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Gondoliers. Venice, Italy

Prior to arriving in Venice, the only time i had seen gondoliers outside the movies was in Central Park. A lone gondola plies the waters with a lone gondolier, whose name is Andres if the boathouse's website is to be believed.

The first memory I have of seeing a gondola and gondolier was in From Russia, with Love. At the end, James Bond Sean Connery settles in with his leading lady as they drift down the Venetian canals. At least that's how I remember it. I could be wrong.

The movie that first made me long to go to Venice was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I remember Harrison Ford walking through a beautiful piazza by the canals, and I wonder now where that is. I haven't seen the movie in a while, and my memory is fuzzy, but it seems like it was an impossible place that they had found, the architecture literally floating out in the bay.

Venice was immediately magical. Stepping off the train, I couldn't believe I had arrived. I stayed on the edge of town, uncertain as to the geography of the place. Now that I know, I would choose another location to stay, and another time to visit. I still long to go in November or December. Maybe next Thanksgiving. It shouldn't be overrun then, should it?

This is an outtake from my Rome to Istanbul series.