Postcard Dreams of Italy

General View of Florence, Italy
The Bridges of Florence
View of Florence, Italy
View of Florence, Italy
Rio Van Axel, Venice, Italy
Rio S. Barnaba, Venice, Italy
Gondola, Venice, Italy
S. Mark's Square, Venice, Italy
Tarquinia, Italy

I have Italy on the brain. After a few years of talking about it and a few months of intense planning, my husband and I and two of our dearest friends are soon to embark on an Italian adventure. Our plan is to see the upper half of the boot. We are flying to Rome then traveling by train to Tarquinia, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Lago di Garda, and Varese, then returning home from Milan. It’s an ambitious trip to say the least, but we are setting the stage to return to the places we like the best in a few years.

I love Italy. I made my first trip when I was seventeen and attending a European summer art program. Four of the six weeks I spent overseas were in Italy, three of those in Florence. I had my first love affair there. He was very tall, classically handsome, and had a sculpted physique. Doesn’t every young woman fall in love with David? I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I marveled at how a mere mortal could bring such life out of a cold block of marble. I don’t believe that you had to pay to get into the Accademia then because I visited him every chance I had. When we visited Florence in 2000 I introduced David to my husband. As soon as we booked our hotel for our upcoming visit I asked the concierge to reserve tickets for us so I could introduce my first love to our friends as well. I knew Phil wouldn’t mind. It’s hard to be jealous of a man who is very cold and totally untouchable.

I’m looking forward to being the tour guide in Florence and Venice as this will be my third visit to both places. They are cities of vast beauty, history and intrigue, easy to navigate on foot, and filled with delights for all the senses. I want my friends to experience Fiesole, an ancient Etruscan village tucked into the hills above Florence where you can walk through ruins and sit in a Roman theatre. The views of Florence are breathtaking and it’s relaxing to visit this charming and picturesque village away from the crowds below. In the evening, everyone in Florence goes out to walk the streets. The passeggiata is a time to wind down as darkness begins to envelope the streets, arm in arm with someone you love; time to greet your neighbors or just drink in the intoxication of the city. This is the time of day when everyone is an Italian.

Our friends own a boat and love the water so Venice was an obvious pick. Tourists fill the streets of the city but if you walk into the island through the neighborhoods where the Venetians live there is a whole different charm to Venice. It stops being one of the most visited cities in Italy and takes on a small town feel. Old men sit at little cafes and drink espresso and children run in little packs through the streets, laughing and playing under lines of laundry strung from the buildings. I remember walking and walking until we finally found our way down to a little beach at the sea. It was far from the hustle and bustle and one could hardly believe that this was the Venice described in the guidebooks. It was on this little strip of sand looking out to sea that I remembered the best thing about Italy; she just wants you to fall in love with her.

Last year we visited Tarquinia, a charming medieval hill town that was the most influential Etruscan city 2,500 years ago. Today it is the home of a Unesco World Heritage Site, the Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, an absolutely amazing ancient burial ground of nearly 6,000 subterranean tombs. Visitors may actually walk down into some of the tombs to view the richly painted walls. I marveled at how modern the designs were. We are staying at an agrotourism hotel that is surrounded by orchards of fruit and olive trees and produces its own brand of preserves and olive oils. I chose this hotel because it is within driving distance to the one site that is at the top of my Bucket List, the Tarot Garden. Begun in the late 1970s and opened to the public in 1998, the Tarot Garden is the masterpiece of artist Niki de Saint Phalle who continued to work on the garden until her death in 2002. I’ve seen many images of the garden and can’t wait to walk through the monumental sculptures depicting the figures of the Tarot deck myself.

Of course I will purchase lots of postcards on my journey and share them with you. My granddaughter and I have been practicing the most important Italian phrase I need to know. “Quanto costa questa cartolina?” That translates to “How much is this postcard?” Chiao!