Many years ago, my wife and I were walking through Annapolis. We wandered into an art gallery.
Fran loved a painting by Sam Park. The painting showed a lovely street scene in Bellagio, Italy, with Lake Como in the background. There were happy folks dining at outdoor tables in front of a restaurant. The restaurant sign read, “Trattoria San Giacomo.”
Fran spent 30 minutes wandering the store, but she kept going back to that painting by Park.
It was large and she thought it would look great over the sofa in the family room. The price tag was fairly high and despite my encouragement she couldn’t bring herself to buying it.
Fran grew up as the child of Holocaust survivors and to spend dollars on a painting would always be unsettling.
Our 20th anniversary was approaching, or was it her birthday, I really do not remember. But my middle son and I snuck back to the art gallery a few days later and bought the painting to give her for the occasion.
We drove it back to Baltimore and carried it into the house. It was heavy due to the size and framing. We rested it against the coffee table near the sofa, not realizing that the point of the table corner was poking into the canvas. When we went to mount the picture, there was a sharp indentation into the painting. The canvas wasn’t ripped but badly deformed. We were sure we had destroyed the painting.
And then a miracle occurred. A miracle of biblical proportions. The canvas slowly contracted back into its normal flatness. In 10 minutes, the damage was gone. We mounted the painting on the wall and surprised my wife later that day.
The story doesn’t end there. For our 25th anniversary, I was planning a trip to Italy. I had found a great travel agent. I use a site wendyperrin.com to pick agents. Wendy is a former editor of Conde Nast Traveler Magazine, which I love. Wendy publishes a list of best agents by destination. I never go wrong using her recommended agents.
Lake Como seemed like a lovely place to spend a few days of the trip. The idyllic lake is in northern Italy’s Lombardy region. The lake is surrounded by beautiful little towns, including Bellagio and Varenna. I planned several days at a nice hotel on the water and several nice meals.
Then, an inspiration hit. Was the café in the Sam Park painting a real restaurant or was it the creation of the painter trying to just create a lovely scene?
The agent didn’t know the answer to the question. I sent her a picture of the painting. She lived nearby and she went to Bellagio. Walking down the main road that led down the mountain toward the lake, she found it. Trattoria San Giacomo was real and still in business.
Our 25th anniversary dinner was enjoyed outside of the trattoria. We sat at the table in the painting. We had a fantastic meal. The chef, alerted by the agent, came out with his camera. He knew the painting and took a picture from a nearby walking bridge that was from the same angle. How perfect.
Our foyer now has a large painting by Park with a small picture next to it. The small picture is Fran and I at that table in the scene identical to the painting. A perfect 25th anniversary.
I love travel. Enjoy the world. Enjoy Life.
Scott Rifkin, MD
Publisher
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