipherable) where we are situated and as you see we overlook the Grand Canal. We arrived about seven thirty last night. While dressing for dinner we were serenaded. Such a (something). We spent the morning in a gondola. She was perfectly happy & we enjoyed it. Hope you are a little better. Love to all. M.W.L.

You can see I had trouble with a few words here, but I think I got most of it correct. I want to be these people. This style of palace! Overlooking the Grand Canal! Dressing for dinner! Spending the morning in a gondola! Being serenaded! Such a something!! Give me a room two ticks over from theirs and I’ll be quite happy.

The postcard identifies the site as Grand Canal e Grand Hotel. I’ll let my readers tell us which palazzo this is. I know you’ll have fun identifying it!

Thanks to hobbylark.com, I learned that this kind of “undivided back” postcard is one of the oldest types, before this space was divided in two, for the address and for the message. So senders had to squish their message into the white space of the image side. Great Britain was the first to divide the back side in 1902, so this postcard is indeed an old one! Sent March 25, 1905, if I’m reading that correctly, to 107 Simpson Street, Montreal, Canada. (Thank goodness for internet searches! I couldn’t read the address, but when I typed in something close, Google did the rest and found it for me.)

Based on the Google map, it looks like the original house is long gone, replaced by condos and office space (but this was just a quick search). Please write and let me know if you have other information!