Travel Bucket List #4: Venice, Italy

Next - Italy...how can the world's most enticing country not be on the list? 

I've had the privilege of visiting Italy once - I saw some amazing things in that trip.  I was romanced by Florence, engulfed by Rome, nearly ran through Pisa (but there is a sweet story there that a future blog will tell of), and then we continued our trip West and ended in Spain.  It was quite the whirlwind tour - and of all the places we went, Italy still has my heart.

Take me to the city on the water.

I'm a sucker for old buildings!

When I visited Florence, one of the things I adored was that couples put "locks of love" all over the city.  It is so sweet!  They attach them to hand railings, bridges, walls, anything they can.  When thinking of my desire to travel, I remembered these locks.  They are a great illustration of why I love to travel - just like Florence is adorned with a collection of locks full of memories of couples in love, I want my life to be adorned with a collection of memories, trivia, smells, tastes and beautiful pictures from all over the world.  Florence may be, thus far, my favorite place I have collected from...but I haven't seen Venice yet.

Allow me to add one caveat in what I mean by "adorned".  Florence, for example, is not a city that is completed by these intricacies I love about her, but rather she is enhanced by the character they give her.  In the same way, I would love to be exposed to the culture of many more places around the world, not to complete something about myself, but to learn and enhance my character and personality by collecting valuable things along the way.  I could be quite content being a mere spectator, living vicariously through others who have traveled to other places.  After all, I agree with C.S. Lewis when he said, the things in this world that we adore are "only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."  I am but a sojourner in this life, awaiting a much more radiant place to explore.  But if God brings a few opportunities here and there to allow me the gift of expanding my perspective of the world by seeing it, though it may only hold value to me a few others, I think I would enjoy it abundantly.

Locks of Love - Florence, Italy