My morning cappuccino:

Windowshopping:

Canal gazing:

Gondolier gazing:

Climbing up and then down the numerous ponti that cross the many small canals.

Reminders from other times:

More pretty window shopping:

Self reflection:

Reflections on men in uniforms:

Gazing into the waters of the lagoon:

Making connections:

Gazing upon sculptures in the walls:

Those are just some of the small pleasures I enjoy in Venezia!

I recently had the chance to go to the rooftop of the Fondaco Dei Tedeschi in Venice, to take in the panoramic views. Wow, wow, wow! Mamma Mia!

You must make a reservation for a 15 minute viewing slot, and it is well worth the trouble. I highly recommend it! Enjoy these views!

The Merchant of Venice is a perfume store found in Venice, Florence and other cities. Very pretty, people!

There are bridges, and then there are bridges. And, there is the Rialto.

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I was afforded a new view of this remarkably beautiful and historic bridge on my last visit: you can go to the rooftop terrace of the department store, Fondaco dei Tedeschi, and get a panoramic view of this mirage of a city. I’ll be writing a post soon about the store: watch this space.

Gliding under the Rialto is also a thrill, even while on a city bus (the vaporetto).

Life is good! Covid restrictions are loosened. This year I can travel! Let’s go to Venice!

My heart is always happy when I’m about to board a train in Italy bound for anywhere. I know adventures awaits!

I’ve made it to Venice and boarded the Vaporetto #1 outside the train station, bound for Piazza San Marco!

Below: my first view of Venice on land! Wow! What a February day!

Over the next days I’ll be posting about what I saw, did, heard and ate in this mirage-like city!

So much to see!

Here are snapshots from my recent week in Venice. Such a place!

Above: Let’s start with a pair of flat pink sandals I would have loved to buy!

Below, one of the 2 Fortuny stores I saw.

Store 1 in the sestieri of San Marco. Of course I went in and of course I bought myself a small souvenir.

Store 2, in the Dosoduro neighborhood:

Roses in bloom!

Below, the ceiling of my hotel room. I also had a view of the top of the Campanile in San Marco Square, but I forgot to take a picture. I must admit, whenever I was in my hotel room which was a stone’s throw from the piazza, I was in my bed resting if not sleeping. For, I ran myself ragged in Venice!

There is so much more to come! Watch this space!

You might think, as I tend to, that the gondoliers of Venice must be becoming a thing of the past.

Well, we’d both be very mistaken! I was in Venice for a week last week and there were more gondoliers per capita than other people! They were everywhere!

They were all over the Grand Canal!

And they were all over the small canals that run through this city of water!

Yes, they were on the water!

And, on the land!

Always as distinctively Venetian, always as beautiful upon the water! Although I didn’t hear a single one singing, as I enjoyed in the late 1980s when I was a guest of the Italian government, staying in the Hotel Danieli on the Grand Canal and these men floated under my window from morning til dawn, singing all the standards: “O sole mio!” etc. ad infinitum.

I planned my trip to coincide with a few days of fine weather and boy, was I lucky! Look at Venice on the afternoon I arrived in early February! Wow!

Ah, Venice! You bewitching, beguiling, beautifully impossible place! Ti adoro!

In a city of stone, you don’t find much plant life, so this flower stall stood in relief more than in other cities with big parks.