Blog CemeteryLabyrinth of Romance
September 1st 2006 05:55
There I was drinking from a champagne flute, gliding through a canal in a gondola singing “That’s Amore”, captured by the dazzling beauty of the buildings on either side and that bad smell of the water, surrounding a city which is slowly sinking… wondering why Im not feeling so romantic!! Umm maybe because I am doing this with friends!…or was it that hard hitting 10euro white coffee we had at a romantic outdoor café in St.Marks Square (along with all the romantic pigeons)…with an Italian band chanting in the background! Hmm…had I chosen the romantic café next door which had no band I would have only paid 5 euro!
Tip:: Never drink bubbly and then go shopping in Venice.
Staggering is my body’s way of saying “I would love to crash right now, but I have more to see”. Why is it that after two or three jewellery shops, they all start looking the same, and it becomes routine to just stop at the window and not enter, because all the items share the same ridiculous price tags. If you keep walking, you might just lose yourself and find the markets!! What we didn’t realize was that after a little serious trading, we would stray and lose our friends. Our first priority of course was to keep shopping, but when our wallets dried up, we decided to start the search. We tried to backtrack, but started feeling the effects of our bubbly and ended up seeing residential Venice. Lots of narrow winding streets, less people, less shops…kids barefoot riding their cycles….cats…a desserted canal and…where is everyone? Err tourists that is. A turn here, a turn there, this place was a labyrinth, and it was time to tantrum. We followed an endless road, and then all of a sudden… a WALL! A dead end. My mind was saying “oh come oooon….” my feet were crying “I cant do this anymore”…it was and all I wanted to do was scream!!
Hungover, sweaty, broke and hungry, we just turned around and, WATCH OUT: frustrated delirious women walking! Our zig zag thong-slapping straggle led to …more walls…an old lady here and there…more cats! The sound of our crunching shopping bags was deafening as we moaned and groaned in every language from the book of blame! The setting sun was making us miss the occasional wall and concrete step, and just when we were about to collapse, we could hear a subtle sound of blissful serenading type music. We headed for an underpass. On our way through, we saw a little girl crouched singing an Italian song and playing the accordion. She sung so beautifully. Not too far was a man, giving us ‘that’ look.
I just dropped my shopping bags and looked at her. Amazed at her talent, disgusted by the dismal scenario. Her anguished battered face smiled at me. I felt so many conflicting emotions. Right then she was the only child in this situation for me, and I was standing there helpless wishing I could grab her and run away. I wanted to feed her, dress her, buy her toys, and make her laugh. Instead I dropped my last euro, and looked into my bags for anything that would interest her. I took a photo to remember those big beautiful eyes she quickly tried to hide from me. The flash caused alarm so I left. I was sorry to violate her space, or make her feel ashamed. But I praise her for her courage and resilience, which I lacked so much that day….and showing me the real beauty and mystery behind overpriced espresso and overrated gondolas in one gorgeous pretentious city..
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Comment by Chantal