March 30

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Today we found the big market on the other side of the Rialto bridge.  It was pretty big, all right.  Lots of fruits and veggies, and lots of fish.  I can look at fish -- as long as it's not flapping.  Or struggling off the table.....

We had another adventurous lunch.  We started with "sarde saor" -- fried sardines, with onions which have been cooked and than a bit of vinegar added.  Over polenta.  This is a traditional local dish.  It was certainly edible, but not something I'd want often.  I had ravioli with pumpkin, in a cream sauce, with walnuts.   It was tasty, but sweeter than I expected, and ... I can only eat so much cream sauce.  I would love to have it again, if I were sharing it and only eating half........  My daughter had whole-wheat spaghetti with anchovies and onions in the sauce.  It was good, but I felt it needed something tart.  Maybe a good squeeze of lemon juice......

Then we walked around looking for a particular shopping street.

One thing we've noticed is that there are no bakeries here that are just for bread.  This is in stark contrast to France, where there are bakeries just for bread, and pastry shops for pastries.  Here, we've seen pastry shops, which may have a little bread, but no shops just for bread.

We thought there were actual bakeries on the street we were looking for, but if there were, we didn't see them......

The more we thought about it, the more we realized that they just don't do that much wheat in this part of Italy.  They are more likely to eat polenta or risotto than pasta.....  Not a surprise that bread is not something that is ubiquitous, the way it is in France!

Thinking ahead for tomorrow being Sunday, and Easter Sunday at that, we went to a grocery, and got pasta and tomato sauce, and some bread, and sausage and a bit more cheese.  We're thinking toast and cheese for supper again tonight, and then pasta tomorrow (in case no restaurants are open).  We still have the broccoli we got yesterday at the fruit/veggies boat, so we should be set for the weekend.  Even if the water does come up high enough we can't walk on the sidewalk!

On our way back, we stopped for a coffee and a pastry.  Val had her first cappuccino in Italy (apparently Italians only drink cappuccino for breakfast...).  I had espresso.

Did I say it rained again, most of today?  It did.  It isn't terribly cold (between 40 and 50), but it rained enough that dodging puddles constantly was required, and our feet were definitely wet when we got back to the apartment.

Thanks to my bro, who warned me to bring rain gear.  I don't know that I'd have my rain-proof jacket if he hadn't spoken up, and I am very glad to have it.

There is supposed to be high water tonight -- the woman who owns (manages?) our apartment called Val and told her we should get home before 11:00 pm.

Not a problem -- we got here well before 5:00.

Tomorrow we're going to try to go hear Mass at St. Mark's.  Mass is at 8:00 am, which will feel like 7:00 tomorrow.....  Then San Giorggio Magiore is having mass in Gregorian chant, so we may go try to hear that one, too.

I don't know if Easter is going jam the churches so that you have to be in line hours early or what.  But we're going to give it a shot (even though tomorrow is when daylight savings begins........).  We have some other churches we want to go look at, and are thinking that may be something we can do despite rain.  We'll see.....

So glad for a nice warm cozy apartment, where we can turn up the heat and get our shoes and clothes dry, and can make supper, and drink tea.......  And charge up all our devices......

We'd be happier if it were dryer, but we're enjoying Venice even though it's wetter than we wish.  We had perfect weather in France, in 2010, and we had much drier weather in Alaska in 2007 than we could have dreamed of.  I guess it's our turn to have a wet vacation......

Time to go help make dinner.  :-)



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