Venice

The first time I went to Venice, in the early ’30, I stayed in a pensione, the Seguso, because I didn’t have enough money for a hotel. I arrived late at night, around 11 o’clock. My room looked right out onto the lagoon. I woke up the next morning the bell ringing from Redentore Church and a procession led by the archbishop over a bridge that had been made across the Giudecca Canal. That was my first in Venice – the robes, the priests. I remember the two women who owned the pensione. Their husband had gambled and lost it, but the people gave it back to the women because they didn’t approve of the men.