Carnevale starts tomorrow.....

Carnevale 2012 kicks off tomorrow in St. Mark's square at 6pm with a special toast, with wine flowing from a large fountain that is constructed specially for Carnevale.  There are a few other events over the weekend, then things are quiet until Feb 11 when things really get going.  Here are some photos of prior years costumes to give you a taste of what's to come - soon!  While St. Mark's square is a sea of humans during Carnevale, it's worth being jostled for a few hours just to be able to enjoy the sights.

 Yes, even the dogs join in.

This little guy looks like he's had all the fun he could take. 

And these two are in about the same shape!

At the end of the day, the streets of Venice are covered with confetti. Oftentimes, you can still see confetti on the streets well into March.

And one more "taste of Carnevale"- a few more frittelle. These are from Colussi's bakery near Campo Santa Barnaba. If you have not yet found your way to Colussi's, put it on your wish list.

Ponte della Costituzione

It seems Ponte della Costituzione just can't stay out of the news.  Not even a year ago, it made local headlines when a group of local boys drove a small car over the bridge.  This week, it's a damaged marble piece on the Piazzale Roma side of the bridge. It makes me sad to see this as I pass by each day. I wonder how in the world anyone managed to break off a piece of marble.  And I wonder how it will be repaired, if at all. For a bridge so new, it certainly has it's share of problems. 

A beautiful summer evening in a Venetian campo, and a little Johnny Depp- not too shabby

It's summertime in Venice, and that means time for outdoor movies in Campo San Polo.

Every summer, Campo San Polo becomes a bit busier with the construction of the outdoor theatre that will be used from the end of July  until the beginning of September. I've walked by here countless times, always wondering what an outdoor movie would be like. This year when I saw the lineup of movies, and noted that one in particular was being shown in English, I made sure to get it on my calendar.

We haven't been out to a movie since we moved here. Movies aren't particularly easy to get to, you have to go to the Lido or into Mestre for a good selection of current run films.  There is one cinema in Cannaregio, however most movies are in Italian without subtitles in English. That pretty much rules it out for us, we need the subtitles.

Tuesday evening, we ate a little earlier in order to ensure we'd be at San Polo at 8pm when the box office opened. We needn't have rushed, there were only a handful of people besides ourselves. While I was convinced this performance would be crowded, Mike disagreed. Looks like he was going to win this one.  I waited patiently in line for tickets.  The box office didn't open at 8. Typical Italian, I found myself thinking!  Due to technical difficulties, it was more like 8:20.  I eventually bought tickets. While I waited in line, Mike walked to the nearby cafe for a cup of coffee.

Mike didn't get his coffee.  It turns out the cafe in Campo San Polo has recently changed ownership. No longer can you stop just for drinks. If you aren't eating, you;re not sitting.  This is unfortunate. Over the years we've frequented this cafe numerous times, always for a coffee or a cold drink.  Mike also tried the pizza place on the other end of the campo- same thing. If you aren't eating, you aren't being served. Since we had enough time until the movie started at 9:30, we made the short walk over to Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio. Finally, coffee!

I wanted to be back at Campo San Polo at 9:00 pm when the doors to the movie opened to ensure I'd get a seat I would be ok with.  This isn't regular movie theatre seating where the rows are like an amphiteatre. Here all the seats are on the same level, and I wanted to be able to see - just in case a tall person sat down in front of me.  Just as I predicted, I ended up having to move seats twice in order to be able to see without an obstructed view.  And who sits down 2 seats away from me? The ex-Mayor of Venice!  Looks like I'm not the only person eager to see this movie.  Before long, the place was filled!

Here's a few things I noted about summer movies in Campo San Polo for the next time I go:
- Bring snacks. There is no popcorn concession here.
- Dress up. The Italian women were all in dresses, the men in dress slacks and shirts.
- Don't arrive so early.  It's fashionable to arrive only a few minutes before showtime.

You have probably guessed it by now. Yes, we were all at Campo San Polo to see The Tourist, with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.  I'm sure many in the audience, like myself, had seen the movie before. Non importa, (it's not important)- we were all there to see Venice on the big screen.  We'd all lived through several months of these super stars being in our midst the year prior, and had waited eagerly to see the results of all their hard work.

Anyone intimiately familiar with Venice will know instantly that this film contains some very creative editing. Venice in the movie isn't quite Venice in reality. One scene in particular where Elise is dropping Frank off at the airport is a good example.  As she is pulling the boat away and you watch her motor towards St. Mark's square, it appears that the airport is located at the Giudecca!!  As we all watched the movie, it was clear everyone in the audience  recognized each  and every one of those "creatively edited" scenes as well! None the less, everyone seemed be quite pleased to see their city up there on the big screen. Venice is Venice, afterall.  The last line of the movie sums it up beautifully...."Well, not just anywhere."

There's a pretty good lineup of movies going on this summer. If you are visiting Venice between now and the end of the first week in September, you might consider catching a movie in Campo San Polo. You never know, I might just be in the audience with you!


Here's a link to the schedule of movies playing this summer:
http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeAttachment.php/L/IT/D/0%252F9%252F7%252FD.0030c20de3b6217845f6/P/BLOB%3AID%3D47958

Fiori di Zucca

One of the things I love most about this time of the year is the appearance of fiori di zucca (pumpkin flowers) in the markets.  I remember my mother cooking these when I was a kid!  Upon moving here to Venice I was thrilled to find pumpkin flowers readily available. I love them.  My mom used to make them by frying them up in a little olive oil.  Mike and I do them a little bit differently. We stuff them with goat cheese mixed with chopped green onions or sun-dried tomatoes, then fry them up. 

 These are really easy to make. Buy a bunch of pumpkin or zucchini flowers. Either kind will work. Gently pull out the inside parts of the flowers,rinse them out carefully, and pat dry with a paper towel.  If you are going to stuff them, mix up some goat cheese, chopped green onion or sun-dried tomatoes, an egg, a bit of ground nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.  Stuff each flower with a large spoon full of the cheese mixture.  Roll each stuffed flower in egg (beaten), then lightly in flour. Fry in hot olive oil for a minute or two per side. Remove from the oil and drain on a paper towel before serving.

 This is a delightful appetizer.  Easy to make, simply delicious to eat.  Buon appetito!

Living with Aqua Alta

People ask me about Aqua Alta every day.

I find that my explanations of this phenomenon don't seem to do it justice. Unless you experience it yourself, you just can't get the full impact of it.  Where do I begin-- it's magical. There's nothing like it I've ever seen. The water coming up into the streets seems to draw you into it. You have this overwhelming feeling that you want to get in it. Pull off the shoes, roll  up the pants legs, and slosh through it.

But-- I've discovered there's a not-so-fun part of Aqua Alta.  Long after the water has drained back off the streets and we're all back on dry land, the damp left on the ground floor of all the houses is something we have to deal with on a day to day basis.  I'd heard the term "rising damp" used in the Cassanova movie (with Heath Ledger and Jeremy Irons).  Now I know exactly what that means.

Here's a few photos of our foyer walls, and the damage done by "rising damp" after this winter's bout of Aqua Alta. There is no stopping the paint peeling off or the plaster underneath the paint just disintegrating and flaking off onto the floor.

Because we are renters, we don't do the maintenance of the walls in the foyer (ingresso, in Italian) ourselves. We contact our landlord - il Padrone- and let him know the walls are in much needed repair, yes, AGAIN.  He doesn't particularly like having to do this, but he agrees to call his handyman Daniele.  The landlord, who has very little command of English, says to me "Daniele is-a good-a boy".  (Can you just hear him saying that??).  I laugh. I've met Daniele.  Truth be told, Daniele is my age.  Daniele is a nice man. 

Daniele arrived about a week later. He rang the bell, and I went down to show him what needed to be done.  His reaction was something along these lines: " Ey-Yay-Yay!!! ".  He looked closer at the walls, then told me that what was needed was a muratore -- a professional wall guy.  I told him to just do his best. Patch up what he could and we'd be good with it, it was the landlord's problem, not mine. I just wanted the big holes fixed up.  Daniele worked for a few hours, having patched what he could. He rang the bell as he was leaving, to tell me he'd return in a week to paint. 

A week later, Daniele came as planned. The patch work has now been completed.  Grazie, Daniele. We look better, but not perfect. And we're ready for another winter of Aqua Alta. 

Yes, Daniele is-a good-a boy!  

My borrowed Italian cane

One of my blog readers recently sent me an email and requested I include more of what my daily routine is like, and what our apartment is like. Here's something that might just begin to satisfy her request.

