After a day in Venice with only tourist clothes on his back and two feetful of blisters from all the walking to show for it, Douglas seems no closer to locating Albie despite his methodical search, the tourist area not being large, and knowing that Albie is indeed in the city. The one person he does seem to encounter constantly is Freja. What starts as the two being new friends turns into each bonding with the other in their common loneliness, much like Douglas and Connie having the loss of Jane being the first thing they having in common and thus bonding over that situation early in their marriage. And back in Britain, Connie can only imagine what is happening in Douglas largely being incommunicado as she forwards what she has been able to discover about Albie's whereabouts via the Internet.
—Huggo