I lost the sole in Venice. I only noticed it once it was gone several hours after, at the end of my long walk through Castello. I felt the imbalance belatedly, pulled up first one foot and then the other,...

I can hear my heartbeat. Its severe rhythmic booming means two things – I am morbidly out of shape, and, the silence around me is so complete, it’s one of those rare times I can genuinely listen when my heart...