I know, I know, Toronto is a wonderful and easy place to live in, but by your late posts you seem to miss Serenissima a bit too much… I imagine your mixed feelings
You know, I didn't miss it at all, Jon, for a couple months after leaving, but now as the weather gets colder here I find myself thinking about Venice more. And I definitely miss doing my produce shopping almost every day at the Rialto Market. There are all the famous and picturesque things people know about Venice, but the really remarkable things are the quality of life aspects that persist--sometimes just barely--beneath the mass tourist onslaught and exploitation. There are the things that the vast majority of visitors, staying only a short time--most only for a few hours--will never know about. But living there they're so wonderful, these common everyday things, that I'd often find it hard to believe that there *ever* existed a place where such things could be the norm: where getting around the city in a boat, for example, was just run-of-the-mill, where living with the constant movement and glitter of water all around you was just a simple given fact (as well, as the constant work required to maintain buildings in such an environment).
I know, I know, Toronto is a wonderful and easy place to live in, but by your late posts you seem to miss Serenissima a bit too much…
ReplyDeleteI imagine your mixed feelings
You know, I didn't miss it at all, Jon, for a couple months after leaving, but now as the weather gets colder here I find myself thinking about Venice more. And I definitely miss doing my produce shopping almost every day at the Rialto Market. There are all the famous and picturesque things people know about Venice, but the really remarkable things are the quality of life aspects that persist--sometimes just barely--beneath the mass tourist onslaught and exploitation. There are the things that the vast majority of visitors, staying only a short time--most only for a few hours--will never know about. But living there they're so wonderful, these common everyday things, that I'd often find it hard to believe that there *ever* existed a place where such things could be the norm: where getting around the city in a boat, for example, was just run-of-the-mill, where living with the constant movement and glitter of water all around you was just a simple given fact (as well, as the constant work required to maintain buildings in such an environment).
DeleteThat is an arrival!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed, not a particularly economical one, alas, but unforgettable--especially when the sunset puts on such a show.
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