It is often said that the third time’s a charm… Though I don’t believe that even the most hapless travel endeavor could ever be classified as a failure — since the opportunity to learn about oneself or the world is too great — my third visit to Venice was nevertheless the most enchanting.
My first forays past Saint Mark’s Basilica and the Bridge of Sighs were too hurried, and the second jaunt was too claustrophobic given Carnevale celebrations.
However, my most recent visit was just right: riding in a gondola with sensational spring skies overhead, racing against the blazing sun to devour glorious gelato before it melted into a colorful canal of its own, and pondering all the vignettes that for centuries have unfolded on Venice’s waterways.
“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”
Truman Capote
“Venice… A splendor of miscellaneous spirits.”
John Ruskin
“If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you’ve imagined. Venice is – Venice is better.”
Fran Lebowitz
“It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.”
Erica Jong
“A realist in Venice would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.”
Arthur Symons
“There is something so different in Venice from any other place in the world, that you leave at once all accustomed to habits and everyday sights to enter an enchanted garden.”
Mary Shelley
Have you visited the so-called Floating City? If so, what are your fondest memories or your favorite spots to explore there?
Where in the World?
Photography & text © Tricia A. Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.
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