Day 28: April 29, 2024

My final week. A bit of a blur, especially over the weekend once Jamie arrived. A week of Italian language, art, and indulgence. 

Monday felt like a breakthrough once again in language comprehension. The classes and tutoring came easily to me. And I spent a glorious two hours in the afternoon at Palazzo Fortuny museum. Fortuny is known for his beautiful fabrics, clothing, and home decor, but I didn’t realize he also invented many other things as well, including a special theater design, specific paint colors, and a high-quality photography paper. The palazzo remains mostly as he and his creative and business partner wife left it. It is gorgeous and an absolute delight to experience. Definitely a must visit if you find yourself in Venice.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both cold and wet. Not fun. And Wednesday was difficult for me both in class and tutoring session. So much for the break-through. Sigh… To further my Italian cultural education and escape the rain, I popped into several churches around the city, including Chiesa di San Polo where there is a wonderful Last Supper by Tintoretto. But I enjoyed even more the Oratory of the Crucifix, a side room filled with colorful and lively paintings by Tiepolo. A delight!!

Thursday the 25th was a national holiday — Liberation Day — so no classes! It was a leisurely morning followed by several hours at the Biennale. Four hours just looking at incredible art. Some strange. Some beautiful. Many with a political or cultural message. And a few that unexpectedly produced goosebumps. Great people watching as well with all the fashionably artsy types milling about. Such a happy afternoon.

Afterwards, walking back along the lagoon, I came across an exhibit I had seen advertised for William Kentridge, “Self Portrait as a Coffee Pot.” I didn’t know the artist but was intrigued. A delight! Kentridge is a South African artist. I don’t know quite how to describe the exhibit. Kentridge paints but also incorporates video into the exhibit. There is so much honesty within his work, as well as whimsy. Brings to mind my father-in-law, Darrell who was a completely different type of artist but one who also was so real, truthful, approachable, and whimsical in his art.

I did some birthday shopping for Jamie who arrived Friday for the weekend. Found a great record store. “Hai Van Halen?” “Si!” Only one but that’s enough! Also Mina, vintage Italiana popstar, for moi. Before the sunset, I ran into two classmates, ladies around my age, one from Amsterdam, the other, a Berliner, and happily joined them for an aperitivo at sunset.

Dinner was solo at Trattoria Fontana where I am now a regular. The owner asked me join him for a grappa after I paid. Let me just say, the return walk to the apartment was a bit interesting post-grappa. Oye vey. Word to the wise: be careful with the grappa!

And finally Friday. So bittersweet. The final commute to school, each landmark producing a sigh, sadness in realization of a chapter ending. And yet… sooooo much excitement for Jamie to arrive. And class was a bit strange as we had a substitute teacher. But the morning flew by.

Then, texts from Jamie… “Landed!” Hoooooooraaaaay!!!! I had left apartment keys for him with my new besties at Trattoria Fontana so he took a boat straight there, dropped his bag, and headed towards my school. I finished class and headed his way. Actually felt butterflies again right before we came across one another. 

We walked and talked, stopping for drinks and food along the way, the way we always like to do. It has been 3.5 weeks since we’ve been together, the longest we’ve ever been apart in almost 30 years. And enough time to realize further how incredibly lucky I am to live within his orbit. Mi amore. I can’t believe we are still smitten with each other. Molto fortunato.

Saturday included more long walks, drinks at Caffe Lavena, and a very special birthday dinner at my new friend Lara’s restaurant, Osteria Antico Giardenetto, with Giovanni, his son Frederico, and Krug the dog. Che bellissima. Best seafood risotto of my life! Molto, molto laughs… molto molto vino.

And now I am on the flight back to New York, the month in Venice now in the past, slowly fading away. I am proud of what I accomplished and will continue learning the language. My plan is to join an online group twice a week. I will begin B1 level… I’m scared!

 

Thanks for following this journey with me. I’m already planning a return trip next April. Why not?!! Jamie is super busy all month, the overall cost is much cheaper than taking an intensive class in New York, and I get to stay in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Plus… once I reach a certain language level, I can even opt for the art history classes taught at Istituto Venezia as well.

Even after all my trips to Venice — maybe 15 at this point? — it never gets old. The wonderful green-blue water that changes color depending on the time of day and weather, the exquisite palaces lined up along the Grand Canal, the magically quiet night streets where you can imagine life several hundreds years ago without vehicular musak in the background, the whimsically decorative doorknobs, the magnitude of art which seeps into every aspect of life here, and of course…all the adorable dogs especially my favorite breed, the bassotto tedesco, aka wiener dog!

 

Ok, slight tangent. Can you believe one person said to me after hearing I would be spending a month in Venice that the city was an absolutely horrendous place, one he would never EVER visit? Your loss dude… you have absolutely no idea and I just can’t respect someone’s strong (AND rude) opinion when you’ve never even experienced it. Ok, I can understand why people dislike it after a visit for a day or two, spending all day in the traffic jam march from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto, queuing up in lines snaking around the basilica or Doge’s Palace, shopping in the myriad souvenir shops touting “murano glass” which hails from China, dining in one of the foreign owned restaurants lined up along the tourist route. They did it wrong. But can someone truthfully pooh pooh a place they have never actually experienced for themselves?

Venice is a place where the point is not to see specific sights. The entire city is a living breathing museum, and it’s best experienced getting lost in the maze of hidden alleyways or neighborhood campos where the kids are playing soccer and the grown-ups enjoying a glass of wine or a spritz, with a backdrop of a marble church, bridges over ethereal green waters, a sleek water taxi zipping by.

Ahhh, Venezia…you have my heart always.