Lose yourself in Venice,Pisa Florence

Next day we headed towards Venice and I was reminded of the Shakespearean  play Merchant of Venice. I thought Venice to be a commercial place but it had many islands and we first went to Saint Marx island. The first thing that captured my eyes were the three pillars with three different flags. The first was the European flag, followed by the Venetian and the last was the Italian flag. While admiring the three flags and looking at the European flag, the thought of Brexit came to my mind.

Link to the article to know more about Saint Marx https://www.theartpostblog.com/en/about-saint-marks-square/

The place had great value for our group members as  Meher Baba visited the place. We were informed that Meher Baba came here with His two apostles in His previous advent. He also mentioned that it was one of the spiritual centres of Europe.   The place was crowded and our group recited the prayers in the open courtyard  and the whole atmosphere resonated with three different prayers: Parvardigar prayer, Prayer of repentance and Beloved God’s prayer. We strongly felt the presence of our master,   Meher Baba who visited this place in 1932.

Some of our group members decided to take a Gondola ride I decided to stay back and some other members decided to go inside Saint Marx’s Basilica. The group that took Gondola ride later shared that it was not a very joyful and the group that decided to go inside the Basilica later informed that they gave up the idea as queue was very long. I mostly get confused if I get two options but was satisfied to have made the correct decision by staying where I was and explored the place to my satisfaction.

Next day we stopped by Lido beach I was not enjoying  as it as it was extremely hot and there was immense crowd at the beach.

However , I enjoyed hanging out near the small restaurants and shops close to the beach.

Our next stop was floating castle  and the halt was for a very short duration.

Next place of excitement was  Leaning Tower of Pisa and I had no clue about the huge cathedral close to Pisa.

The medieval architecture in Romanesque style looked  very beautiful. The white coloured mystical  structure with semi-circular arches looked majestic.  I marvelled at the beautiful structure which is leaning for  more than 800 years. The tower which remained shut and when opened frequently has always evoked curiosity among tourists.   Also knows as the square of miracles such type of architecture in India would have had many fables. Of all the places and countries I visited, I found this place to be the most alluring place  for selfitis and photographers. I was amused to see people standing on pillars taking the photos.

We then headed to Florence, the cradle of Renaissance. As a student of literature Renaissance was my favourite era when I studied the history of English Literature. However, we explored most of the places related to Renaissance at a faster pace than I had expected.

We hurriedly saw Cathedral square, Republic square and Signoria square. Our tour guide informed us that Catherdral Square was built by the business class  to get influence over the nobles.  I was drawn to Signoria square as it contains the statues of the prominent people from the  Italian Renaissance. I was lured to the beautiful marble  statue  of David by Michael Angelo. 

I felt that Italy offered the most stunning architecture but the country also gave me an opportunity to explore the cave at Assisi. I will discuss about the places of spiritual significance in Italy in my next blog. I was enjoying but at times became homesick with a longing to go back to India.