(no subject)
I find that my brain is pretty disorganized about Venice still.
It was too damn cold, but picturesque as always. I don't think James liked it very much, but he did take over 2000 photographs, and he's currently working on a spoof calendar entitled "Venice: the Venice of Italy" (which will be available on CaféPress sometime soon, of course).
Payne and Marie found an excellent restaurant with an unspellable/unpronounceable name, about 5 blocks over into San Polo from the Rialto bridge. We had a fantastic dinner there the last night, sampling some really A-1 Venetian food, like risotto ai biselli (rice with peas). I spent a lot of time trying to decipher the folk sayings printed on the placemats in Venetian - which is not the same as Italian - which said things like "the only way three women will agree: one is alive, one is dead, and the third is a picture over the doorway", "short oar, small boat" and "he who marries old will get horns". :)
We went down to the Piazza San Marco friday afternoon before Martedi Grasso, and got asked to participate in a pre-selection for the costume competition. That was fun: we got to walk around the stage once, and get an up-close view of a bunch of the folks who were there to compete (we weren't actually there to compete, but it was so nice to get asked!) This also means that we are in lots of people's vacation photos out there.
When James has all of the photos sorted out, I'll post the cream of the crop. The most memorable image of the trip was definitely Payne, not in costume, but wearing a ridiculous tourist hat - a 5-euro job in black velour in the shape of a gondola with "Carnevale di Venezia" embroidered in gold, and a bell on top. He got stopped repeatedly by tourists who wanted his photo!
It was too damn cold, but picturesque as always. I don't think James liked it very much, but he did take over 2000 photographs, and he's currently working on a spoof calendar entitled "Venice: the Venice of Italy" (which will be available on CaféPress sometime soon, of course).
Payne and Marie found an excellent restaurant with an unspellable/unpronounceable name, about 5 blocks over into San Polo from the Rialto bridge. We had a fantastic dinner there the last night, sampling some really A-1 Venetian food, like risotto ai biselli (rice with peas). I spent a lot of time trying to decipher the folk sayings printed on the placemats in Venetian - which is not the same as Italian - which said things like "the only way three women will agree: one is alive, one is dead, and the third is a picture over the doorway", "short oar, small boat" and "he who marries old will get horns". :)
We went down to the Piazza San Marco friday afternoon before Martedi Grasso, and got asked to participate in a pre-selection for the costume competition. That was fun: we got to walk around the stage once, and get an up-close view of a bunch of the folks who were there to compete (we weren't actually there to compete, but it was so nice to get asked!) This also means that we are in lots of people's vacation photos out there.
When James has all of the photos sorted out, I'll post the cream of the crop. The most memorable image of the trip was definitely Payne, not in costume, but wearing a ridiculous tourist hat - a 5-euro job in black velour in the shape of a gondola with "Carnevale di Venezia" embroidered in gold, and a bell on top. He got stopped repeatedly by tourists who wanted his photo!