The Time I Took My Wife on a Gondola Ride…

When you think of Italy, the possibilities of things that pop into your mind are endless…food, wine, history, soccer, Mussolini the list can go on and on, but if you get more specific and think of Venice the list of first thoughts will greatly narrow. And for many the first things you thought of when you heard Venice was Gondola.

Gondola with the Co-Conspirators.

The famed boats of Venice are one of the most iconic images of the great city and carry a unique mystique amongst the world. The thought of a romantic gondola ride has been something associated with the boat for years and years. Countless couples have ridden the solo captained boats throughout the canals of Venice. One day I hope to share such a experience with my future wife, where ever she may be currently. It wouldn’t be the first time I ride one of the boats but I’m will to bet it will be much more romantic then when I rode it with 5 of my buddies from High School, whom thought its be hysterical to try and convince the Gondolier to flip the boat so I fell out. Yeah, real romantic….

Nonetheless it was an awesome experience traveling thorough the canals which so many before me traveled. My first time was almost 7 years ago (as if I haven’t been feeling old enough as it is) yet it still resonates clearly in my memory.  It was then when I thought how awesome it would be to share this experience with someone truly special and it is now that I continue to imagine how the experience will go once I find her. Until that day I can do nothing but wait and dream, but hey that’s Life in a nutshell, a lot of waiting and a lot of dreaming. Until then…..

That Time I Retraced My Steps...

If you know me, you know a couple of things, first that I have an (sometimes unhealthy) obsession with Italy and all things Italian, Second that I’m extremely sentimental and finally that I consider my time studying abroad in the aforementioned country as the best experience of my life. Since the day I returned that summer I have been trying with all my power to go back and one major reason is because of something I was unable to do.

The reason I hold the trip in such high regard because being over 4,000 miles away from home, it was the first time I was truly on my own. I grew both as an individual and as a man because I was very much outside of my comfort zone. I lived with a host family that was extremely busy so if I needed anything be it food, transportation, guidance or anything else, it was on me to do it.

So being the lost little sheep that I was, commuting to school proved to be a difficult experience at first. There was a bus stop on the corner of my apartment but I had never really traveled on mass transit and struggled to figure out when the bus would be there and how I would get to school. This is where the journey to find my way back to Italy begins. Because rather than figure out the big bad bus schedule, I decided for the first week of school to walk each day. The walk was a little under an hour but was one of the most unique parts of the trip. This is because I was lucky enough to walk through Villa Borghese Gardens (the equivalent to Central Park in the City) for majority of the trip. It was early in the morning when few people were in the par and you could truly enjoy the peaceful landscape.

Not A Bad View to Commute With

As enjoyable as the walk was, I eventually learned how to take the bus and save about 45 minutes on my commute. It was the last week of my trip when the sentimental side of myself came out. I wanted to walk to school one last time. Unfortunately or rather unluckily the last week of the trip was also the biggest party week for my classmates and me. Getting up an extra hour early on the last day of class with a splitting hangover is an extremely difficult proposition. So I did the only thing any right-minded hungover (rather contradictory but nonetheless applicable) individual would do; I took the bus to school. The fact that I was unable to retrace my steps to school is what has me writing this inaugural blog post about my bucket list. Before I die, hopefully a long time from now, I want to return to Via Monti Parioli in Rome and retrace my steps through the park into Piazza del Popolo and on into the heart of Ancient Rome…. 

Piazza del Popolo; My entry to Ancient Rome

Hopefully this can inspire you to go back and retrace some steps in your life that have a special meaning to you and hopefully I can share my experience with you all when it actually happens for me..