Shall I describe my first morning in Venice? It was a brilliant mid-October Sunday, 24 years ago. With little clue of why we were there or what we meant to see, my friends and I wandered into the Piazza S. Marco ("the finest drawing-room in Europe"), under the MASSIVE flags in front of the basilica, which a stiff and cold Adriatic breeze was waving with serene and terrible majesty. I looked at the winged Lion over the clock ("Pax tibi Marce, evangelista Mea"), and knew that I'd entered a new way of seeing and feeling the world.
Though we have disagreed about many topics, about Italy there will be no arguement.
My two years in Italy (near Vicenza) are some of the most vivid memories of my life. Being in Rome during the New-Year celebration, Venice in the night fog, Juliet's castle in Verona, riding the night express train from Padua to Naples sitting on floor, tosti, cappuchino, good(and bad) 'house' wines in the trattorrias, the art supplies shops, the cheese shops, the museum....sigh!-)