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  • Life as it appears to me
  • Blog
  • Italy 2022
    • The process before leaving town...
    • About
    • Annie Hart Cool
  • Life as it appears to me

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Long ❤️ ❤️ Loves

7/19/2021

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Long Love.

Love that sits low and deep in your being and shows itself to you through a song, a fragrance, a taste. It’s really anytime when love sparks a memory. I’m considering the deep guttural love today. I acknowledge the whimsy love but today I’m reflecting on the love that is incorporated into your being on a cellular level. You all know this love but may not have rested long enough to consider it.

This love can be familial but doesn’t have to be. For instance, I have a long love, deep and gracious love of a brother of mine. Mostly because we’ve shared experiences that built these understandings of eternal connection and trust. I talk to him rarely. We aren’t besties. To look at us you wouldn’t say we are close. But we have history. We have shared experiences that give him a life long and protected place in my heart. A place that would bring out my champion for him if he needed me. Now this same brother has built a life, married, has a couple of kids and a huge social web of love and admiration. There is distance between us yet I consider him in my “long love” list.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my other siblings, I do. But I don’t truly know them. I haven’t the love connection. I have the gene pool love that makes them important but not a “long love”button pusher.

As I review my “Long Loves” I see a life saving quality in these folks. As if they popped into my existence when I needed a life ring tossed from the boat named “life in turbulence “ or they brought so much enrichment to my heart that the love remembers and my heart blooms when in the presence of “long loves”.

My heart remembers, engages, celebrates and applauds these people who make my heart beam.

This month I took a saunter into Long and Young loves. I spoke to one of my long loves about this pondering. This man and I have been friends for over 30 years. We’ve weaved in and out of our existence over the years because of long love.

He shares his family with me. We are comfortable in silence and love a great story or board game. I told him I admire him.
I admire those gryphons who raise out of the ashes and become people who you can consider a “long love”. His life partner is a long love too. Maybe because we share the love for all their kids, maybe because she loves him and that is a gift to me, or maybe because we are so similar that I project a “Little love of self “ on to her.

I know you’ve been surprised when you find yourself reacting to seeing a long lost friend in an over the top manner. It’s as if the heart remembers the love for them before your mind can catch up.

This is the “long love” theory.

I reunited with a family who employed me nearly 40 years ago this week. There was trepidation, anxiety and excitement all meshed together in the anticipation of the e visit. Yet when we met, after all those years, the heart remembered and only “long love” was between us.

Long love makes it easy to be together. Long love is judgment free. Long love oozes acceptance and forgiveness it forgets life’s emotional road bumps. Long love hugs for real not because it’s expected.

I heard myself counting my blessings for these long loves that exist for me. I have had many folks say they’d be hard pressed to discover these “long love connections” but I challenge that. I believe these connections surprise you. They are lying dormant ready to be sparked back into existence.

here’s to “long loves”… may we have them, may we recognize them, may they surprise us at every turn. Raise your hearts to remembering your champions, your tender friends, your supportive folks who visited your life’s path. May they make your heart race, beam and explode with love the next time you run into them.



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Our Bike and Barge Itinerary!

Day 1: Individual arrival in Mantova


Day 2: Mantova, 21 mi. (35 km)


Day 3: Mantova - Governolo - Zelo, 32 mi. (50 km)

Day 4: Zelo - Ferrara - Adria, 31 mi. by bike + 37 mi. by bus (50 + 60 km)

Day 5: Adria - Po Delta Nature Reserve - Pellestrina Island, 25 mi. (40 km)

Day 6: Pellestrina Island - Venice, 19 mi. (30 km)

Day 7: Venice, free day

Day 8: Venice,
​departure following breakfast
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Mantova is one of the most beautiful towns in Northern Italy as many worldwide know artists have left their masterpieces for us to enjoy, thanks to the famous Gonzaga family! Benvenuti a Mantova!
Day 2: Mantova - round trip tour - 21 mi. (35 km)


This entire day is dedicated to the discovery of this wonderful city and its surroundings, dominated by the wealth and influences left by the Gonzaga family, who owned the city for over 400 years.

