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Today is July 22nd, our 32nd anniversary.
Gabi and I are staying at Hotel Gabrielli Sandwirth, located at Riva Degli Schiavoni along the San Marco waterfront.
We have breakfast with the birds in the hotel’s courtyard. One of us always has to guard the table against low flying pirates. The rest of the day is “Dolce Far Niente”. Gabi enjoys the true luxury of a vacation : to do absolutely nothing!
We retire to the hotel’s rooftop garden (the sign says “solarium”) and enjoy the sun and the scenery from our high perch. I watch the crazy boat traffic, with all the water taxis, tour boats, ferries, vaporetti and private yachts criss-crossing the canal below us. The tour boats fight for dock spaces to unload the hordes of Venice tourists.
We are staying cool in the shade and breeze of the terrace, and below us the “wretched, tired masses” voluntarily endure 100 Degree F temperature and blisters on their feet. The tour groups are 40 to 60 people in size, all being dragged along by their leader and listening over the audio guide.
Gabi is not moving, except from chaise to swing or banister for a change in scenery. San Marco cathedral and the Campanile are to our right, with the Canale Grande joining the Canale Della Giudecca. Straight across the water is the island with Santa Maria Maggiore cathedral. To our left is the yacht harbour, with 2 impressive dark blue yachts from Barbados: “Galaxy” and “Oxygen”.

It is hot, and I get up once in a while to use the cold shower of our roof garden to cool off. Otherwise I keep my Queen content with food and drink deliveries. I fetch the panini for lunch from the snack bar “Orchidea” down the street, later in the afternoon some gelato and finally a third run into the hot, crowded Venice to get some happy hour drinks. At dusk, we leave our paradise for the day and have a nice dinner along a small canal at “San Giorgio Dei Greci”, with the occasional Gondoliere pushing along his long, black gondola.
We finish the anniversary celebration with a Buergerspital Mueller-Thurgau, sitting on the steps along the waterfront in front of our hotel. We gaze at San Marco, the canal, bridges and old palaces, being happy and content. Sometimes a quiet celebration is the Best.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.