When we returned from our trip to Italy in October, I had so much garden work and election work to do that I decided to postpone posting my notes and photos, figuring that I’d really enjoy reliving this trip in the cold, miserable days of winter.
My husband and I both want to spend our last travel years in Europe; however, we're drawn to different parts of Europe. For Rick, it’s central and eastern Europe; for me it’s southern Europe. For his 70th birthday, we went to Krakow, Warsaw and Berlin. For mine this year, there was no question—it had to be Italy. This was our 8th trip to Italy together, including a six week trip during our magical, never to be forgotten 1999 sabbatical. But I’ll never get enough of Italy, never enough of Tuscany. This was our 4th trip to Tuscany and the plan initially was to fly into Milan, see some parts of Northern Italy we’ve never been to and then drive to Tuscany.
To our surprise we found out we could no longer get a direct flight from Philly to Milan. The only direct flight was to Venice. We had been to Venice 3 times before and I had reluctantly agreed that we had “done” Venice. I thought I was reconciled to never going to Venice again—after all we don’t have that many traveling years left and maybe 3 trips to Venice is enough.
But as soon as I learned the only way to fly direct to northern Italy was to go to Venice, I was ecstatically happy. I wasn’t as reconciled to never seeing Venice again as I had thought.
During our previous trips to Venice the weather was either hellishly hot and overcast or cold, gray and damp. This time in late September/ early October we had glorious weather. Venice has to be seen with brilliant sunshine—all those narrow dark streets opening up to sunlit squares, all that water reflecting dazzling bright blue skies.
We booked a hotel, Pensione Academia we had stayed in in the 90’s and really liked. Like the small once affordable—-but now crazily expensive-- hotels we used to book in Paris, the Academia was far more expensive than it had been in the 90’s--an increase way above the rate of inflation. But it was a birthday celebration, so we decided to splurge. Because we get tired more readily than we did in our early years traveling together, we make sure we get a hotel that‘s a good place for hanging out. The Academia with it’s lovely gardens is certainly a good hang-out place and both it and Venice is more magical than I remember.
Just like our first trip to Venice, my fondest memories are of having dinner at one of the cafes with outdoor tables along the Giudecca and taking an after dinner stroll on the banks of the canal.
Venice is an open air architectural museum and although I had some museums on my list, all I really wanted to do was walk around and take in the astonishing beauty.
I’m now hoping for one more trip to Venice.
photos by my friend Fran Gilmore who was also in Venice in October 2014
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