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.

I miss you!

Welcome to the world baby Andrea! Btw, in Italy Andrea is a male name only.

Ecco mi qua! Here I am!

As austere as it appears from the outside, the interior of this Renaissance era palace is as sumptuous on the inside.

Fortunately, some things on earth remain constant. The beauty of the Palazzo Medici is one thing you can count on!

On an early Friday afternoon in February, I paid a visit to this lovely spot. It has never let me down. It was even richer this time, because there is a current exhibition on Benozzo Gozzoli, which I will post about later. It’s a great show. Gozzoli is one of my favorite artists of all times!

First, the glorious garden:

Next, the incomparable courtyard by Michelozzo, with further decorations added over following centuries: