Saturday, February 6, 2021

Moment of Zen: Venice



I’d love to go back to Venice someday when it’s not in October or during Acqua Alta (when much of the city floods during high tide). When I went to Italy in October 2006 to do research for my dissertation, I spent a week in Venice, and the city was so cold and rainy. I caught a bad cold and was miserable most of the time I was there. It was a miserable but memorable week. The Gondolieri in the picture above made it worthwhile. I can’t tell you how long I stood on that bridge watching him maneuver that gondola. It was a beautiful sight. Venice itself is a beautiful and amazing city, and while I preferred Florence over Rome or Venice (I spent a month in those three cities), I would like to see Venice again when the weather is better and I’m not sick.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saw Venice in ideal weather - have never been back, due to not wanting to spoil my golden memories with the reality of hordes of tourists from gigantic cruise ships and of other commercialization. Agree with you about preferring Florence (where you can avoid the tourists without too much difficulty) to Rome.
MORE IMPORTANTLY - HOW IS YOUR HEAD DOING TODAY? I am hoping that the fact that you can produce a post on Venice shows that the pain is less. Roderick

Joe said...

Roderick, I am feeling better today. I woke up around 4:30 to go to the bathroom, and when I laid back down to go to sleep again, I realized that I was not feeling any pain. I finally fell back to sleep and woke up again just before 8. Again, with little or no pain. The more I was upright, the more pain I had. Throughout the morning, the pain has come and gone, but the pain has not been as severe as it head during the past week. Hopefully, I’ll continue to see more improvement with these steroids.

Anonymous said...

Joe, that's great to hear - and here's hoping that the improvement continues.
By the way, the episode on Venice in the original tv version of "Brideshead Revisited" provides a vision of the city as it should be and as I remember it. Roderick