Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

Venice is supposed to be an enchanted city where lovers slowly drift down the quiet canals on a gondola and look deep into each other's eyes as a romantic tune is hummed in the background. Sure, I took plenty of photos of the gondolas filled with their enamored pairs, but what about reality? What about the single people or the old couples who actually live in Venice? As I paused for a moment to escape the streams of people on the larger canals, this quiet and empty vista helped me fall in love with a different Venice - the one after all the tourists go home, or get flooded out, the one where an old man will take the trash out for his elderly wife as she unpins and folds his laundry. This photo reminds me that after the enchantment fades, a city and lovers alike grow stronger through the test of time and in the quiet moments.