Invitation To Italy, Vignettes-1

Chapter 2 Venice, Beautiful Venice

Try to imagine the buildings of Venice lining streets filled with automobiles. Try to imagine the boat-filled canals of Venice replacing the streets in any other city. It just doesn’t work, your imagination will sputter and misfire!

… our first ride on a vaporetto, we crossed and recrossed the Lagoon between Lido and St. Mark’s, spellbound by the boats, the unique “street” scenes, with the lights reflected in the Venetian waters.

… watched a basket being lowered with no sign of anyone at street level. Imagine our surprise when a small dog got out of the basket, did his business, got back in the basket for the ride home, provided by his mistress.

Chapter 3 The Lake District

Vicenza … a little Italian gentleman with a large Canadian man in tow (a jewelry salesman from Toronto), said, “Come along and I will tell you about Vicenza’s Teatro Olimpico,” which he did, and it was fascinating.

Lake Garda … A road encircles the lake, and the drive on the western shore is spectacular with 56 bridges and 70 tunnels in the 27 miles between Saló and Riva.

We would think the police would want to check further when Californians say they own a French vehicle with German license plates while driving from Switzerland into Italy, but just a smile and a wave, and we went on our way.

Chapter 4 Northwest Italy

St. Bernard Pass … pens with large St. Bernard dogs, and enclosures with a half dozen puppies. The atmosphere, the surroundings and the equipment were just about, but not quite, what one would expect at this ancient, storied mountain top. The incongruity? In this thousand-year-old monastery the pans containing the dog food were Coca-Cola trays.

… so foggy we could hardly see the trees at the side of the road, but some Swiss travelers said Sacra di San Michele was unquestionably worth the walk — no drive permitted.