Albrecht Doodle Ceramium

Met Allesandro in our lobby and he was immediately engaged with Ralph talking about historical parallels between Venitians and Bostonians. He took us around to Museo Correr

for a romp through the Venitian part- seems that their 'religion' was commerce so we got to see everything through those eyes. I had always thought that the Doges were religious figures but they were elected by businessmen. Like the US, Venice has always been multicultural. The entrance is to the left here at San Marco, and it's feature is a map of the square in Braille- my picture isn't great but you can feel the relative sizes and materials of the buildings with fingertips.


We also stopped by a woodshop where they patch and rebuild the gondolas and carve their front-pieces.Next, we visited San Zaccaria, a former convent and museum and took a walk below the church itself to see how it's mostly under water.




We had a bunch of plans from Allesandro, and left him at lunch to get some serious 'seeing'in. The weather was great, misty in the morning but warmed up to 75 or 80 by noon. But first, a siesta in tune with the nmatural rhythms of the place. We went back to the room and were met with thundering herds of old folks below our window clamoring to get on gondolas, six passengers to each and there must have been a line of 30 boats. These people were all old and unsteady and whenver one of them got off the dock it set up a squeal from the rest that bounced right up those rock walls to our room. We thought it was over and figured that the gondoliers were taking them out to sea and dumping them but sure enough the tour started returning with the old folks all happy and bubbly over their adventure and screaming at each other about it. So, 'picturesque' has drawbacks.

NTS: No more mid-afternoon rests!

That afternoon we saw a Japanese wedding on San Marco, talk about a destination! Note the mama in her traditional kimono but the bride is strictly of the moment. it was so stunning to see the family walk out togetherHd a vodka tonic on the deck of the hotel and watched the sunset over the Grand Canal Dinner at a trattoria, simple spagetti carbonara, a genius choice for the lactose intolerant. NTS, oh never mind, you get it... Had a complimentary Bellini, named for the peach color Bellini favored in his drapery. A pigeon shit on Ralph's jacket on our walk back to the hotel. I am liking Bellini's- both the artist and his namesake.