This Week

I took a little break from the studio last week and went to Venice with John. We stayed at a convent guest house on a quiet part of the island, spent a lovely day on a little boat visiting islands in the lagoon, found Italy’s oldest paper shop, had a picnic and nap in a winery garden, picked up my magic red shoes from the shoemaker, and ate prosciutto & melon every single night. Best of all, I am feeling rested and not so stressed-out, and my schedule has shifted because of the time change: I get up at dawn and I go to bed earlier and my insomnia seems to have gone away. I also read two books in the week I was in Venice and realize how little time I take to just sit down and read when I am home. I wind up feeling guilty for not doing something “productive” and that’s just ridiculous. Here’s to more books!

At the end of this week I deliver my exhibition to the museum, so I am now back to work. I will post more soon. Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday!

Venice

John had a vacation week and asked me where I'd like to go. "Venice!" I said without even thinking about it. We checked the standby lists... there were plenty of seats on the direct from JFK. Two days later we were off. We even got bumped up to the business class "pods." As if ANY free seat on an airplane isn't the greatest gift already, here I am with silverware, a menu, and a seat that turns into a bed. This always feels so surreal, like somehow I got zapped into someone else's life..

We stayed at the same monastery guest house that we did last year when we came with John's girls. Except for the fact that they added a little continental breakfast buffet, nothing had changed. It felt like coming home.

The view from our window.

Wanting to do something fun and different on this trip, I found Classic Boat of Venice. Somehow John and I were entrusted with an electric motorboat equipped with GPS, a sun shade, comfy cushions, and a chart of the lagoon. The CBV crew showed us how to work things, came with us for a test run in the marina, and waved us off. I can't say enough about how FUN this day was. John and I argued in their office (in Italian) about who was going to be captain:
“Io sono il capitano!”
“No, IO sono il capitano!”
I am surprised they even let us take out a boat after that. In the end we took turns, but I loved navigating more than piloting anyway (What is it about me and maps?)

We visited the islands of Torcello and Burano, braved the open channels, decided NOT to go swimming with the jellyfish, and found several places that we want to explore next time.

Certosa, Venice. (Yes, you’ve seen this one already, I know, but it really belongs in this post.)

On our last day, we decided to hop the vaporetto to Lido and rent bicycles. First, though, we had to stop at our favorite sandwich shop for picnic supplies. What is it about European bread??!! In Paris, I could not get enough of their ham & cheese baguettes. In Venice, it’s the prosciutto & arugula with brie & tomato. I actually had a dream a few nights ago about eating one, I miss them so much.

We bicycled the entire length of Lido, stopping along the seawall halfway for our picnic, then for lemon popsicles at the south end of the island. We walked through the pine forest and out to the old lighthouse at the end of the jetty. The Adriatic Sea stretched out all blue before us, shimmering in the low sun, while massive freighters glided sooo quietly in and out of the channel. Now, to walk all the way back to the bicycles AND ride them all the way back to the vaporetto…argh!

John asked me why I love Venice enough to have foregone traveling elsewhere for this trip. I think it's that Venice is just such a magical enchanted place: canals-for-roads, sidewalks so skinny that two people can barely pass each other without bumping shoulders, and secret gardens around every corner. Even Venice's foundation seems an amazing miracle: millions of logs jammed into the mud, left to petrify into stone harder than concrete. Ta-da!

Amazing food, of course, is a given. One of our favorite restaurants had a little garden courtyard overlooking one of the canals. We actually ate here twice.

This was such a perfect mini-getaway, especially because it was so spur-of-the-moment. It even included a quest to find a shoemaker who could recreate my favorite pair of red shoes for me—but more about that in a future post. For now, though, Ciao, Venezia!

View my previous Venice posts HERE and HERE and HERE.

ps - Our anniversary happened to fall during this week away. John went for a run that morning and came back with a bouquet of roses :-)

Album: Quiet days in Venice and Vienna

As I go through images from 2017, I'm finally spending some more time on those from the trip we took to Venice and Vienna in the late spring. I posted some of my black and whites from Venice in this post, but was so so excited about those that I never got around to the color ones.  It always takes me awhile to figure out what my favorites are anyway.

We only spent an afternoon in Vienna proper, and so I didn't get my hopes up about making photographs that were more than snapshots, but between the old cafes and the sculptures behind wire at the Spanish Riding School, there was plenty of inspiring mood and I was so happy with what I captured that day!

In Venice, we stayed on a quiet part of the island in the guesthouse of the Church of Madonna dell' Orto. With a few exceptions, so of my favorite scenes were in the guesthouse itself, or in the neighborhood right outside the door. Grazie, Padre Petro!

One of my other favorite quiet finds away from the crowds was the Palazzo Ca' Zenobio. We spent an afternoon reading books in the courtyard and wandering through the galleries.  I loved the windows with the gold curtains and the delicate woodwork...

Italy is all about espresso---and neither John nor I are coffee drinkers!--- but we managed to find a pot of tea one morning..

And this was what twilight looked like every evening as we walked over the bridge back to the guest house...

Venice, you are my favorite city in the world, and, no, I haven't seen a lot of cities, nor have I even spent that much time with you, but it doesn't matter. Sometimes you just know.