There is heavy sadness in my heart as I wave good-bye to Heather through the window of the hostel shuttle. I explain to the other passengers that it is a tradition in my family to wave to the person leaving until they have been out of sight for a good five minutes, lest the person turn around, see no one, and feel lonely. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tripped through airport security while waving to my family.
As my traveling companion around Italy for the last two weeks, Heather has become my family. We’ve driven our go-cart-sized Peugot through the mountainsides of Tuscany and the narrow streets of Florence, leaning out the car’s go-cart-sized windows, singing our own versions of Italian love songs. In two weeks, we’ve backpacked through Cinque Terre, smoked on the steps of the Fontana di Nettuno, danced in various piazzas throughout Rome, and cried underneath the Duomo in Florence, overwhelmed by its sheer beauty and magnificence. We played hide and seek at 3:00 a.m. with a bunch of Italian boys we met on the beach in Vernazza earlier that day, and their friends. In perhaps our oddest of escapades, Heather and I befriended an Italian family, a retired sheriff, his wife, and mother-in-law, after their dog escaped his enclosure in their front yard and bit Heather on her bum.
Here, in Venice, we have come to the end of our affair. As agreed upon, Heather is flying back to the United States, and I am staying a week longer to further explore the painted alley ways and clogged canals of Venice. The shuttle lets off its passengers at the bridge leading into Venice, and as my feet hit the pavement, my heart begins to soar. A chance to explore this magical fairy tale land on my own feels like an amazing gift. I love that because there are no cars and hardly any bicycles, I have to walk or take a vaporetto for long journeys. I love the colors and the history of the city. I love to feel the sensuous ghosts of the Ca’d’Oro, the Palazzo Grassi, and the Bridge of Sighs beckoning me to move in closer to hear their secrets. I also love that this evening I have a potential lover waiting for me.
