La Citta D'amore - Venezia

The Closure  - A Short Story

“Hey, so you went to Venice? Found these photographs in the old album."
           "Hmm"
"When?”

Not sure. Long back.”

“Interesting!! Did you know.......”

“ Know! What ?”

“Ummm!! Never mind.....just silly!”

“Hmm! I'm going out with my team now. Should be back in a few hours. Be prepared with a good story!”

“In your dreams, Sir :P !! I have an exam in a week. Ciao”

“Fine see you in a week then.”

“Hey, am not studying 24/7 for a week! Sean!! You there? Sean??? Sean? Why are you so difficult sometimes -?”

Sean never returned. His photographs adorn her room. The many beautiful moments that she still lives for. Her friendly young neighbors surprised her with a 90th birthday cake that morning. Birthdays, that she had stopped counting after that fateful day that took away an irreplaceable part of her.

In her quivering voice, she said, ‘I didn’t tell him that day. He would've laughed like he always did when he found me childish." She turned towards the photograph of a fairly handsome guy perhaps in his late 20s, with deep-set eyes, squarish face, crew-cut hair, and tanned complexion, "You were standing in front of St. Mark’s statue, waving at the camera with that silly grin of yours. Your shy smile imprinted in my heart forever. "..And...did you know..." her voice trailed, "..... that girl in polka dots looking at you? Millions of tourists click the same photograph at that same spot. Would you feel the same oneness with every single person in those millions? Perhaps not. I couldn’t tell you that day. I was scared! Not of you but of me! I was scared of the feeling and I was scared to reveal it." 

She coughed as her frail body, now all bones, trembled. The veins showed through the thin light skin. With her shaky hands, she lifted a photo frame kept on the side table. There were two photographs. One had the same young man and the other a pretty bubbly girl waving at the photographer much the same way. The girl in the polka dot! a stark familiarity one couldn't ignore. 65 years hadn't changed those deep blue dreamy eyes. " I love Venice. I loved it, the moment I stepped out of the train, walked out of the station, and saw the water sparkling in the sun. Unbeknownst to you, that’s where I had seen you for the first time. I have a photograph at St. Mark's waving at the world and at you... Had you noticed me?’

She was about to keep the frames back when it slipped from her hand and crashed into pieces. She carefully picked the photographs, noticing a scribble she had failed to see before. Her weak eyes could barely read a word. She hobbled back to the desk for the magnifying glass.

'You were lovely in the pink polka dots, Rosa. It took me four years to find the blue-eyed gal I had waved at in Venice. Happy Birthday!'  Sean

"..And it took me 65 years to find that you knew it all the while." A drop of tear sealed the closure.

 

On our last night in Venice, standing alone on Rialto Bridge, I looked around. I saw a guitarist strumming an old classic, a young girl selling flowers, and groups of young students (I assumed) partying on a ferry passing by. A very old couple climbed up the stairs towards me. They may have shared decades of togetherness! My hopelessly romantic mind immediately spun stories. It was all around them, in their smiles, in their eyes, in their holding of hands, in their slow quiet saunter - there seemed to be no hurry, no time fleeting away, it was their night together and forever. He bought a flower from the cherub flower girl perhaps 9 and gave it to his grace. I was smitten by the two and the idea of a 'happily ever after'.

Still musing on, I chanced to observe a couple (engaged or newlywed I presumed), enjoying a romantic candlelight dinner in a canal-side restaurant. He was trying his best to please her. It was sweet and funny. It may have been an arranged one perhaps! the storyteller in me wondered. The rolly polly cute bride was all shy and blushing and the really thin groom was trying every "gentleman-should do" stuff; pulling the chair for her, getting her a glass of wine, giving her a rose, and even clicking photographs of her every move! Sweet, he will gift her a collage this Valentine's Day, the yarn kept spinning.

I guess you might find the same scenes in many other places. Perhaps it was just the moment. Those people around, the beautiful music, the night, the light shining on the water, the stillness yet the crowd, the quietness yet the sound. I also fell in love with Ms. Rosa! For a very brief moment, I missed the company of someone but then the whole ambiance of the place just stole away that feeling...! 

If someone were to ask me "Which is the most romantic place on earth? My answer would have been Venezia - "La Citta D'amore. It can take your breath away."

It’s not like the utopian Swiss paradise or the exotic Caribbean getaway but has a charm unique in itself. Mysterious, alluring, ethereal, a city unlike any other! Venice is like a big live theater and every moving body is an actor. History, mystery, art, and architecture fascinate me and this city has all the necessary flavors, the byzantine edifices, the dark narrow alleys, the masquerade masks, the grand bridges, the winding canals, the traditional gondolas, and romantic Italian music.

Surreal romanticism was built into a tangible form. Well, that’s the closest I can define Venice as. To some, it may seem an irrational exaggeration but I guess, sometimes you come to like something unreasonably over others because something about it makes you feel connected.  

We had taken the train to Venice from Milan, a beautiful journey through gorgeous Italian valleys transiting to the coast. It poured cats and dogs for the two days we spent in Venice with intermittent sunny breaks once in a while ( fortunately!!! ) for the craved photo sessions :)

It's very very easy to get lost in this maze of a city. There are just too many narrow alleys all looking much the same :) Interestingly enough, we couldn't even find our hotel for a very long time. I had a huge bag and carrying it around was quite a task for my small frame. The trolley wouldn't work with the hundreds of steps and bridges (539 bridges to be precise) and yes it's definitely not the place for stilettos. It was a painful mistake, I had made, even after being warned by my well-wishing friends.

Two days are not sufficient for this fascinating place. We had to rush through the fantabulous assortment of basilicas, churches, and synagogues, a total shame :(. I hope to revisit someday at leisure to savor this artistic treat to the last morsel. Like every popular tourist destination, there are shops all over. The Venetian specialty is the Murano glass jewelry and the theater masks. Bargaining certainly works. 

The Legend

Legend has it that if you seek eternal love, a couple must kiss under every single bridge in Venice and under the bridge of Sighs at sunset. The bridge of Sighs or Ponte de Sospiri was built by Antonio Contini in the 17th century. It gets its name from a local story. The bridge connects the inquisitor's room, a part of the Doge's palace, and a prison. The prisoners saw the last of the world at the bridge and sighed before getting executed hence the name! Well supposedly it's more a legend than a fact since by the time the bridge was completed, executions and inquisitions were a history. Some say the bridge got its name after Byron used its reference in his poetic narration 'The Childe Harolds pilgrimage'. 

I  stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand: I saw from out the waves her structures rise As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand: A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying glory smiles O'er the far times, when many a subject land Look'd to the winged Lion's marble piles Where Venice sate in her state, thron'd on her hundred isles!'

Samuel Rogers had said of Venice 'There is a glorious city in the sea' and truly it is so!