Our apartment here in Santa Croce was rented furnished, which was exactly what we wanted. We weren't ready to ship all of our furniture over here, in fact, we anticipated liquidating most of it. So something furnished fit the bill. When we arrived, we discovered we got a bit more than what you would expect when you think "furnished".

The landlords (Padrone, in italian) are a sister and brother, who inherited the apartment when their elderly parents passed away a few years back.  They told us their father and mother were in their early 90's when they died, one shortly after the other.  It seems they could not quite deal with clearing out their family residence.

They left all the paintings on the wall, all the knick-knacks on the shelves, and even family photos in the desk drawers.  We've found their mother's shoes in the armoire, her sewing basket in the hall closet,their father's tool chest on the attic stairs. And, an umbrella stand by the front door filled with umbrellas .... and six or seven old canes!  These must have belonged to Mom and Dad.  One cane has the head of a greyhound beautifully carved in the wooden handle, and another has an ornate silver handle. The others are just plain wooden handles.  And one of them is a bit smaller than the others, clearly this was Mom's. 

When I had my recent knee surgery, we had to go buy crutches at the farmacia. This past Tuesday, my therapist graduated me from crutches to cane.  I came home from therapy thinking I would need to go out later in the day to acquire a cane for me, when I remembered that umbrella stand and the collection of canes we had.  Sure enough.. there was that smaller one.  The handle, made of plain wood, is worn a bit. When I put my hand on the handle and tried it out for myself,  I couldn't help but think of the Venetian woman who lived here before me.  Just perfect for me!

This whole week, wherever I've gone, I've carried her cane with me.  I don't have to use it all the time, it's more a safety net for getting on and off vaporettos, or down some stairs.   I like to think my safety net comes with the added benefit of a guardian angel. Thank you, Signora Bortoluzzi, for the use of your cane.

We've hit the two year anniversary!!!!!

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of the arrival of Mike and his dog Leopold in Venice. Where did that time fly by to????? It seems like only yesterday, to be honest. So, in honor of this fabulous occassion, we went out dinner to celebrate.

I had in my head I wanted to go to Osteria da Toni's again. We'd been there when the weather was warm and I had the some of the best Spaghetti con Vongole (Spaghetti with clams) I'd ever had. It's not only a favorite of mine, it's a Venetian traditional dish. So, we got bundled up and walked over to da Toni's, only to discover they were closed. Around this time of year, that's not so unusual. Many of the restaurants and shops either close for an extended holiday or to do yearly maintenance and remodeling, while the tourist season is so slow.

Our backup plan if da Toni didn't work out was to go to Campo San Barnaba and try to get into one of our favorites there. Lucky for us Quattro Feri had an available table at 8pm. My preference in restaurants here is the small ones, with authentic cooking and have an older ambiance to them. These are my favorites. Quattro Feri never disappoints us! They even have a daily hand written menu! We started with, of course, some prosecco for me,and white wine for Mike. The rest of the meal was shared appetizer of Scampi al Saor, Spaghetti con vongole for me and a lasagna with fish and asparagus for Mike.

The Scampi al Soar was the best!!! This is also a Venetian traditional dish. Most often you will find Sardines in saor, but the recipe is the same. It's got onions, raisins, pine nuts, and is sort of a sweet and sour taste. I know, doesn't sound great, but be adventurous and you are in for a real treat! It's delicious, and if you are ever in Venice, you must try this.

After dinner, we made a stop around the corner to visit with i ragazze (the boys) at Imagina Cafe and top off the night with another glass of prosecco. Great night!

Now I am already looking forward to January 25, which is the 2 year anniversary of my arrival with my dog Sam.

Wherever you are out there, come on and join me in a toast to many more glorious years!

Packing up our first Venetian Christmas

I dutifully waited until AFTER January 6 to take down our Christmas tree, as is the Italian tradition. It came down today.

We certainly had some new experiences this holiday season, learned a few things along the way, and had a few surprises.

1) We had to struggle to get ourselves out of the mindset that we HAD to have a real tree or it wouldn't be Christmas. The fake tree was purchased, it went up like a dream, and looked great. We discovered that we actually liked not having to water the tree, or clean up the dropped pine needles all over the place.

2) Italian ornament hooks ROCK!! Perhaps these same gadgets were in the markets in the USA this year, I don't know. But I fell in love with the ones in the stores here. They are green plastic, and come in rows on a form, so you have to "pop" them out. I'm converted. I hope I never see another metal ornament hook for the rest of my life.

