Venice and Florence

We awoke early the next day, showered , had breakfast and headed out to St. Marks’s square in Venice. With the tall church with intricate church art in front of a large square courtyard, St. Marks’s square is so magical that you can spend hours doing nothing but observe its beauty. We did precisely that, but for about 45 minutes. St. Marks’s square is also famous for its pigeons that live there. I watched a little girl with blond curls chase after the pigeons and felt deeply relaxed.

We had the option of going for a gondola ride, but we chose to sit and take in the beauty of the square. This square has been featured in Hindi movies such as ‘The Great Gambler’ when Zeenat Aman and Amitabh Bachchan take a ride in the gondola; ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’ during the ‘Khuda Jaane’ song in where Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor wander in and out of the square; English movies such as ‘Just Married’ when Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher visit Italy during their honeymoon, and more recently in ‘The Tourist’ starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. ‘The Tourist’ is one movie that captures the beauty of Venice almost in its entirety.

Some of the other passengers went on the gondola ride. Mr. Z, our tour manager then took us to the glass factory where we saw how the craftsmen deftly fashioned beautiful glass figurines from molten glass. They made it look so easy! We then headed to the liner that would take us on a cruise on the Adriatic Sea. This was almost a life-altering experience, coz I’d never felt that good to be out on the sea as I did then. Mr. Z told us a few facts about the places that we saw and after lunch, we headed for Florence.

Florence is one of the most artistically alive places in Europe. Every street corner has a caricaturist, guitar player or some other artiste exhibiting his or her talent. We went to another square in Florence and spent some time admiring the statues and soaking up the culture. We also walked by the Arno river and watched the sunset. This more than made up for our rather unsteady start the previous day and Mr. Z was clearly making a huge effort to ensure that our holiday was back on track and we had no complaints whatsoever.

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