After her graduation, Suzanne had a week off before her internship program began in one of the local hotels. As I had a few weeks credit to my leave, I and a friend, Andrew, made a plan for a holiday in Europe. We took a grueling-no-smoking thirteen-hour flight to London and onward to Zurich where Suzanne was already waiting at the airport. For the benefit of Andrew, we took the train to Lausanne to let him see and feel the thrill of traveling across the beautiful countryside, and of course also for Suzanne to pick up a few things from her college for our journey to Italy. Though I have traveled the route before, the thrill of viewing the countryside did not get any lesser for me.
From Lausanne we proceeded to Italy via Lugano and unto Milan, our first stop in Italy. We had a few hours in Milan where we did, among others, some browsing on some antique-looking artifacts peddled by some peddlers of African origin. While walking through downtown Milan, I couldn't help being reminded of Shakespeare although I didn't quite remember what or where it was he spoke about Milan. Was it in Macbeth, in the Merchant of Venice? Whatever! From Milan we proceeded to Venice. That night we had an unusually sumptuous dinner, which we had partly in celebration of Suzanne's graduation.
Venice was as remarkable as I had imagined it to be. It's really a city in the sea where one has to travel in gondolas to various destinations. While in one of those gondolas, Suzanne and I sat close to each other, with my hands lightly tucked around her waist, basking in the magic of being together in a far away land while being ferried in a gondola. We could feel a surge of unbounded love released between us. We ever wondered aloud whether the magic could last forever, or whether we would experience ever again such romance and magic perhaps in some other time and setting. We visited lots of memorable places where we bought, among others, some venetian masks and two look-alike gilded rings which we slipped into our fingers as our make-believe engagement rings. And of all things, we also bought a piece of old coconut meat which we nibbled off as we hopped from shop to shop. Strange, but it was perhaps an attempt on our part to invoke a nostalgic memory of a place so far away which we called our home where coconut meat was aplenty.
After a couple of days in Venice, we proceeded to Florence where we put up for another couple of nights before proceeding to Rome. While at Florence, we visited an antiquated but grand Cathedral where we took time to light a few prayer candles to Our Lady. I imagined She didn't smile but I did beg her to pray for us, not as I wanted it but as she deemed fit. As we exited the compound of the Cathedral, two strange events immediately happened. It had been raining, so as we exited, I almost slipped on the the slippery tarmac of the Church compound but for my quick reaction to balance myself, only to flipped my hand against Andrew's groin which doubled him up in pain. As we went further, Andrew extended a compassionate help to a beggar by handing him over a few loose change only to attract a throng of 20 to 30 beggars engulfing him for more handouts, much to his shock! We had to run into a store for protection with the beggars running pied-piper fashion after us. Having just exited a Church, I have wondered if there might have been a message for us by those incidents. Anyways, I let it go at that apart from being the wiser about being generous to beggars while on a tour.
On the same day, having noticed from a map that Pisa was not very far away from where we were, we took a taxi to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was indeed leaning, and for the last eight centuries, we were told. We couldn't climb it then, as it was under renovation. Also, because of a heavy downpour, we were prevented from browsing through the gift stalls which were constructed not quite unlike those vegetables stalls at Kundasang back home.
The Chinese has a saying which sounds as follows, "..where there's smoke, there are Chinese." I suspected someone coined that before the invention of the microwave oven. But true enough, wherever I was, whether in Europe or in the U.S, there were always Chinese restaurants. So it was that in our first night in Florence we had dinner in a Chinese restaurant which was quiet when we came in but turned out bustling with Japanese tourists as the night progressed. Suddenly, I had an idea, "...Andrew, why don't you take an 'engagement dinner' picture of us with the Japanese tourists in the background as 'guests'?" Suzanne chuckled at the idea calling it preposterous, but seeing the comedy behind went along with it. And so Andrew took a photo or two of Suzanne and me doing a mock exchange of engagement rings with the Japanese diners as 'guests'. If only they knew. We had a big laugh...
The next day we proceeded to Rome by train.
From Lausanne we proceeded to Italy via Lugano and unto Milan, our first stop in Italy. We had a few hours in Milan where we did, among others, some browsing on some antique-looking artifacts peddled by some peddlers of African origin. While walking through downtown Milan, I couldn't help being reminded of Shakespeare although I didn't quite remember what or where it was he spoke about Milan. Was it in Macbeth, in the Merchant of Venice? Whatever! From Milan we proceeded to Venice. That night we had an unusually sumptuous dinner, which we had partly in celebration of Suzanne's graduation.
Venice was as remarkable as I had imagined it to be. It's really a city in the sea where one has to travel in gondolas to various destinations. While in one of those gondolas, Suzanne and I sat close to each other, with my hands lightly tucked around her waist, basking in the magic of being together in a far away land while being ferried in a gondola. We could feel a surge of unbounded love released between us. We ever wondered aloud whether the magic could last forever, or whether we would experience ever again such romance and magic perhaps in some other time and setting. We visited lots of memorable places where we bought, among others, some venetian masks and two look-alike gilded rings which we slipped into our fingers as our make-believe engagement rings. And of all things, we also bought a piece of old coconut meat which we nibbled off as we hopped from shop to shop. Strange, but it was perhaps an attempt on our part to invoke a nostalgic memory of a place so far away which we called our home where coconut meat was aplenty.
After a couple of days in Venice, we proceeded to Florence where we put up for another couple of nights before proceeding to Rome. While at Florence, we visited an antiquated but grand Cathedral where we took time to light a few prayer candles to Our Lady. I imagined She didn't smile but I did beg her to pray for us, not as I wanted it but as she deemed fit. As we exited the compound of the Cathedral, two strange events immediately happened. It had been raining, so as we exited, I almost slipped on the the slippery tarmac of the Church compound but for my quick reaction to balance myself, only to flipped my hand against Andrew's groin which doubled him up in pain. As we went further, Andrew extended a compassionate help to a beggar by handing him over a few loose change only to attract a throng of 20 to 30 beggars engulfing him for more handouts, much to his shock! We had to run into a store for protection with the beggars running pied-piper fashion after us. Having just exited a Church, I have wondered if there might have been a message for us by those incidents. Anyways, I let it go at that apart from being the wiser about being generous to beggars while on a tour.
On the same day, having noticed from a map that Pisa was not very far away from where we were, we took a taxi to see the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was indeed leaning, and for the last eight centuries, we were told. We couldn't climb it then, as it was under renovation. Also, because of a heavy downpour, we were prevented from browsing through the gift stalls which were constructed not quite unlike those vegetables stalls at Kundasang back home.
The Chinese has a saying which sounds as follows, "..where there's smoke, there are Chinese." I suspected someone coined that before the invention of the microwave oven. But true enough, wherever I was, whether in Europe or in the U.S, there were always Chinese restaurants. So it was that in our first night in Florence we had dinner in a Chinese restaurant which was quiet when we came in but turned out bustling with Japanese tourists as the night progressed. Suddenly, I had an idea, "...Andrew, why don't you take an 'engagement dinner' picture of us with the Japanese tourists in the background as 'guests'?" Suzanne chuckled at the idea calling it preposterous, but seeing the comedy behind went along with it. And so Andrew took a photo or two of Suzanne and me doing a mock exchange of engagement rings with the Japanese diners as 'guests'. If only they knew. We had a big laugh...
The next day we proceeded to Rome by train.
