VENICE!

Venice is a wonder. The entire town looks like a painting and nearly every photograph I took could become a painting. There are colorful characters everywhere, the graceful gondolas, the ever amusing gondoliers, and quirky little shops stuffed into every corner and crevice, bursting with unusual items: commedia dell’ arte masks, colorful glass, jewelry, wooden items, fine china, expensive designer clothing, the funkiest art, hand made papers and books, marvelous clothing, and hand crafted items of every color, sort and style.

It was a delight to wander through the Venetian streets, not knowing where I was, and somehow return right back to where I started.

It seems as though much of the gold in the world is either in Venice, Rome or Florence – in the churches. I’ve seen more reliquaries than you can shake a …. um, bone, at. Words cannot express the wonder of the art available for viewing in Italy. And, it seems to me that Venice must have been, at one time, the center of the entire world, from the looks of its great wealth and splendor.

Of all the places I’ve been, I’d like most to return to Burano to paint. It’s the little island outside of Venice that’s best known for its lace makers. It’s full of boats, and little buildings painted in all the pastel colors you have in a crayon box: lavender, pink, blue, yellow. The streets are wide and fairly quiet, the laundry is flapping in the breeze above the colorful window boxes, and the shops require a second glance. It’s my hope to return, sooner rather than later, and set up my easel and capture those colorful and watery landscapes on paper.