Summertime

A friend once told me that travel is all about the journey and not the destination.  This is advice I have taken to heart in my recent travels.  My preparation for my trips brings me almost as much joy as the actual destination.   I pour over travel DVDs, books and blogs trying to glean every available piece of information about my destination.

This year I branched out  combing  You Tube for every Venice video that was uploaded.. some by professionals, but, many more by amateur travelers. I derived a lot of pleasure watching hours upon hours of Venice scenery. My excitement grew with each turn on the Grand Canal. When I eventually watched all the videos in English I dove into those in foreign languages.  I found it interesting that the beauty of Venice transcends all languages and I enjoyed these videos almost as much.

I was then inspired to search for movies filmed in Venice.  Surprisingly, there were very few that I was familiar with.  After a short elimination process I finally settled on two movies:  "The Wings of the Dove" and "Summertime."

"Summertime" is a 1955 movie filmed entirely on location in Venice. What made it an even better choice was that it starred the amazing Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. So this past Sunday night, tucked in my bed with all the lights off, I began to watch 'Summertime".

The scenery was once again mesmerizing. But, what really struck a chord with me was Hepburn's character, Jane Hudson.  Ironically, Jane was an unmarried middle -aged woman who had saved for years to be able to take this trip of a lifetime... not unlike myself. Watching Jane you could actually feel her excitement and her yearning as she approached the Santa Lucia train station in Venice.  All of a sudden I was transformed and it was me on that boat approaching the Grand Canal with all the years of built up anticipation.

In a scene on Hudson's canal-side balcony,  Jane paces with tiger-like agility and restlessness to and fro... as if ready to jump out of her skin.  She is yearning for something that she herself can't put a finger on. Later, as she wanders the narrow Venetian alleyways, she searches and searches and yet does not seem to know what she is looking for.  She absorbs all the beauty and energy of Venice yet still feels  restless and uneasy... always looking for more.

In just 100 minutes a 58 year old movie brought clarity to every fiber of my being. In my travels, I, too, have lived those exact same feelings.... loving the experience, but, feeling like something was missing,  looking for more.. not feeling quite complete... feeling lonely, unsettled, restless and yearning for something I could not find.

Jane Hudson eventually found what she was looking for...  Will I?