Venice the city of Casanova, the legendary seducer. Unfortunately his story played out long before my time. Lord knows I would have loved to meet him, he said the most beautiful things. Men in this day and age can learn something, but that is not the point. The point is that I remember the exact moment when I first became aware of the story of Casanova. I saw a commercial on TV promoting the movie. With Heath Ledger playing Casanova. To me it wasn’t play, he had me from the start, I was immediately seduced by Casanova in Venice and ever since, visiting Venice had been on my to-do list when I grew up.
It has been years since I watched the movie, but I have not forgotten about it. I always dreamed of being seduced in Venice. Seduced or whisked away on a wonderful adventure. I would have been happy with either one or both. Didn’t really matter. I just wanted to experience the magic I saw in the movie.
Normally things are portrayed better in movies. Venice was not. The moment I could see the coastline of Venice from the boat I fell in love. No wonder Casanova could say such beautiful things, he was living in a beautiful bubble of inspiration. When I got to the island I was mesmerized. I arrived just in time to see the sunset on the Bridge of Sighs. I personally don’t know a better way to start a few days off.
During my time in Venice I felt so calm, so at ease. I thought it was because I turned my phone off, however it wasn’t that. The feeling was different, it was better, it was calmer. It took me a full day to realize why. In Venice nobody seems to be in a rush. There are no cars, no horns honking and no pumped up mufflers. No general traffic. I never realized how much noise I am used to on a daily basis. Everyone does everything by boat or on foot. The boat goes as fast as it goes and so do your legs. There is no point in rushing. It was amazing.
This made me realize that what my father always said is true. He said: ‘’It doesn’t matter how fast you arrive, it matters that you arrive’’. Literally experiencing this made me enjoy my surrounding even more. It allowed me to really take in all the beauty that Venice has to offer. I think I was more aware of my surrounding than in any other trip. I knew Venice was magical. To make sure I saw all the magic Venice had to offer I took the boat from the beginning all the way to the end, it was like a mini cruise through Venice. I could’ve gone with a Gondola, but the size of them scares me, I think the risk of capsizing is too big.
Things got even more magical when I was wandering about in Venice and stumbled upon a board advertising a concert of Interpreti Veneziani and they were performing ”Quattro Stagioni” by Antonio Vivaldi. Four Seasons is my absolute favorite, when planning my trip to Venice I always hoped to see a performance of it but I didn’t dare to hope out loud as I was there for a short time and didn’t book in advance. To my luck, when I asked the lady at the ticketdesk whether they still had tickets she said yes. I enjoyed the concert so much I cried. Honestly cried and was so overcome emotion I needed to wander if off, which enabled me to soak up the Venetian night.
During my stroll I secretly imagined walking next to Casanova being seduced by his beautiful poetic words. I got so lost in my fantasy that I wandered further than I planned to. Venice is enchanting in that way. The next day I went to take a peek at the famous Venice fashion, even though you don’t notice it much on the streets the Venetians do have a certain flair to their dressing. The shopping streets are rather small giving it the feel of being in a mall. I can’t help but imagine that scene where a girl is being seduced by Casanova in Venice during the 18th century and he gently pushes her against a wall, having maybe walked the same narrow streets makes me think that that moment was way more intimate than displayed on the TV.
After shopping I went to Lido Island to go to Lido Beach even though it was the start of December, in the spirit of making it a December to Remember I couldn’t possibly not go. Even though going on my heels, I don’t know what I was thinking!, to the beach was a slightly terrible idea, going to the beach was not. I love the beach and it being a Venetian beach just made it a little more special, also there was barely anyone there which was great. It enabled me to do this:
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If it was really crowded I don’t really see myself doing that. To finish off my perfect Venice trip I needed to have dinner looking at the Rialto Bridge. I had already walked over it when I was shopping but had not taken a proper minute to look at it to allow it to enchant me, which over the course of dinner it definitely did or it was the Italian wine, who knows? Afterwards, I walked over San Marco square back to my hotel, where, at the bar across from it I had the famous Spritz Veneziano as my last Venezian drink*.
Come to think of it, it was not Casanova who seduced me, it was Venice.
Love,
DCPR.
*If you drink, drink responsibly and respect local age restrictions.
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