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“[R]eports of her demise have been greatly exaggerated. Just a short distance from the tourist nodes, the secret life of Venice continues as vibrantly as it ever did. […] If Venice is a museum, her rooms are the most beautiful in the world, and her exhibits still very much inhabited.”
One of the most accurate and eloquent descriptions of modern Venice that I’ve encountered in print. For anyone who admires Venice, past and present, Michelle Lovric’s anthology Venice: Tales of the City is required reading.
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“Better far off to leave half the ruins and nine-tenths of the churches unseen and to see well the rest; to see them not once, but again and again; to watch them, to learn them, to live with them, to love them, till they have become a part of life and life’s recollections.”
- Augustus Hare (1792-1834)
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“Time off is medicine. Studies show that vacations are as important as watching your cholesterol or getting exercise. An annual holiday can cut the risk of heart attack in men by 30 percent and in women by 50 percent. Vacations have been shown to cure burnout, the last stage of chronic stress, epidemic in today’s 24-7. Time away from the source of stressors helps regather crashed emotional resources, such as a sense of mastery and social support. But here’s the catch: It takes two weeks for that process to occur. You can’t get those recuperative benefits from a long weekend.”
Wise words. Now if only American corporate policy and culture would heed them and grant us all European-length paid leave, annually. And I don’t mean just paying lip service by contracting weeks of vacation that you’re made to feel bad if you actually take. I mean actually giving folks three to four or more weeks of paid leave each year, and requiring that people take said leave or lose it.
9 months ago / 0 notes / / Source:
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“If you don’t go, you’ll never know.”
The wise and talented Robert De Niro said that. Words to travel by.
