March 29

,

Another good day in Venice!  We ate the last of the yogurt we bought yesterday.  We haven't seen any of the goat or sheep yogurt we ate in France, but both kinds of cow yogurt we've tried have been good.  My fave so far is the apricot.

Then we headed to our local fruit/vegetable stand, which is on a boat.  I'm not used having produce move as I try to take it's pic.....

In Venice, everything is delivered either by boat or by hand-truck from a boat.  So there are a lot of boats.  Garbage boats, linen-service boats, taxi boats, bus boats, you name it, and, of course, gondolas.

We bought strawberries, broccoli, and a couple of citrus fruits we're not sure what they are.  They may be oranges, but had a fancier name (which may have been the name of a variety of orange?).  We've eaten strawberries, and they are very good.  We haven't eaten broccoli or citrus yet.  We also went back to the grocery store and got more yogurt, a bit of butter, and some Italian clothespins, which are quite different from American clothespins.  Since I hang up my wash rather than putting it in the dryer, clothespins area souvenir I will use and enjoy over and over and over.....

We went home and unloaded our purchases.  After that we switched our reservation in Bologna from a hotel to another apartment.  We are really liking have a fridge, a kitchen sink, a microwave.  And even a toaster!  Not to mention a kitchen table, and a living room!

Then we headed out.  I was warm when we got back from the morning shopping (the sun was actually out for a little while).  I made the tactical error of leaving my fleece jacket in the apt -- and was cold for most of the afternoon (I had my rain jacket, but it's not insulated).  Live and learn -- tomorrow I'll take the fleece regardless, and will probably be too warm.....

We found a really good restaurant.  I had a ragout of lamb and fava beans on house-made pasta.  That was a pretty un-adventurous choice, in a place that had gnocchi with salt cod, and fried sardines-and-potatoes.  One of the things on my daughter's list to try was cuttlefish in cuttlefish-ink sauce, so she was brave and had that (it came on pasta).  My dish was delicious.  Hers was edible -- not rubbery at all, and mildly fishy.  But not something spectacularly wonderful that she'd want to eat every week.  My bravery for the day was trying it.  Hers was seeing if it might be as wonderful as the blood sausage we had in Bordeaux in 2010.....

Then we walked in search of the Rialto market.  We were too late for most of the food parts of the market, but the touristy souvenir parts were in full gear.  It was a cool and cloudy day, and rained later in the afternoon, and the crowds were thick.  I can't imagine what it must be like on a beautiful day in May......

Something else I can't imagine is how so very many tacky carnivale-mask stores can stay in business.  I expected that there would be a lot of them, but I bet there are five times as many as I expected.  There are also some stores with really cool masks -- as with nearly all of this stuff, pics later, after I get home.....

We found a very nice cheese shop, and bought some cheese to have for supper.  The Italian classes my daughter has taken are paying off nicely.  She has been able to communicate what is wanted, and to understand answers very well.  A lot of people do speak English, but it's nice to have some Italian!

Then we hunted up a coffee shop.  That company roasts its own beans -- one of the oldest companies in Italy to do so.  We had espressos and enjoyed them (though I have to admit I prefer the French custom of enjoying a nice sit-down in a cafe to drink my coffee, rather than standing at a bar, which is much more common in Italy).

We had thought we might check out the Frari church after that, but it was 4:30 by then so we decided to start moseying back to the apartment.

Venice isn't a very big place, but when you don't know where you're going, and don't know how to get there directly, you can walk a long way....  There is no straight line longer than a few hundred feet, and most streets bend a lot sooner than that.  It's esy to get turned around (especially when it's cloudy and you can't see the sun). And you are always going up and down steps.  There are canals everywhere (so all those boats can make their deliveries), and steps up and down over the canals).  I'd be in much better shape if I lived somewhere with this many steps!

We looked for a place reputed to have really good breakfast, and we looked a another couple of restaurants with a bunch of "recommended" stickers in the windows, and walked toward home.

Did I mention that it started raining?  Mostly it hasn't rained very hard, but it has rained a lot.  Enough that "high water" is expected tonight and tomorrow night.  The doorway to our apartment is downstairs, and a man came to night to fit a metal plate over the bottom foot or so of our doorway, so that the water won't come in.  We noticed what looked like pieces of portable stage (for a giant play?) yesterday, and figured out that they were actually the "high-water walkways."  We saw lots more of them today.  I've heard of "hell and high-water" -- perhaps I'm going to find out precisely what the second part of that may mean......

So far we've seen a lot of puddles (and have walked through a few more than we meant to, having been distracted by ... well, by being in Venice!), so we've gotten wet feet, but we haven't seen any walkways entirely covered by water.

Have I mentioned we have control over the heat in our lovely apartment, so our wet shoes and clothes are dry by morning?

We were TIRED when we got back to the apartment.  My daughter decided we should have toast and cheese for supper.  It was delicious, and we had strawberries, too.  A perfect dinner.  We had a large and ambitious lunch, and a homey and comforting supper.

Another lovely day in Venice.

Ciao!




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

,