Venice Celebration, Part I

June 05, 2014

You’ve probably noticed I took a brief break from the blog while traveling this past month in Europe. I’ll be posting about the beautiful architecture and design of my trip over the coming weeks (you can see snapshots from Berlin here), but for now I want to share the culminating event of my travels.

Ten years ago my husband and I said we would come back to Venice and celebrate 10 years of marriage. We kept our promise to each other and tagged on a celebration of my husband turning 50 this years as well! We were married in Venice May 22, 2004, so it was exciting to go back to this city, which naturally holds such romantic memories for us, to celebrate these big milestones. Brushing up on my Italian, I had fun planning this Memorial Day weekend full of festivities for what my husband and I playfully called “50 and 10 in 2014.” Lucky for us we had 40 wonderful US and European friends and family with adventurous spirits join us. The weekend turned out to be magical – full of laughter, georgeous scenery, wonderful food and perfect sunlit days. It was exactly as we had hoped it would be.

I organized two days of events over the long weekend. The best part for me was re-connecting with friends from different parts of our lives in such a relaxed and beautiful environment. On the first day of the party, with my interest in design I couldn’t pass up organizing a tour of the best glass factory in Venice and visiting the colorfully charming island of Burano. We did all this by private boat cruise and guide. Afterwards, we gathered at Solana Terrace at the rooftop of the Hotel Splendid Venice. Mingling to ethereal lounge music and watching the sunset on the red tile roofs of Venice was the end to a perfect day. (I’ll post about our second day, which included a private after-hours tour of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum and al fresco dinner, in a few days!)