Venice and Ramblings

Sunday (apparently) and we finally have another “fun day at sea.” I say finally because we are getting tired and over-stimulated with too many wonderful, spectacular sights. I don’t expect anyone to sympathize with us very much, however. So anyway, I’m sitting out on our balcony with Norv, who is reading, and enjoying the quiet sounds of rolling waves and the very peaceful view of nothing but blue, blue water for as far as I can see. So basically, the opposite of stimulating – which is good.

Friday and Saturday we were in Venice, which was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I never really “got it” before that this whole city is held together by waterways – only. I stood on the top deck as the ship was coming into the city and I just watched in absolute awe as the city gradually revealed itself. It just seemed impossibly gorgeous. You know how you have moments in your life where everything just comes together in pure delight, and this was definitely one of them for me. I stood alone (with hundreds of others) and hung over the side, sipping my margarita, feeling the Mediterranean breeze and warm sun and just relishing the colors and shapes and pure beauty of Venice.
Enough of that kind of talk. After figuring out how to get on the Vaporetto (water bus), the four of us went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, which features modern art, and we saw original works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollack, Dali, Chagall, some Calder mobiles, and a few others as well. It was a very clean-lined, sparse (and sweet) museum that was just the right size to really explore and to spend as long as we wanted taking in each piece. The modern Italian design of the gallery was such a great contrast to the old stone walls of the canals and the peeling paint on the houses outside the gate. We had a snack at the gallery’s café, and then got back to the ship.

Later that evening, we took a gondola ride that required a walk through St. Mark’s square, which fortunately was much less crowded than in the afternoon. The four of us took a ride in the dark and, as we wound around the canals, were treated to glimpses of Venetian households and merchants doing whatever people do at the end of a day. Just little moments that contrasted with the cheesiness of the ride itself and the dozens of tourists hanging over each bridge to take our picture as we floated by. I’m pretty sure our gondolier was made out of cardboard, but luckily the gondola behind us included a singer and an accordion player. The singer carried off the Italian thing very well, looking the part and singing with a loud, impressive voice. He really did sing Volare and Funnniculi, Funnicula or what that is, some other things in Italian and then some Sinatra (in English) as well. So that was perfect, and we really enjoyed it, especially after Norv finally stopped trying to sing along with the guy.

I thank the boys for going along with this adventure, because I suspect it was not at the top of their list. But we enjoyed having them – and it’s all about us.

We also signed them up without their knowing it for tours the next morning to the islands of Murano (Italian glass) and Burano (handmade lace). We went to a glass factory and watched as they made a vase and a horse (!), and then we were able to look at many, many beautiful pieces. I took a million pictures of glass objects that were very sleek and modern – and beautiful. Those were the ones that appealed to me.

Then on Burano, we watched some women make lace by hand, learned about the different kinds of lace, and then, of course, were led to a store where we could buy lots of souvenirs with some kind of lace on them. The town is also famous for their very bright, almost garish, paint colors, so we all took a number of pictures of the streets and houses. It seems that way back when, instead of using numbers to identify houses, each family was assigned a particular color that represented them. Thus, the many different colored houses. The neighborhood we were in reminded me of preschool with all the bright colors; I much prefer the reds, siennas, and golds of the buildings in the city of Venice. Those are my colors.

Anyway, Greg and Chris seemed to like the tour in spite of the time it took to get to each island, and Chris in particular was full of questions and observations about the whole gig. When we got back to the ship, the boys took off for their own activities, and Norv and I went back to the city one last time. We ate lunch at an outdoor café right on the water at the Rialto bridge, with two gondoliers right in front of us, the farmer’s market across the canal, fabulous bread, lasagna and spaghetti and a whole bottle of Chianti – and, it seemed, all the time in the world. Exquisite. You know how when there is some sight or some experience that you’ve heard about all your life, and when you actually get to do it, of course it isn’t exactly like you imagined it. That’s expected. But that lunch was straight out of a movie; it was just the way I imagined Venice should be. This is such a wonderful trip.

Before going back to the ship, we bought some Venetian masks to wear to the costume ball last night on the ship. (Hey, it’s a cruise…..) We actually did wear them to the “ball” up on the Lido deck and watched everyone generally make fools of themselves. I won’t mention how Norv put his mask on backwards with a 6 inch beak sticking out the back of his head – so that he could eat – and then vigorously danced some kind of hand dance they were trying to teach us. He said the trick is to just do it real fast and it doesn’t really matter which order you do the various parts in. Such a party animal. No wonder Greg, in his own bird mask, had no desire to acknowledge us, and was probably relieved when we finally left. (How would you like your grandfather to be at an event with a bunch of your friends (m/f) that included singing, line dancing, and tossing a rubber cow back and forth?)

So anyway, today is a welcome respite, and it’s nice to get to write to you again. Tomorrow is Messina, then Barcelona, Livorno, Cannes – and Rome. What an amazing adventure!

P.S. Christopher won the scavenger hunt in his club yesterday, and Greg won a medal in the chess contest for his own group. So they’re having a good time on the ship. Chris knows this ship from stem to stern (I’m learning way more nautical language than I ever wanted to) and can tell you what is going on and what has gone on almost everywhere on the ship? He’s amazing. They both have the whole cruise thing down pat. I, on the other hand, keep walking in the wrong direction about half the time. If I can look out a window, I can figure out where the front of the ship (bow) is by which way the water is moving – otherwise, it’s just a guess.