See Venice and die. Unless you've fallen in love with Venice, that sounds like a silly phrase. It isnt.
This is the photo that I used for the announcement of Angel's 2001 retirement that went out to all the invitees to his dinner. The caption was: 'Work, work, work is over, over, over.' He is sitting on the outside breakfast terrace of the Hotel Europa & Regina. If you saw 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', with Matt Damon, this is the hotel at the end of the movie. The last years of Angel's career in IT were challenged by pushing back against a CIO who was hell-bent on outsourcing, no matter what the human cost to the people with whom Angel had worked or had worked for him. He won that battle. In this photo, he is contemplating something, maybe retirement the next year, even before he made the decision.
This lovely baritone was singing 'O Sole Mio' when I took this photo. Singing just to me, I swear. I am a romantic and something, at times, of a sentimental slob, so the song brought tears to my eyes. He also is the baritone in the PBS one-hour documentary in their 'Great Streets' series, 'The Grand Canal with Nathan Lane'.
The soft slap-slap-slap of the water. The late dusk. Too beautiful.
Our last night at the Europa & Regina was memorable. Our table of eight trip buddies (people we had grown close to in two weeks, but were probably never to see again) had a hilarious time. We laughed so hard. One 80-yr-old couple has us in stitches. We asked the secret to their 50-plus year marriage. His answer: I always say, 'Yes, dear'. Her answer: I haven't shot him yet.
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