Venice - August 29, 2005

Hi Everyone,

I'm not sure, but I think I just sent you all a blank email - oops!

I'm cramming in last minute sightseeing and shopping in between the rain drops. August has been cold and rainy, and it has rained all four Sundays this month. Some days it was so cold I had to close windows and keep my sandals on in the apartment. Altogether we've had 12 days of rain this month, some with lightning and thunder. But today is beautiful! Very sunny and not too humid or hot.

The holiday August 15 was Assumption, a religious day, for my church had a service at 9 am. On August 16 I went to get a newspaper, but since the day before was a holiday, no papers were delivered the next day!

Last Tuesday my landlady came by and put the curtain rod back up that I had knocked down, but I'm afraid to touch it because it isn't in securely as compared to the other rods. I tried to tell her but she said it's okay.

I've been shopping, but a lot of the stores are still closed for vacation. I did walk from my apartment to Piazza San Marco, - didn't go into the Piazza - window-shopping and looking at the sights that my JG LInks "Walks" book described. In 1998, when I was here with Elderhostel I found a really neat card shop, and each year I try to find it again, but with no luck. Since I knew it was around San Marco, I was determined to find it this year, and I did. I wrote down the address so I can find it another year. I found the perfect outdoor window thermometer. It's made of that clear cling plastic, with red numbers and the mechanism in the middle. No wires - it just clings to the window. Didn't buy it - 24 euro.

Two things I've found most valuable here - Ellen Marie had bought the three of us a bag-in-its-case, and put in a zipper so it would close securely. Closed up it's only about 2" x 5" and fits into the pocketbook. The second is Beverly loaning me her adapter/converter - I'm always charging my camera battery.

You know how at home the boomboxes ride by in cars and vibrate the ground? Well it's the same here in the evenings, except these are in the small boats that travel the rio (little canal) across from my apartment. And people walk the streets until about 2 am where I am. If I wake up and hear nothing, I know it's between 3 and 5 am.

I did another dumb thing Saturday. I wanted to catch a particular Vaporetto (the 7:09 am one) and was late leaving home so I had to really hustle. Half-way to the bus, I realized I hadn't combed my hair that morning and too late to turn back and I don't carry a comb with me. So every few minutes I ran my fingers thru my hair to pretend I meant for it to look tousled.

Looking forward to this weekend and the Regatta Historica. I've seen more rowers lately than usual, probably practicing. I'll let you know how it turns out. I also want to get to Mestre for their street market on Wed or Fri, but I need a sunny day, and they've been scarce.

Talk to you later.

Love, Mom, Grandma, Lynanne

Venice - August 19, 2005

Hello everyone,

I've been spending these last two weeks dodging the thousands of tourists that have overrun the city. In the big tourist areas - the Rialto and the main drag from the train station to San Marco, it's a little better in the morning. By 4 pm it's a zoo. (When I was in class, I had mentioned something was "a zoo". I had to explain to those foreigners what I meant!) I have found several nice quiet places to go to to sit, sun, and people-watch, tho.

Went to Murano and visited the church every guide book said I should - very impressive. Also went to their large glass museum. Wandered a lot, and after not finding a place to eat that I liked and was in my budget, I went to the busy bar/gelateria by the Colonna vaporetto stop that we went to last year.

It's been very cool here in the evenings these last several weeks. I've even had to close windows because of the winds. We've also had lots of cloudy, rainy days. Yesterday it started warming back up, and it now is beginning to feel like August should.

I had planned on bringing mail addresses for those who don't have email, but I couldn't find them. When Beverly called, I had her give them to me. I - dummy me again - cut myself twice in one day with my Swiss Army knife, and when I got out my box of Band-aids, the addresses were in the box. Another "dummy me", I knocked one of the curtain rods off the wall. So had to tell Christina. The walls are about 10 feet high, so I couldn't put it back up. She didn't understand my English and was worried, so she had an English-speaking friend call me.

The other day she and her friend came by to see what needed to be done. Her friend wanted to rent the apt after I leave, and needed to see if her clavichord (like a piano) would fit. It won't. But I found out something very interesting......The mosiac tile floors in the apartment are 400 years old!! Female monks used to live there and before alterations there were 3 complete rooms. The bedroom has a mosiac pattern in the middle of the room, that is covered by the bed, that I found by accident.

This past week I've been to the Biennale, the Guggenheim museum, the Scuola Grande San Teodoro to see an exhibition there, the Museum of Natural History, Ca' Pesaro Modern Art (up to the 60's) Museum, and a light show at Chiesa San Stae.

Every year August 15 is a holiday of some sort but it's not in any guide book. The meat man didn't open, and my church had a 9:30 service. so it must celebrate something or one religious. The Billa grocery store was open, so that's where I went Monday.

Yesterday I went to Chioggia and to their street market. It extends the whole length of the main drag, beyond the biggest church and over the bridge. I saw several tempting things but didn't buy anything but lunch and gelato. Missed the boat back and had to hang around for 55 minutes - the boat runs hourly. Chioggia is a day trip - it took 2 hours and 15 minutes from my apt, each way. But it's a painless trip. Vaporetto # 1 to Lido, land bus # 11 the length of Lido, then the bus gets on a ferry, then it travels the length of the skinny island of Pelestrina. We get off the bus and get on a passenger ferry to Chioggia.

That's it for now. Talk to you later.

Love, Mom, Grandma, Lynanne

Venice - August 05, 2005

Hi everyone,

Sort of a quiet week here. Enjoying not having to wrack my brain at school. Did some maintenance around the apartment - cleaned out the showerhead so water will come out, and cleaned out one gas burner that wouldn't light.

Saw a water ambulance in action. I was walking down the fondamenta when a man coming towards me appeared to be in distress. He wobbled, then fell, hitting his head on the pavement. He appeared to have a seizure. A nearby pharmacist administered first aid, then the ambulance and the EMTs took over. They loaded him into the ambulance and took him off. Their stretchers are wooden chairs with wheels and handles, and stirrups to cradle the feet.

Christine, there are three times as many pigeons in St. Mark's square now as last year. It was really gross.

Wednesday I did a really dumb thing. There is a broken chair in the apartment that I put on top of some shelving to get it out of the way. (I don't have extra room to put things.) The shelves are next to a window that opens inward, not up and down. Well, around noon it started raining and blowing very hard, so I ran to the window and slammed it closed, forgetting that I had tied the window to the chair to prevent the breezes from closing it. The chair came crashing down on my face, and knocking my glasses off. They didn't break but were bent badly. My cheek got a little scratched, but not bruised, just real red. It took until today to find an optical shop with the facilities to straighten them out. They still need a little adjustment, and I have until tomorrow evening to go back for some fine tuning. Then they close for vacation for two weeks.

I'm still trying to find out what makes liver and onions "Venetian Style". My teacher said that the onions are sauteed first, then removed from the pan, then the liver is sauteed. A waitress said it's the polenta, but the polenta she served was a 1" cube, hardly worth bothering with.

With my windows looking out onto the bridge and the fondamenta beyond it, I'm fascinated with the morning activities. The meat man opens around six and spends the next half hour dusting inside and out, washing the pavement in front of his store and lowering his awning. His supplier comes around seven. The street sweepers are out by 6:30 the garbage man by 8:45. The construction guys in the campo to my bedroom side are on the job by 7 am. The lady across the bridge tends her flowers, and the lady next to her has swept her apartment by 7:00. The supply boats also travel back and forth all morning on the canal in front of me.

That's it for now.

Mom, Grandma, Lynanne