We have arrived. Here. The end of the road. A small wiggle that peters out on every map. What is here? A noisy, churning brook. …
Home Sweet Home
We’re back and I’m glad. To an overgrown garden, just-blooming rhododendrons, bleeding hearts and ferns along the grass out front, and jet lag to beat the band, of course. I seem to get four or five caffeine-fueled waking hours with some clarity of mind
…
No More Pigeon Food in St. Mark’s…
That’s the big, no huge, no even bigger news today. The pigeon food vendors (1 euro a pop) moved all their carts into a picket …
The Loveliest Time of Day
Right now, 4:30 pm on Saturday afternoon, the sun on the surface of the water of Rio San Barnaba, the canal outside of our apartment, …
Wing and the Wheel
A pigeon just flew past our open living room window. Earlier today I saw one emerge from the front door of a cafe along a narrow calle behind the swank Grand Canal hotels. Friday must be changing-of-the-tourist-guard at Ca’ Rezzonico…
Slow Travel, Slow Time…
Today was a slow, living-in-the-neighborhood day. John hiked through San Polo and Santa Croce up to the Rialto markets this morning to find fish and veal (which I’ve never yet had) for dinners for the next few days.
…
Travel Diary: The Rain Returns to Venice
Dateline April 2008—It’s a lazy, cloudy, rainy Tuesday here in Venice. A black skiff painted with the faces of Disney’s Seven Dwarves just sped along the Rio San Barnaba canal below our apartment windows. It sets a person wondering—what is that about?…
Blue, Blue Sky and Golden Stars…
We went on a pilgrimage to Padua (or Padova as it’s known here in Italia) to see the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel. Fifteen minutes for 20 to 25 of us in a micro-climate-controlled room before we are allowed to be in the presence of genius…
Here We Are in the Years…
We took our time today. I woke late. Ate lunch instead of breakfast. Before we headed off in separate, no-map-needed directions on errands: John to the cantina, the Billa supermercato, the ufficio postale while I ventured to the libreriaa.k.a. bookstore to score one of the fairly hot-off-the-presses Molskine guides …
Rain Falling on a Venetian Canal
John’s been having so much fun documenting the first days of our holiday in Venezia that I thought I’d join in and add some daily posts of my own. This morning is the first day we’ve had rain, and cooler temperatures after an absolutely stunning Sunday of spring warmth…
