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Venice - A Feast for the Eyes

One too many gondolas on a narrow canal spells traffic. This is the scene during the busy summer months. Trying to find a quiet corner can be challenging.  "But come back in November or December, February or March, when the fog, la nebbia, settles upon the city like a marvelous monster, and you will have little trouble believing that things can appear and disappear in this labyrinthine city, or that time here could easily slip in its sprockets and take you, willingly or unwillingly, back."  Erica Jong, A City of Love and Death: Venice Love is in the air. We congratulated the bride and groom of this wedding party whom we saw cruising the Venetian canals. On our way to Dorsoduro, we discovered these love locks on the Ponte dell'Accademia. Yes, love may be eternal but the lock is only good till it rusts. Good luck with that! Speaking of love, every year during the Festa della Sensa (Feast of the Ascension), Venice renews its wedding vows with the sea. These are the w

Highlights of My Italian Summer

The Duomo, Milan In the next few weeks I'll be writing in detail about my trip to Italy this June. For the moment, I'd like to share some highlights of our visit to this country that calls you, like a siren, to come back for more. It took more than four centuries to complete the construction of Milan's Duomo. Napoleon Bonaparte demanded it be ready for his coronation as King of Italy. This photo was taken on a Sunday, sunny day and family day. A short train ride from Milan to Lake Como and a total change of pace. Far from the madding crowd, Lake Como is naturally beautiful and peaceful in late spring. It might be quite a different scene in summer.  Bellagio, Lake Como We made a pilgrimage to Padua in the Veneto region to pray at the tomb of St. Anthony. The feast of St. Anthony is on June 13 and we we were lucky to have participated in one of the masses during the 13-day long festivities. Basilica del Santo, Padua Venice is such a fragile p

Venice is a Visual Feast

To write about Venice is to tell only half the story. For Venice is a sensory feast. It is not easy to convey in words all that it offers. Rather it must be experienced. How do I explain what I felt on seeing it for the first time? I heard the bora fiercely making its way across the islands drowning the alto voce of the gondolier. I hungrily followed the scent of freshly baked pastries in the early morning hours when the locals were still dreaming in bed. And I got hopelessly lost in the labyrinthine alleys only to find myself in a quiet piazza only a stone's throw from the hordes of visitors in Piazza San Marco. Venice seeps through the bones leaving an indelible impression.