Speaking of laundry, here's an interesting note: our bed linens are just that - linen. Never slept on linen before. It's not uncomfortable, very nice actually, but I keep dreaming of waking up on a tablecloth with me as the entree.
It's rained all day in Venezia. Jack thought he would hedge our bet and buy a nice umbrella yesterday, but the gods were not impressed. So we put it to good use.
The Bridge of Sighs
We set out for St. Mark's Square. More curses hurled toward our lazy host, Andrea, who posted on AirBnB that the flat was "blocks from St. Mark's." He didn't say how many blocks and I am estimating about 50. Especially the route we took.
But we did buy an honest-to-goodness paper map of Venice which will not crash when a battery gets low. It has come in handy. The bookstore we happened into for the map was one-of-a-kind and fairly amazing.
Entrance to “The Most Beautiful Bookstore in the World."
My sister Margot and step-daughter Brooke would enter into this bookstore and never be heard from again. It was that cool. You passed the checkout counter where the owner held court with several locals, and then there's this retired gondola completely jam-packed with books. All sorts of books, sorted and organized in no recognizable order. The owner prompted us to check out the rear exit - a stairway made entirely out of books ascending to the street level, one story up. Not sure it would meet OSHA walking/working surface code, but really cool.
The Book Staircase
Not sure if it meets OSHA
We could have easily spent more time in there, but we were hungry.
We ducked into a bistro for lunch and to escape the cold rain. I ordered a pasta figiole (sp-?) which was a watery pinto bean soup with spaghetti; olive oil floated on top. It was fairly tasty but I bet I could make a better one. Jack liked his pizza better. Dessert was a cannoli - sweet chocolate covered pastry with sweetened mascarpone cheese stuffed inside. Oh, yum.
We finally did make it to St. Mark's square in the pouring rain amongst hordes of tourists. Still amazed so many of them are here in the off-season.
Jack at St. Mark’s. Looks just like the one in Las Vegas!
Some very nice stores ring the square. Found several very, very nice things that would so want to go home with me, but Jack keeps whispering Milano. Wait until Milano. So wait I will.
There were some amazing stores.
A very cool Murano Goblet
The coolest iPod dock/desk lamp EVER. Too bad it ran on 50 Hz.
Ducked into a little caffe for a restorative prosecco for my foot. I was seated facing the window with a view of the endless stream of people. A small family and a little dog rounded the corner to get out of the rain. The little dog was an oversized, wiry-haired chihuahua/mutt but very cold and shivering despite his little rain coat. Mom pulled a baby blanket from a bag, stripped the little dog of his wet rain coat, and proceeded to give him a thorough rubdown. Then dad opened up his big down coat, scooped the little dog inside, and zipped it back up, leaving just the little dog's head peeking out. Away they went. : )
We headed back to our apartment and were immediately lost for about the zillionth time. We found Italian security officers and asked directions for the oespedale (hospital) which is very near where we're staying. They registered mild alarm until we told them we simply lived near there. Smiles all around.
We stopped in a grocery on the way back and scored what we thought was laundry detergent (see first paragraph) and some munchies. There's a local osteria that will open at 7:00 just right down the street. Bet it'll be yummy.
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