Early mornings are my time of the day. In Venezia I was up before the sun and had long morning walks along quiet canals. Few other people were up and La Serinissima was mine.
What enchants me deepest with this city are the colours. The aquarelle palette in Canal Grande, the deeper colours of the earth further into the city. The twilight hour at Ponti Tri Archi , later when dark has fell sitting on a stone stair at the edge of Cannaregio with the lights from the mainland far ahead, deep red sky, dark waters of the laguna. Or the warm glow of Carpaccio's St.George paintings in Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni.
Outside the church Santa Maria dela Salute I meet a group of six German ladies with their easels and painboxes. They paint with brush strokes and colours. I sit down near them starting my "painting" - a filtpen writing words in my moleskin. From Canal Grande the sound of gondolas, music and laughter reaches me. "Volare" flows over the water, accompanied by tunes from an accordion, waves splashing.
It is my fourth day in Venezia, and though my backpack is filled with painting equipments, pens and notebooks, this is the first time I actually sit down and write. I was deeply tired when I arrived in the city and my muse was hard to find - all untill I met these ladies who followed their dreams and generously shared with a traveller from Norway.
I ask one of the ladies of it is okay to take a photo of her. She misunderstands, believing that I am asking her to take a photo of me and is on her feet in seconds. So now I have a photo of me, the travel writer with as ugly a background as you can find in Venezia - a vaporetta hut in grey and yellow with the name SALUTE written in big, black letters. Not beautiful, but this photo will always remind me of six German ladies following their muses, helping me to find mine.
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