3) Italian Christmas tree lights are expensive.. way more expensive than the strands I used to run into Walmart and pick up every year when one of our old ones didn't work right. We had to purchase new lights this year. I didn't even bother to ship over our old ones, knowing that the electrical plugs and currency wouldn't be right.

4) Surprise #1 - When we had our little shipment of household goods shipped over in April, two boxes of Christmas stuff were included. One of those boxes contained my favorite ornaments. We never even opened the Christmas stuff up on arrival day, so we opened the box with great trepidation, expecting the worst. Besides our wine glasses, this probably was the most fragile stuff we shipped. Miraculously, there were only a few casualties. Bravo, Echo World Transport!! You guys are the best!! To have a few of our favorite family ornaments with us here means the world to us.

5) Christmas here is not the huge commercialized event it is in America. We appreciated that immensely. It goes hand in hand with our whole "downsizing" and simplifying our lives theme. Our main objective in moving here was to find our lives again, to get rid of all the extraneous "stuff" of life, and live a truly meaningful existence.

Christmas was certainly downsized for us this year. Instead of decorating the entire house inside and out, we opted for just the Christmas tree and my Santa collection. Instead of pointsettas everywhere, we had only 2. And instead of lots of Christmas cookies (which we might have made if I had been able to find any holiday cookie cutters here- Surprise # 2), we ate Panettone and loved it.

We've learned to downsize in just about every way you can imagine. You are just forced to do it for the simple reason that you don't have much space to store things. Christmas was just one more experience, proving to ourselves that we could do it. If anyone out there is struggling over trying to clean out, organize, simplify, downsize....if I could do it, anyone can. YES, YOU CAN!

La Regatta delle Befane, The Witches Race January 6, 2010

I got up this morning thinking this would be the perfect day to take down the Christmas decorations and get them all packed away. I still had my morning tea, and a few other miscellanous tasks to handle before I got started on that project though. And, wouldn't you know it, one of those little pesky tasks completely changed my thoughts about Christmas decorations. Here's how it all transpired....

In the back of my head I knew that the Befana regatta in Venice was supposed to be held on January 6 every year. I'd missed it somehow last year, but had no intention of missing it this year. With my morning tea in hand, I did a google search for La Befana.

La Befana is a witch. She has a long crooked nose, wears a tattered shawl with colorful patches on it, and rides a broomstick.

January 6, the 12th day of Christmas,is an important holiday in Italy. It's the day the wise men were supposed to have arrived at the manger bearing their gifts. This day, the Feast of the Epiphany, marks the end of the Christmas holiday season in Italy. There is a legend that says the Wise Men stopped at the home of an old woman to ask directions to the manger, they invited her along, but she declined. Later, she saw a great light in the sky and decided to go join the Wise Men. She got lost, and never arrived.

Children all over Italy hang their stockings and wait for La Befana on the 11th night, January 5th. She brings chocolates and little presents to all the children who have been good, and coal (carbone) to the bad ones. There is even a special song for the occassion-

La Befana Song

La Befana comes at night
with her shoes all tattered and torn
She comes dressed in the Roman way
Long live La Befana!

January 6th, Epiphany, also marks the end of the holiday season, meaning children go back to school and parents go back to work! Sales also start in all the stores.

In Venice, festivities on January 6 include a very special regatta, La Regatta delle Befane-- the Witches Race. This year is the 32nd annual regatta. Gondoliers dress up in costumes as La Befana and have a race on the Grand Canal. Large stockings are hung as decorations from the Rialto Bridge, and refreshments of chocolates, mulled wine, hot chocolate and tea are served to all before the race begins. At 9:30 am, the race crews will depart from the Salt Warehouse at the Bucintoro club on the Zattere for the Grand Canal. The race starts at 11 am at San Toma and finish at the Rialto bridge.

And how did this change my plans for taking down the Christmas decorations??? I discovered it's Italian tradition to leave Christmas trees up until after January 6. That works for me! I have plans to be at the Befana regatta on the 6th. My tree will just have to wait!







La Befana Song



La Befana comes at night

with her shoes all tattered and torn

She comes dressed in the Roman way

Long live the Befana!

