There are photos of her in gondolas, in front of the Rialto Bridge and feeding the pigeons in the Piazza San Marco.

Marie Jonap was swept away by Italy in all its glory, from its mountain-rimmed lakes to the toe of its well-heeled boot. But Venice was the city of her dreams.

Family photo / 1952 (ENLARGE)

Marie Jonap visits Venice with her husband, Dr. Stephen Jonap, and son, John W. Jonap. She enjoyed traveling throughout Italy and cooking dishes from her husband's native Hungary.

"She was a real romantic, and Venice is such a romantic city," said her daughter-in-law, Suzanne Jonap of Atlanta. "She found it so full of culture, and she loved the people and history and the art there."

Marie Salmon Jonap, 87, died of kidney failure Friday at her Decatur residence. The graveside service is 4 p.m. Wednesday at Floral Hills Memory Gardens. A.S. Turner & Sons is in charge of arrangements.

The Sayreville, N.J., native had harbored a romantic streak since girlhood, when she would hole up at her aunt's house with a stack of books.

"She and her aunt would sit in the front room and read romance novels together," her daughter-in-law said. "And it was so sinful at the time — her mother would have never allowed her to do that. But that's where her love of reading came from."

Mrs. Jonap graduated to more serious books, but she always liked the ones that were filled with descriptions of far-off lands, from crumbling Roman ruins to Scottish fields of heather.

Her opportunity for adventure arrived when she met her late husband, Dr. Stephen Jonap, a physician with a charming foreign accent.

Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he had studied medicine in Padua, Italy, traveled throughout Europe and spoke several languages.

After their marriage in 1945, Mrs. Jonap managed the books, scheduled appointments and juggled other duties at her husband's medical practice in South Amboy, N.J.

And whenever he returned to Europe to further his medical training or to visit friends and family, she was thrilled to join him.

"They'd travel on little scooters and in little cars and go to all the different regions of Italy," her daughter-in-law said. "The romantic language, the friendliness of the Italian people and the way they seemed to nurture each other — it all seemed to fit in with her personality."

After her husband's retirement, the couple moved to Decatur to be near their son and his family. Mrs. Jonap decorated their condo with dozens of ashtrays collected from her travels, which she hung on the wall like a map to her past.

She learned to replicate the goulashes, stuffed cabbages and pork dishes of her husband's native Hungary, along with French pastries and other gourmet dishes they'd enjoyed on their travels.

She decorated birdhouses to look like churches and other miniature village buildings, then studied the native birds who returned to feed every year.

Eventually, she worked up the confidence to sit down at her kitchen table, pull out her small collection of art supplies and start creating watercolor and acrylic paintings of birds and flowers and Christmas scenes.

"For all my birthdays and every holiday, she would make a small painting for me on a card and send it to me," said her friend Helen Colavito of Staatsburg, N.Y.

"And as much as she was a lovely artist, Marie was a great friend — always laughing, always up, very spontaneous."

"She was the kind of person that you could never be depressed around," her daughter-in-law said. "It amazed me how she could find the most pleasure from the simplest things in life."

Other survivors include a son, John W. Jonap of Atlanta; and two grandchildren.