My Travel Book - Once Upon a Time... Venice - Part 1

While I was going through chemo #2, I bought a lot of books. I love to read and yes, this was before Kindle time... So they were “real” books and among them there were several with enchanting titles such as... “100 things to do before you die”, “100 places to see before you die” which shows how optimistic I was!!!

Well, I did skip the “1.000 places to see before to die” but only because I am getting old.

You’ll be glad to hear that among the 100 etc. I had already done and seen quite a few...

But I had a dream then and there. I wanted to go to Venice (Venezia).

Popeye and I, we are crazy about Spain probably because it’s been his home for so many years and because I used to speak Spanish well before I spoke English. So we did skip Italy for many years because we were forever going back to Spain.

I wanted to go to Venice but I was a little bit afraid of being disappointed... Actually I did not really know what to expect. Dreams are dreams and sometimes they should be kept deep in one's heart and unfulfilled.

I was deeply in love with Venice from books and movies... and I was afraid to wake up to some disappointing reality.

And then this winter, we decided that we really wanted to go to Venice, come what may!

We spent Christmas at Les Tertres as usual and we left Brittany on the 28th of December... Wow, this was a big first... I usually spend most of January in Brittany and there I was, going back to Paris where we’d hop on a plane and Venice, there we come!

When we landed at the Venice airport after flying over the Alps and part of the laguna, it was cloudy, rainy and cold. Grey skies and slate-grey choppy water everywhere.

And then the vaporetto entered the Grand Canal and we gasped. We had looked at pictures. We had watched movies. But nothing, absolutely nothing can replace the experience of being on the Grand Canal.

Our hotel was right by the Rialto Bridge. The minute I set foot on the quay, I fell totally in love with Venice. Don’t ask me why. I was cold and wet and tired. I had not been around yet. But I knew right then and there that a wonderful love story was already blossoming.

We took a few minutes to unpack and off we went... right away. We couldn’t wait. We started walking and did not stop walking until the very last minute we boarded the vaporetto to go back to the airport... four days later.

The minute we stepped out of this hotel, the clouds parted. Sunny weather... Venice was smiling at us while we were strolling around.

So we walked from rio to calle, from calle to piazza, from piazza to rio... Eyes wide open. Our hearts bursting with so much happiness and delight. 

("To be continued")