March 29 -- afternoon

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The quirky and interesting Acqua Alta (high water) bookstore.

An eclectic selection.  (I did not arrange these; this is the way they were presented.)

They also sell other paper goods.  We bought a bunch of postcards here.

There are a lot of cats at Acqua Alta.  This one, crouched in the shop doorway, was intensely focused on pigeons in the street.

Wouldn't this be a fun souvenir?  I need new glasses, and was tempted.  But I have no idea if US lens makers could fit lenses to Italian frames............

I don't know whose tower this is.

Eventually, we found our way to the big market.  Lots of fish and meat, as well as fruits and veggies.

Walking over the Rialto Bridge, across the Grand Canal.

Speedboats and gondolas.

I liked this guy's red ribbon.  (Note also puffy vest.  Even people who do physical work for a living thought it was chilly.)

Another tower, another gull.....

We found a good cheese shop.  My daughter asked for advice about what to get -- something to eat (rather than cook with), that wasn't too strong.

It's our impression that this word means something much more like "hybrid" than its English meaning, and del Grappa means "from Grappa."  We liked the cheese. 



Here we are, having coffee in Goppion.

I took advantage of their facilities afterward -- and wondered if that might be the last thing I did for a while.  I couldn't get the door to unlock.  I turned it one way, with no success, and turned it the other.........  I finally pulled the door toward myself, and then was able to turn the lock.

I told the next woman in line, who spoke English.  She was effusively grateful.  I then told another woman, who informed me crisply (in Italian) that she did not speak English.  So I mimed for her what the issue was, and when she came out, she told the people behind the counter (crisply) that there was a problem with the door.....

I mention this to point out the importance of mime, and persistence, in communicating with people whose language I do not speak.  It's almost always possible, with a few words, some written-down info (like addresses) so people can read what they can't understand you to say, and mime, to meet your basic needs.  Or, at least, that was my experience in Italy. 



Crossing back over the Grand Canal.

There are a lot of ritzy buildings along the Grand Canal.  I'd thought we might take a vaporetto (the boats that do the same job as city buses) from one end of the canal to the other, one day, but we never did.

Walking back toward the apartment.  An interesting architectural detail.

Imagine how labor-intensive this was!  I expect I'd just as soon see things like this as ritzy buildings....

Gondolas, parked in front of the Best Western.

I mentioned that I expected a LOT of mask vendors, and found that the reality was far greater than my expectation.  There were at least five or ten times as many as I expected.  It's hard for me to imagine how there can possibly be enough demand to support as many of these as I saw.

This was much more rare. I think I saw only two shops selling interesting and different masks.

Back in our apartment.

We had a toaster!

Toast and cheese.  Mmmmmmm.

And strawberries!  A perfect supper.

It was after supper when we got the call from our landlord about the high water.  She told my daughter that high water was predicted for the night.  Sirens would go off, so we should expect that, and not be worried about air raids or something.  The water would only be at its highest for about three hours, and then would go down.  She said "a nice old man" would come and put something in the doorway of our entry, downstairs, to stop the water from coming in.  My daughter went down when he came, and watched as he opened a closet, and pulled out a piece of metal that was probably 15" tall and as wide as the doorway.  He fitted that in, and locked it in place.  It wasn't too high to step over, but was supposed to keep the high water from getting into our space.

We did hear the sirens, later.  We glanced out the window, off and on during the evening, and watched the water level get higher and higher.  There are stairs down into the canal (for boarding boats, I bet).  We saw the water climb the stairs, and when we went to bed, it was just below the top of the top stair's riser, nearly at the level of the pavement.




In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.

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