Yesterday's adventure ---- la caldaia (the boiler)

La Caldaia. If you have never seen one of these gadgets, let me introduce you to it. It's in every kitchen, it's the magic appliance that heats your hot water - on demand (well sort of on demand, you do have to wait for the hot water to run through the pipes and get to you, so if you are opening the hot water faucet you wait a while until the water runs hot.) La caldaia also provides the hot water necessary for your heating. And yes, it is on the wall. Ours developed some problems recently, it's been dripping water, and not retaining water in the tank. Clearly it needed repairs, so we contacted our "padrone", the owners of the apartment. I love that word "padrone". It's so Godfather-like. He came over to take a look, and told us he'd call us later so he could schedule a repairman when we would be at home. Within hours we got a call. The appointment was scheduled. 8:30 am the next day.

I was the one who would be home at the time, so I prepared my Italian statements in advance in case I had to tell the repairman what was wrong. We've learned that most people outside of the hotel and tourist industry do not speak anything but Italian, and here, it's even worse. Everyone speaks the Venetian dialect. I did a quick little prayer to the saint who's in charge of broken Caldaia's, with the hope that I would NOT have to do any explanations. I double checked my sentences using Google Translate. Oh my god, what would I do without this! I declared myself ready. I was able to go to sleep that night without this hanging over my head.

At about 8:45 am the doorbell rang. I pushed the button upstairs that unlocks the front door, and I heard the repairman enter. Other apartments here have a great system where you can actually talk to the person at the door first using a speaker system, but ours doesn't have that. That's another story!

My preparations came in handy. I did have to explain our problems (maybe I used the wrong saint??) and the guy set to work in the kitchen. I left him alone. Before long, he was asking me to show him the thermostat. Fortunately, I understand pretty well, and was able to direct him to the right place on the wall with no problems. A little bit later, he came asking for where something or other was, and I had no clue what he wanted. It took a little bit of back and forth before I understood that he was looking for an exhaust to the outside of the house. We both searched the kitchen, even pulled out the stove from the wall, but didn't find what he was looking for. Finally we tried pulling a cabinet away from the wall, and there it was. I hope that helped, cause I left the kitchen again.

About an hour later, he was finished doing whatever he was doing. In Italian he proceeds to tell me that we should not turn this one dial higher than where he had set it, otherwise if it was set any higher, pressure would build up in the tank and it would cause the dripping again. I'm not saavy on this kind of stuff, so I just nodded my head and thanked him.

When Mike came home a few hours later, I did the replay of the transaction for him. He's got alot more knowledge of how things work-- but he didn't buy the explanation about why not to set the water temperature any higher. That dial controlled the water temp, and what if we wanted hotter water??? Fortuantely, it seemed as if the water was getting hot enough, so we were ok on that. But.. by this time, we discovered that la caldaia was still dripping. Much less than before, but still dripping.

Guess I will be preparing another set of sentences for the return of the Caldaia guy!!!

Living the dream- Shipping our household goods over-- finally!

We've been here a year- hard to believe!!! The rented, furnished apartment has worked out beautifully, in fact, we love it. We've been managing with whatever we brought over in our 4 suitcases well, but, to be honest, from time we found ourselves wishing for some of our clothes, or something or other from around our home back in the States. When the house sold we would have to empty it, so the plan had always been to ship just a few select items over to Italy when it came time. That time came, finally. We had a contract on the house. I returned to the US to handle getting us all moved out of it and deal with settlement.

We had to think long and hard about which items we really needed or wanted to have with us now. We made lists, then crossed ALOT of things off the list, as we were trying to be judicious about this. For one thing, we now lived in a much smaller place which was already furnished, so we didn't require alot of furnishings. And== it being smaller, we had precious few spaces to store anything. Not quite like our Baltimore home which had a huge basement, attic and garage for us to fill up! Finally we had the short list of things we wanted to bring back with us.

Timing actually worked out perfectly, as we are allowed one shipment of household goods sent VAT/duty free. For me, this one time shipment had to be done within 12 months of my receiving my dual Italian citizenship. My citizenship was finalized on October 30.

We did some research about international shipments. We knew it would take 6-8 weeks, maybe longer for our stuff to arrive here. We also knew it would be fairly expensive, and since we were footing the bill for this ourselves, we were very conscious about keeping costs down. Cost is based on volume, not weight. Once I returned to the US, I contacted several international movers and began collecting estimates.

I had to provide the companies with a detailed list of the items I wanted shipped, and they gave me a volume estimate. In addition, they also came to the house to see the items first hand, so they would know what needed special packing, etc. Then the volume estimates got revised, based on reality, not just my list. What I discovered is that the final volume estimate turned out to be 3 times larger than the initial paper list estimate. Yikes!

