Daily prompt: Sweet Sixteen

Tags

birthday, food, Italy, postaday2014, Venice

Write a post inspired by your sixteenth birthday.

It was August 7th 1983, my sister and I woke up in the hotel right off St Mark’s Piazza in Venice, Italy. I was very excited because here I was 16 and in Venice, one of the most intriguing cities that I had ever visited then and even now. The gondolas, the canals everywhere, the bridges leading one here and there and the works of art littering the entire city, literally turning your head to the left or to the right and BAM! a work of art. It was heady, spending my birthday in Italy surrounded by beauty and history with my family. I wonder if it means more to me today then it did thirty years ago; I don’t know because I distinctly remember feeling happy, anticipatory and excited on that day, walking around Venice with my parents and my sister. I was wondering what my present was going to be besides being in this glorious city. We took a ride on one of the gondolas and our gondolier was charming and very funny, he dropped us off somewhere and I think that it was at the restaurant that we had a spectacular meal with waiters wearing white gloves and the food was top notch, I remember enjoying everything and I remember my parents raving about how superb the cuisine was and that they had never had Italian cuisine at this level of expertise and talent. I don’t remember any desserts during this time in Venice which is surprising because at 16 years of age and my sister being 12, we were big fans of dessert so I don’t know how I can’t remember any dessert whatsoever but I don’t, maybe we didn’t have any to write home about, I’m not sure. I do know that we had fantastic pasta dishes and one really great calzone. What really stuck in my head was the walking, there was something to see at every turn, Venice was a visual feast and I hope to be able to go and revisit that grand city. The Italian sailors were definitely something, I remember I was wearing a very pretty white dress and a handsome Italian sailor caught my eye or I caught his, either way my mother put a kibosh on that one very, very quickly. I walked with my head turned the wrong way trying to keep eye contact with him for as long as I could, I’m surprised that I didn’t walk into something or someone. Lastly that evening my parents gave me my present and it was a lovely ivory bracelet with gold thread woven around the bracelet, I felt so grown up wearing it, I wore it for a long time afterwards. I treasure all of my memories surrounding my 16th birthday and that entire trip.

Sweet sixteen

Tags

food, Italian sailor, postaday2013, Restaurant, restaurants, style, sweet sixteen, Venice

When you were 16, what did you think your life would look like? Does it look like that? Is that a good thing?

My best memory of my sixteenth year was the day of my birthday. We were in Venice, Italy and my parents, my little sister and I spent the day roaming the city, taking a gondola ride and that night we had the most delicious meal at a small Italian restaurant. I remember the restaurant well because it was empty, except for the female waiters and us, I remember feeling a little ill at ease because the waiters seemed at a loss as to what to do with us, we were there to eat so early. I thought at one point that the ladies were going to come over and feed us, they wanted to serve us so badly and keep occupied. If ever you eat out in Italy, don’t go until eight or nine at night; don’t go at seven, the waiters won’t know what to do with you. It was a fantastic meal, I know that. I remember the first course because it was a seafood salad served in a gorgeous seashell standing up on the plate. I know that it was sublime but that is all that I remember of the restaurant. I remember leaving the restaurant. On the way out as I was following my parents, I felt eyes following me and I turned around and there was a handsome Italian sailor smiling at me, my mother rained on my parade when she took my hand and pulled me with her in the opposite direction. I got a chance to smile and wave at him and he blew me a kiss. I remember what I was wearing, I was wearing red sandals and a very pretty white dress with a red belt around the waist, the neck line had beautiful embroidery all around it. I felt quite pretty that day. Overall I would rate it as one of my favorite birthday memories.

As to the question of what I dreamed of becoming when I grew up, I am pretty sure that I was still planning to go into medicine at that time. I had always wanted to be a surgeon, ever since I was a little girl and that hadn’t changed until the year where I developed an essential tremor in my hands, at sixteen. The same year that I took chemistry and hated it and the same year that I became ultra-rebellious. I stopped planning for a career in surgery and I felt a little unmoored for that whole year. I didn’t get back on track until my senior year of high school. I had a lot of anger during my junior year in high school for a lot of reasons.

I’ll get back to this story some other time, I have a headache right now and it has been plaguing me for two days now. This story needs to be told headache free. On a happy note, Venice is truly a city to visit. I absolutely loved it!

 

 

Film festivals

Tags

Cannes film festival, film festivals, postaday2012, Tribeca Film festival, Venice

Have you ever attended a film festival?

May 30, 2012

Film Festival

Freaky Deaky 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

I haven’t had the pleasure as of yet to attend a film festival. My first stop would be the TriBeCa Film festival followed by the Cannes Film festival and then I think that I would take a jaunt across to Venice to attend their film festival. Actually it wouldn’t be a bad career to have, traveling the globe attending film festivals in all the fascinating cities of the world.

Architecture and beauty

Tags

architecture, Barcelona, Paris, postaday2012, Rome, Venice

What city has the most beautiful architecture?

May 19, 2012 by

Beautiful Architecture

Notre-Dame de Paris (France)

That is such a hard question; every city has its own beauty, even modern ones such as Singapore and Dubai. I think of Barcelona for its Art Deco, Rome for its classical architecture, Paris for being Paris, Venice for its romantic nature. I love Munich for its architecture and its cleanliness. Montreal for its embrace of old and new. This question is quite unfair in nature, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this eye finds beauty everywhere.