Venice in winter also gives you beauty and happiness.

"If you walk around Venice probably you will hear the gondoliers sing..."

THE BLONDE IN THE GONDOLA

TIZIANO SCARPA

This is a prose version of the most famous Venetian song:

The other evening I took the blonde girl out in a gondola. But

the pleasure made the poor thing drop off to asleep. She slept

on my arm, every now and then I woke her; but the boat's

rocking put her back to sleep. In the sky the moon was half hidden

among the clouds. The lagoon was calm, the wind had

dropped. Only a light breeze ruffled her hair and bared her

breast. Carefully contemplating the features of my treasure,

that little face so smooth, that mouth and that beautiful breast,

I felt a longing in my heart, a stirring, a kind of euphoria that

I can't explain. For a while I respected her sleep, and put up

with it, despite Love in person arousing me. And I very slowly

tried to lie down there with her; but how can you lie relaxed

with a burning fire beside you ? Luckily in the end I got tired

of letting her sleep, and I behaved like a shameless person, but I

had nothing to regret. Because, my God, what beautiful things

I said to her did to her! Seriously, I have never in my life
been so happy.