Mantova was considered one of the most important cultural cities in the Renaissance and it still maintains a lot of the landscapes and the building that made it famous during that period.

​ In the late afternoon, a local guide will lead you through the most known highlights of the town.

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Day 3: Mantova - Governolo - Zelo, 32 mi. (50 km)

After breakfast, on board, you navigate from the "lakes" of Mantova and cruise through the lush wetlands that lead to Governolo Lock, where Mantova's Mincio River flows into the Po.

​ From here, by bike, you follow the broad sweeps of the levee towards Ostiglia, renowned for its medieval fortress and fierce fighting in 1945, as the Allies drove Hitler's forces back.
Bergantino, home of the distinctive Museum of Fairground Rides and its collection of street organs, all expertly restored (and thunderous!).


This village is also in the heartland of Grana Padano, the arch-rival of Parmesan. A visit to the local cheese factory, sampling some well seasoned Grana, is a must-do.

​You meet the barge in Zelo, a sleepy village on the Canal Bianco, the waterway which runs parallel to the Po.
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Day 4: Zelo - Ferrara - Adria, 31 mi. by bike + 37 mi. by bus (50 km by bike + 60 km by bus)
Following breakfast, you will start cycling towards Ferrara. Once you have reached the town, which earned the name of "city of bicycles", you will be enchanted by the historical center, still surrounded by the old city walls.

​You will enjoy a guided town tour. From Ferrara, a short bus transfer will bring you to Adria, an ancient Greek port, famous for trading amber coming from the Baltic. It's a remarkable museum that also bears witness to its Etruscan, Roman, and Venetian Heritage.
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​Day 5: Adria - Po Delta Nature Reserve - Pellestrina Island, 25 mi. (40 km)
After a short ride on board, you cycle into the delta of the life-giving Po. This unique wetland is the prime reserve in Europe for herons and home to a sizeable colony of flamingos. Weather permitting, as you continue towards Chioggia, you can also enjoy a stop at a beach and a dip in the Adriatic - not forgetting a hot savory piadina! Chioggia is also known as "Little Venice", a colorful fishing hub. The overnight takes place on the island of  Pellestrina, just in front of Chioggia.
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Day 6: Pellestrina Island - Venice, 19 mi. (30 km)
Venice beckons, but first another world altogether: Pellestrina, the first of two islands you traverse today – a humble and tranquil fishing backwater, picturesque as ever with its cottages, boats, and nets. A short island-hop by ferry transfers to Lido. Fashionable in high society ever since the Belle Époque, the Lido di Venezia is now home to the International Venice Film Festival and its galaxy of stars.

​ After rejoining the barge, you will enjoy a leisure cruise in front of St Mark’s square to the final destination. After dinner, you can savor Venice at night, now free of the crowds and at her most romantic: Benvenuti a Venezia!
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Day 7: Venice, guided walking tour and free time
A guided walking tour of Venice begins around 11 am and lasts approximately 1.5 hours. It begins in St. Mark square and continues towards the bigger "sestiere" of the city, Castello.

You will visit Campo Santa Maria Formosa where you can experience a characteristic market and then a city hospital and large gothic church in Campo dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Later, you will go to Campo Santa Marina and to the Rialto Bridge. During this tour, the guide will explain these sites from the outside, no entrances are planned. 
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I guess I always knew this… but forgot?

As we prepare to leave on vacation the energy in the house is a mix between excitement and dread. You know the anticipation? The expectation ! And all the things you forgot.

I take a breath and lean in to my suitcase. I don’t know why I fret. The few things I pack can be washed and reworn!

If Covid taught us nothing it taught us sweat pants can last a week if handled carefully! Two weeks in Italy requires comfort clothes and something a little stylish… but wait, I live on Cape Cod!

We have completed most of the requisites. The note to the Dog sitter, the walk about with the gardener, the cleaned out refrigerator… but then it dawns on us…
what about the storage on our phones?

​TONIGHT. Tonight we will be deleting everything. Sorry, but it’s true.
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