"Heading out in the now quiet alleyway and into Vaporetto station, my wife and I took a last glimpse of this ancient and surreal surroundings: the centuries-old Venetian apartments whose old-world dwellers once lived and listened to Marco Polo's adventure..."

cont'd...
The clear and starry evening sky, the ornamental minute blue and incandescent light-bulbs hang overhead along and throughout each lane, and some occasional lonely brass light-posts did its duty to help us find our way back to the apartment.

Moments later, we were all together at the dinner table with me recounting our late afternoon stroll. Few of Dave's friends came over and met us. Our conversation went on close to midnight, and soon afterward we left the apartment as we had planned earlier to catch a midnight train to Rome.

Heading out in the now quiet alleyway and into Vaporetto station, my wife and I took a last glimpse of this ancient and surreal surroundings: the centuries-old Venetian apartments whose old-world dwellers once lived and listened to Marco Polo's adventure; the arched little bridges that connected each alley and helped thousands of wandering feet traverse the "water" city; the perennially magical meandering sub-canals whose romantic association with falsetto-voiced Gondoliers has never faded throughout the centuries; and the one that epitomize all of Venice life and dreams, the gondolas. Now docked and resting in the middle of the night over calm water, each partially shrouded by tarp to protect it from elements, I guess.

"Sleep now and rest," as if I was speaking to someone, "for tomorrow you are going to invite and capture once again the hearts of many - whose desire was to intimately glide with you along the canals and pass underneath the majestic Rialto Bridge - transcending their most-favoured dream into a reality!"

At this time, a little banner at the end of a post where the gondolas are docked now being caress playfully by cold midnight breeze, is gently flapping as if bidding its goodbye to us.

I stopped momentarily, gave out a little smile and in my mind silently uttered words, "Thank you for the wonderful experience, until next time, my friend!"

Meanwhile, I noticed my wife was starting to pull my hand, urging me and said, "Come on, we've still got to catch the midnight express train to Rome!" I then obliged without delay. (to be continued...)