feldmanlarry

The line for Notre Dame was very short, because it was a rainy day. When I went a few days ago the line looked like it would be hours. Inside Notre Dame, I remembered going there with Margaret and Keith in 2003 and Keith accidentally knocked over a man who was kneeling in prayer. It was so dark he didn’t see him. Where do you start with apologizing for that?

As I was taking the Metro to the old airport of Paris (Orly), I wondered if it was a mistake to leave France. A big goal of mine for this trip was to improve my French and 11 days in France really has made a difference. In particular the 3 nights in the countryside where no one spoke English helped most. I had tried very hard in Paris not to speak English even if they started speaking English to me. Now in Italy, I would have to go back to English and the few words of Italian I can drum up.

My apartment was beautiful and way too big for just me. It had 2 bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen and bath. However, it didn’t cost much more than a hotel would have. Airbnb.com is a great way to go.

I met the owner at the Venice opera house (Teatro Fenice) and he gave me a lot of information about Venice and the apartment.

The apartment was a 1-minute walk from the opera. My entrance was the door on the left.

The apartment was at a courtyard where the artists entered the opera house.

A window in my bedroom looked out over a canal where I heard singing from gondolas going by.

Instead of using the nice cooking facilities, I ate out, including going to this outdoor café right outside the opera house each day for coffee, lunch, or an afternoon prosecco.

Sometimes in travelling, things move almost too quickly. It was hard to adjust going from the tranquility of the countryside to the crazy streets of Paris to the canals of Venice.