My first sight of Italy was at 7 am when I slipped out of my sleeping cabin and saw the beautiful green rolling hills sprinkled with little stucco houses speeding past, bathed in warm sunrise gold. I try not to come to any new country or city with expectations of its charms but Italy exceeded anything I even vaguely imagined!
Lisa Christensen (one of my dear, dear friends) and I
Adriana, Hannah, Kiely, me, and Becca
The canals!
How I love this city! I love the curving bridges spanning the winding canals. I love the pretty orange, yellow and red houses with window-boxes overflowing with flowers and vines. I love the walled gardens—they exhale sweet romance, teasing the passerby with their secrets. The trees and trailing plants spilling over their walls made me mad with curiosity to know what was behind those ivy-grown gates opening onto the water.
I love the way that Italian sounds in my ears, the gentle syllables of ‘bella seniorina’ being called from street vendors vying for attention. I love the graceful gondolas—gleaming black and silver, decked with roses, and cushioned with scarlet. I loved seeing the dashing gondoliers with their striped shirts and glossy, be-ribboned hats chanting ‘gondola, gondola’ from the bridges.
Near sunset, I sat alone on a set of steps leading down to the water. A light breeze swept down the canal, the sun warmed the stones, and the lovely gray-blue-green of the water lapped a few feet from my shoes. Somewhere behind me, the bells of a church chimed the hour. How beautiful is life! How grateful I am to be alive with all those things that bring true happiness, for the beauty of this world we have been given from our Father!
Not long afterward, I found myself in one of those elegant gondolas that had been slipping past us all day. Our cheerful gondolier relented to our teasing and sang to us in Italian while we floated along. While we dipped our fingers in the cool water, he spoke to us in his pretty accent and told us how his father had taught him to steer a gondola when he was a young boy.
As we rode, the sounds of laughter floated down to us from far away, accompanied by the delightful strains of accordion music. Suddenly, as we rounded a bend, we heard a strong tenor voice singing a sweet Italian love song from another gondola--a song that lasted until we again touched the steps where we started.
Dreams come true, my dear friends! The end of our ride was accompanied by a romantic serenade, echoing down to us from a winding, bridge-arched canal of Venice.
You'll have to see if italian pizza is better than anywhere else. I hear it is.
ReplyDeleteWe did eat pizza in Italy! Multiple times. =) It was delicious but the calzones in Milan were by far the most delicious! The next time you are in Milan, head up Luini's near the Duomo. You will not be disappointed, I guarantee.
DeleteIt's on my list of things to do now.
ReplyDeleteJulia, how will you EVER come home?! =)
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