Mai thoughts on life

I like Venice and I take every chance I get to enjoy its beauty. A tourist theme park for many, a place to escape life when it gets overwhelming for me. Piazza di San Marco or Ponte Rialto are definitely worth the visit, but they don’t really show you all Venice has to offer. The Dorsoduro area is the neighborhood I like the most and where I get that sometimes very needed feeling of peace.

I pretty much have the same routine every time while there. The first thing I do is grab a gelato. My favourite gelateria offers artisanal ice cream without artifical colourants and makes its own cones, too. This time I took a scoop of chocolate mango sorbet and a scoop of hazelnut gianduiotto. Yes, I always take 2 scoops. 1 is never enough.

With the delicious cone in my hand I headed to the Squero di San Tomaso. There you can see gondolas in various states of completion. I was lucky this time and I got to see some of the gondolas being actively worked on. I like eating gelato and observing different stages of gondolas while at the same time contemplating about life. We all start as a robust piece of wood. With time, effort and a touch of a loving hand, we transform into beautiful shapes of love. It made me wonder at what stage am I at. Still unprocessed, raw material? Work in progress? I am definitely not the beautiful end piece yet. What do I lack? Most probably the loving hand part.

After the lesson of self-awareness, I headed to the Libreria Acqua Alta. My favourite place in the whole of Venice. This book shop is really incredible and one of a kind. The books are stored not on shelves, but in antique gondolas, canoes and even bathtubs to protect them from flooding in the ‘acqua alta’ season. I could spend hours here, lost between all the books in this magical atmosphere. Luigi, the owner, always likes to have a chat with me since I am not here only to take photos of his instagrammable place, but I am genuinly interested in the books and stories I can find there. A pocket size book of Venetian legends caught my eye.

Luigi started sharing one of the legends not described in the booklet. The legend about the Ponte del diavolo. I listened carefully. He is an excellent storyteller. According to him the bridge got its name from a story of two Venetian lovers in the time of Austrian occupation. The boyfriend got killed and the girlfriend being hopelessly in love asked a witch for help. The witch made a pact with the devil to bring the boyfriend back to life in return for the souls of seven innocent children. The devil brought the boyfriend back to life, but the witch died under some unfortunate circumstances in a fire. That led to the devil never getting the souls of the children as agreed upon. Luigi didn’t know what happened to the two lovers, but he said that the devil returns to the bridge as a black cat each December 24th to wait for the souls he didn’t get.

After hearing the story, I wanted to visit the bridge. Luigi said it’s on the Isola di Torcello so I headed there. I crossed over the Ponte dell’ Academia to enjoy the charming independent souvenir shops. I stopped counting all the carnival masks, t-shirts or Murano glass items I have at home long time ago. So I skipped the souvenir shopping and hopped on a vaporetto to Torcello.

With the book still in my hand I came to the Ponte del diavolo. To be honest, I don’t really believe in this kind of stories. But I kept looking over my shoulder for black cats sucking the souls out of small children. In my head the legend Luigi told me was a combination of tragic love of Romeo and Juliet and the terrifying Dementors from Harry Potter.

Thinking about the potential new megahit, I lost track of time. It started to get dark and I didn’t want to encounter a black cat on the bridge after dark. Even though I am neither a child nor it is December 24th, I hurried up to leave the island. Bought a couple of cicchetti to eat on my way and headed home very satisfied with my day.

I suddenly realized that this was the first time in a while that a love story didn’t make me cry or remind me of a heart break I am going through. WOW! Am I healing?

I learned something new, got a new book and enjoyed the gelato. I couldn’t ask for more. Thank you Venice. For showing me time and time again that you are more that just a tourist theme park. Thank you Venice for giving me the privilege of seeing the real, hidden parts of you, not everybody gets to experience. And most of all thank you for healing my heart and being my shelter every time I need a break from life.