We then had to discuss packing, packing materials, insurance, storage in port on arrival, port fees, and also the land delivery charges once the ship arrived in Italy. In the end, I chose to hire the first company I spoke with, even though they were unable to actually make an in-person visit to the house. I had the in-person information from two other companies, their estimates were very close, and I was able to give these details to the woman at the company we were hiring. Their bid came in about $1500 less than the other two. We handled the contract via email and fax, the deposit was made, and the pickup/moving date was scheduled.

On the moving date, the movers arrived with a huge truck. They spent several hours wrapping up glassware, taking apart a few pieces of furniture, and carefully documenting every thing that was to be put on the truck. Our sleep number bed was probably the biggest and trickiest of the items to be shipped. The guys helped me deal with taking the bed apart carefully, and packing it all up so I would know exactly how to unpack it and reconstruct it properly. What an ordeal. The truck rolled out of sight around 2pm and I knew this was only the end of the first phase. Heaven only knew what would happen in 6-8 weeks time!

Somewhere along the line in all this, we remembered to have a discussion with the movers at their NYC headquarters who were handling the US side of the shipment regarding delivery once the stuff arrived in Italy. The woman we dealt with was Italian, and was aware our stuff was being shipped to Venice. But when we asked her about how our stuff would be delivered to our door, it was clear there was some disconnect. You can't drive a truck up to the house in Venice. You must get everywhere by boat. A truckload of stuff can come into Venice, but then it has to be unloaded from the truck, and loaded on to a boat. This wasn't patently clear to the woman at the movers at first, finally we got that crystal clear. This necessitated an additional $600 charge for the boat transportation portion of the move. We understood that, as we are constantly paying boat delivery charges for everything over here. No surprise.

I received a phone call about a week after I arrived back in Venice telling me our household goods would be leaving the warehouse in Bayonne, NJ on a ship the beginning of the following week. In about 2 weeks time, the ship was scheduled to arrive in Rotterdam, Holland. Holland? My stuff is supposed to be coming to Italy!!! What happened?? The man on the other end of the phone almost laughed at me. No, he explained, it was coming to Italy, just arriving first in Rotterdam. He explained that they can get a cheaper deal at certain ports, and in Italy, it's always iffy about whether there will be strikes at the ports, they prefer to arrive elsewhere if they can. I was ok with all that, as long as there was a plan for our stuff to get to us in Venice. Yes, no problem. It will be transported from Rotterdam to Venice by truck, and no additional charges except a possible port charge, which would be nominal. I was relieved. So our stuff would be on a boat shortly, making it's way here.

Two days after that call, I get an email from a guy in Rotterdam from the movers on this side of the Atlantic. He requested a stack of documentation from me. Copies of my passport, my citizenship, my residence papers, copies of our lease, copies of the inventory of stuff shipped, and filled in customs forms for the Dutch customs people. Because this was to be duty free, we needed to be sure the proper documentation was submitted and approved. We did a few days back and forth on the documentation, and then we waited. On the day our stuff was supposed to arrive in Rotterdam, we got a phone call from this guy, telling us our stuff had arrived and what the next steps would be.

Our household goods would be off loaded from the ship, loaded onto a truck, and 4 days later would arrive in Venice. We had a few email exchanges to clarify where the doors in the house were, how many flights of stairs there were, and if there was balcony access to the house. We were told they would be bringing a special elevator to move the boxes etc. from the ground level up to our apartment level, no extra charge for the elevator. We didn't think they needed the elevator, as we live on the first floor, but they were going to bring it and use it anyway. Here in Italy, the first floor is what we in the US would normally call the 2nd floor.

On the day our shipment was supposed to arrive in Venice, we got a phone call about 9:30 am. The truck was here, they were loading onto a boat, and they would be here in about 15 minutes time. We were ready!

I flung open the living room windows so I could catch a glimpse of our stuff floating down the canal in front of our house. I actually couldn't believe our belongings had actually made it out of the US, and here they were, just as the movers said they would be, on a boat in front of our place. I snapped a photo for posterity!!!

