We’ve come to see Venice as a virtual kaleidoscope, changing hues with the moving sun, shi ing personalities in places and times of day, tranquil here, frenetic there. ceded it to Austria. Venice finally reunited with Italy in 1866, its architectural gems fairly intact, albeit decaying. Today Venice is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site and arguably one of the world’s most romantic cities. An archway led us to the wooden Accademia Bridge. Dallying at its crest, alongside a painter dabbing his easel, we watched the flow of life on Venice’s main street, the Grand Canal: gondoliers belting out O Solo Mio while navigating single oars, evading passing yachts, vaporetti, water-taxis and cargo vessels. Turning left off the bridge, past the left bank’s artists’ studios and boutiques sparkling with Murano glass, we found a calming enclave in the white palazzo of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Modern Art. De rigueur for art aficionados, the American heiress’s cache includes works by Picasso, Klee, Braque, Kandinsky and Miro, as well as luminaries Jackson Pollack (whom she discovered), and Max Ernst (whom she married). Exhilarated, we strolled back to our aristocratic “home” at the Westin. Facing the Grand Canal, it comprises three historic palazzi, including one originally owned by the Tiepolo family, whose sons included a Doge as well as the famed painter whose works grace the Accademia and Doge’s Palace. Molto bello – very beautiful – we’ve loved it since celebrating our 18th anniversary here. Back for the fourth time – for our 45th – we sipped champagne on our wide terrace, imbibing a view spanning the deep blue lagoon, the Grand and Giudecca canals, the islands and sea beyond. Later, at our hotel’s La Cuisina Restaurant, we lucked into a romantic table-for-two that juts into the Grand Canal like the bow of a yacht. “Divine” barely describes the scene as the setting sun’s rays crossed the indigo canal, tinting the Basilica de Salute’s white marble to gold just before it faded under a celestial canopy. CRUISE HOLIDAYS 35