Our annual trip to Treviso, homestead of our Italian friends,
Was on tap for this weekend. The best laid plans, the locals say,           Sometimes go astray.  And so we snared opera tickets instead
At the last minute. Of course the first box office that we tried
Was chiuso at the time we went: a small matter of us failing
To read the fine print. Hardly surprising. What threw us for a spin,
Though, was learning the box office at the opera house was open
Long before the performance last night. We will be going then
To see La Traviata, a Verdi classic which I’d thought we’d seen
Before. Just goes to show: if casting aside the best-made plans,
The show’s the thing wherein to catch the favors of the queen.</p>