10. Venice Will Wear You Out
Venice has bridges and Bridges
21.06.2015 - 21.06.2015
Venice, Veneto, Italy
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Venice; no cars or trucks or motorbikes are here. Instead, watercraft of all sorts ranging from cruise ships to gondolas to waterbusses to watertaxis to ski boats to police on jetskis. If it floats, its here.
We met Pam and Ed and Marc and Julia and Lisa Bridge at Piazza San Marco for two bottles of prosecco and talk of Berkshire and jewelry designing and dog sitting and living in London and more. How fun to find friends on the other side of the world.
B4 and I shopped for gloves and eyeglass frames and looked at glass and leather. We ate and walked and discussed the world's problems and beauties and why so many mass shootings are happening in the United States. We ate calves liver and tagiolini verdi and sea bream and eggs and more. We watched people of all shapes and sizes and nationalities, some lugging luggage through narrow streets, some smoking cigarettes and some selling knockoff handbags (and some buying knockoff handbags). We walked and walked some more, seeing, shopping, exploring. We got lost and got found. All of this is easy to do in Venice.
For €20 each, we took the Alilaguna Waterbus tour of Murano (for glassblowing) , Burano (for colored houses) and Torcello (for lunch—on Ursula’s recommendation—at Locanda Cipriani). One highlight was Burano’s leaning Bell Tower of St. Martin Bishop.
Our Airbnb accommodation is a bit bizzare but it suffices. By location, it is ideal on a side street near Piazza San Marco. There are some unique features here—a staircase that was designed by a madman with low beams to hit your head—to a loft bedroom to a very compact kitchen where every appliance is hidden from view. It is fine but I think we would have enjoyed the accommodation at the Moresco even though this location is more than ideal.
We passed by the hubbub created by Sasha and Malia and Michelle Obama and mother Marian Robinson as they visited here. But they didn’t get to see us.
We watched our backpack—there was a poster advertising who the pickpockets are—but saw not a hint of trouble of any sort at any time or any place. There are throngs of people here—too many—but we spent time away from crowds whenever we felt the need by simply turning onto a narrow alleyway to see where it might lead us. Some turns delivered rewards while others did not. One can find dead ends and piazzas and canal bridges and restaurants and shops and more without looking. They simply appear.
Again tonight, we had dinner outdoors (this time next to a canal plied by gondolas. Three tables up sits Reg E. Cathey. You get a prize if you can identify this actor; House of Cards fans ought to recognize him. He was not eating ribs. After dinner we were off to Musica aPalazzo where an abbreviated (in staging if not in length) performance of The Barber of Seville is on offer. Ofer and Lori recommended it. Thank you.
We are having a wonderful time and there is more to come.
