I wrote the following post back in September of 2021, so Covid related info may be a little dated, but I wanted to launch my blog with the telling of these tales.

D and I have embarked upon a grand new adventure by coming to Bella Italia, starting with a 3 day visit to La Serenissima, Venice. Our plan is to be in Italy, working, for a little over a month, as middle aged digital nomads. Well D’s working…I’m doing research 😉.
This undertaking has been a year and a half in the making and would have been back in April but for Italy locking down at that point. Covid and the Delta variant made it unclear whether it would happen at all until it happened. Traveling during Covid is not to be taken lightly, and there were a few extra hoops to jump through, but we made it over and are very happy to comply with the masking and social distancing rules over here.

Ah to be in Venice again…

Landing in Venice, via Frankfurt, I couldn’t believe we were finally here, and as we booked ourselves a taxi boat, I choked up, thanking the lady behind the counter, telling her how very happy we were to be here. She looked very kindly back and said ,”We too are so happy you’re back”. And they really are so happy to have us back. We see that everywhere.

We were welcomed with smiles and wine to our lovely room at Luxury Venetian Rooms featuring 14th century windows, overlooking a canal full of gondolas. Shortly thereafter, we made the quick, two-minute walk to Piazza San Marco, where we met up with the wonderful Elisa Amadi, my Venetian tour guide friend. She had almost back-to-back clients, but she gave us a lot of great advice, pointing out cafes she likes, good routes to various sites and we made plans to meet the next day.

Let’s just make things more challenging, shall we?

We walked over to the waterfront by the lagoon and then “the incident “ happened. I call it Splat in the Piazza. I was gazing across the water at San Giorgio Maggiore. The sun was hitting it just so and I really wanted the perfect shot. I did something stupid, going down the steps to water level, slipped and landed sort of legs akimbo. As a cautionary tale, beware of the steps down to the gondolas that look dry but are in fact very slippery. I went down, D almost went down trying to help me and random kind strangers grabbed our stuff and helped me to less slimy ground.

It could have been an utter mess but as it ended up, I could walk away, only slightly hobbly. Sat at one of those famous outdoor San Marco cafes, asked for two bags of ice and an Aperol Spritz. Italian first aid. Was feeling sorry for and angry at myself, imagining what my moment of folly could have cost us for the coming weeks. And I’ve always rolled my eyes hard at the stories of people falling off cliffs and such while taking selfies. But then I just took a good look around, realized even if I had to spend the next three days sitting in that exact spot gazing at the Doge’s Palace, it would’t be too bad. So I forgave myself. We’d be ok and it could have been sooo much worse.