A special place

I started off this blog with it's cumbersome title, intending to use it simply to share some of my favourite photographs of reflections but I think the word random has overtaken the word reflections in recent days. Time, then, for another photograph from my favourite place. Venice.

Actually, I think I am simply getting withdrawal symptoms and needing another intoxicating 'fix' of the sights of this unique city. So I am planning to go back later this year with one of my daughters.

I first fell in love with Venice in 1974 when I was travelling round Europe as a student. At this point in our meandering journey we had visited what was then known as Yugoslavia. In fact, we had gone to the city of Llubljana in Slovenia. It was, however, the lowest point in our journey. We found the communist Yugoslavia very dull, grey and oppressive - not helped by the fact that a couple of us had taken ill with a tummy bug. Although it was late September the temperature was in the 90's. One of the girls in our group was stung by a wasp. And we couldn't find anyone who spoke English. (Fortunately another of the girls in our group spoke excellent German, which helped a little.) We decided to take the first train out of Llubljana, rather than look for a campsite. But this meant we had about four or five hours to kill. We went for something to eat. I remember eating some goulash but not enjoying it much. Then we decided to go to the cinema. The film being shown... (no multiplex cinemas in those days) ... was, wait for it... The Sound of Music! In English, with Slovenian? subtitles. I hadn't realised the film had one or two jokes in it. But because we were the only ones who could understand the dialogue, the six of us sitting at the back of the cinema would laugh first, and then a few seconds later (once they had read the subtitles) the rest of the audience would laugh. It was the most surreal experience. Unfortunately, by this time, it was my turn to host the tummy bug (or maybe it was the goulash?) and my viewing experience was interrupted by a number of hurried exits to the loo.

All in all, the six of us just couldn't wait to get out of Yugoslavia and in the evening we caught the overnight train to Venice. (We always travelled overnight as it meant we didn't have to find, or pay for, somewhere to sleep or camp.) The train, however, was totally crowded, with quite a few armed soldiers on board, and we had to crouch down in the corridor between carriages. Not a very comfortable night.

But at 9 am the following morning we emerged from the Stazione Ferroviaria Santa Lucia (i.e. the station - but it sounds better in Italian) and looked out on the Grand Canal. It was like heaven. I remember having a cup of tea (something I never drank in those days) and some toast. That was when I decided this was the most wonderful place on earth. I promised myself that I would be back.

It was another 29 years before I returned but, to my own amazement, I felt the very same feelings on my return.

Being physical beings, we all need special places - usually places that hold particular personal memories. For me, Venice is such a place, though not for the memories, more for its unique faded elegance and beauty. There is such a visual integrity about the place, perhaps simply a factor of age - but (once you have left the ugly modernism of the Piazalle Roma) there is very little in the city that looks out of place.

I'll be back...