Venice, Italy
Hotel Bernardi

I fell in love.

I know it's silly and pedestrian and cliche to say I fell in love in Venice, but there it is. I walked with her all that night. I learned more about myself than I thought I needed to know. She surprised me several times and no pictures could do that justice. She showed me Dali and Ernst and Picasso at the Guggenheim and we laughed at the obscene sculptures. She inspired me to write a poem which I left unfinished and crumpled up because next to her it was vulgar. So I tried to sketch her but how can I possibly capture her lines and curves? under the light from the street posts? by the gondolas and lovers?

We listened to her song on my headphones and watched a couple kiss while we filled in the kissy noise in my head. She showed me the dark corner of San Marco's square at night... where we saw a bride in her wedding gown and a groom dance with his umbrella while he whistled "Singing In The Rain."

I whispered her my cares into this book and then left to show her my love.

The next day she sent me on my way with a sweet kiss of rain and a teardrop lost in her cool waters at the shore of the Grand Canal.

And I have never loved a city more.

The view from our hotel door.

Lilacs on the canal.

Narrow alleys.

Our hotel in a back alleyway.

View from bedroom window.

Walking the streets of Venice.

Canal at our hotel door (in color).

Our street sign.

Rialto Bridge (my family waving).

The Grand Canal.

Lovebirds.

Alone in the city of love.

Grand Canal at sunset.

Foreigners.

Homeless woman.