One week and counting..

It has been over nine years since I was there last, and I've missed it more than almost anything.



Honest to god, I can feel it straight down to my bones.. that sort of longing that you cannot shake, attempt to distract from, or even water down.. It's just raw desire that cannot be quenched until you jump into the ocean that contains the essence of what you seek.

The smell, the beauty, the bustling of the people..

Watching Japanese tourists get eaten alive by pigeons after they've tossed bread crumbs all over themselves in the middle of St. Mark's Square.



A lot of people say it's a tourist trap this, or overpriced that.

But this feeling, I just cannot expound how it's not just the masks and the romanticism of the city. It's just something there that I've never been able to feel or capture anything close to it anywhere else in my life. And I can feel it from the Grand Canal to the lowliest backstreets, to the murkiest gutters. I felt something stir within me the minute I stepped off the train when I was a child.

Now I'm a woman...

I wonder if the city that I've loved and desired so long waited for me as well.