Two guys came all the way from Rotterdam on the truck,and here they were on the boat, to complete the move into our apartment. There was also a boat driver, and his dog. Now, this is where things get alittle funnier.. this SAME boat driver, and his dog, were the ones who delivered our patio table and chairs to us when we bought them on the mainland! I know there are a zillion transportation boats here, what are the odds it would be the same guy???? And to make things a bit funnier, his dog is riding down the canal, sitting on one of our leather chairs, which is on the deck of the boat!!!

The boat driver helped get things moved from the boat to the street, then he, the dog and the boat took off. Probably to go have a glass of wine!! The two movers made quick work of getting everything into the apartment, without the help of that portable elevator I had been told about. It turns out they couldn't fit the elevator on the boat! The only tricky item was our large china cabinet. They just couldn't fit it around the corner and up the stairs. It sat down in the foyer, and every once in a while the guys would go back down and ponder what to do. Finally, after a measuring tape and lots of head scratching, they shifted the china cabinet somehow and up it came.

The whole move was unbelievably easy. There were one or two little things cracked or broken, but a saucer broken in the grand scheme of things is nothing. One piece, the base to Mike's large easel, was not included in the stuff that came off the boat. They double checked the boat, the warehouse in Rotterdam, the warehouse in the US, it just has not appeared. Fortunately, we had insurance - and Mike was actually able to find a company in Italy that could send him the replacemnt part, so all is well.

What an experience, is all I can say. I know people do this all the time, but this was a first for us. We still can hardly believe the Weber grill has made it from Baltimore to Venice! Thanks, Echo World Transport for making this a very smooth transition.

Leaping Lizards!!! -- well, almost leaping

A few years ago we spent a few days in a small fishing village near Sorrento, Marina del Cantone. I remember it being very sunny, and as we walked down to the waterfront every day we'd see tons of lizards just lounging in the sun. I loved seeing them, often bright blue or green with a streak of yellow or orange on them. I'm not a huge fan of snakes, but I can handle lizards, and there is something I just can't describe about lizards. These Italian ones would just be soaking up sun, then dart away quickly if they caught sight of you.

I'd forgotten about them, until recently when they've been discovered in our garden here in Venice. They certainly aren't as easy to spot as those ones in Southern Italy, they are in between rocks in the garden, or darting across the grassy lawn. One little baby one somehow made it up the wall of the house and found his little 2 inch self in our kitchen one day! He was gingerly scooted back out the door with the broom, back to Momma Lizard! I've tried sneaking a photo of one, but they are gone before I can get a good shot. One of these days I hope I'm successful, in the meantime, I'm having fun with Lizard sightings!

Living the dream - Mike and Leo arrived in Venice!

What a day Monday was!!! We got loaded into the car around 12:30 and headed to Dulles. I had expected alot of traffic, but we had none, we made great time. A curbside porter helped get all the stuff loaded up, and while they were doing that I got to take Leo for a little walk. We found the last bit of grass he'd see until he arrived in Italy the next morning. Since I couldnt have gotten beyond security, I left them there at the check in desk, wishing them both a safe trip, and I got back into the car for the ride back to Baltimore.

I was a nervous wreck, mostly worried about the dog and how he would do on the plane. Mike called me after he got through security so he could update me on how things were going. All the dog's paperwork was fine, they had no problems other than they wouldn't let his water bottle through. And we had worked for a whole week getting the dogs used to drinking from this bottle!!! Mike had to throw it away cause the airline wouldn't allow the drinking bottle. Oh well, at least I known not to bring that when I fly with my dog next week.

Right before take off Mike called again to let me know they had informed him Leo had been loaded onto the plane. We were both relieved knowing he was on the same plane, now headed for Frankfurt. I think MIke's next call came around 2am, my time. He had landed in Frankfurt and was waiting on the connecting flight. An hour later he called back again to let me know that Leo had been boarded onto the flight for Venice, and he was about to get on the plane himself. So far so good! I wasn't getting any sleep, but at least I was getting updates.

The next call came from Venice. Mike had collected his luggage, but had not gotten Leo yet. This was at least a good sign, cause we had done this flight through Frankfurt before and the luggage never made it to Italy. Just as we were on the phone talking, Leo's crate was delivered to Mike in the baggage area. No need to worry anymore , at least not about the flight. They both were safe and sound. Leo was fine, and Lufthansa did a wonderful job of handling him.

But we weren't out of the woods yet. They still had to get to the apartment. The last thing we had heard was that Nicola's father was going to meet them at the airport. And somehow, miraculously, they all hooked up at the Venice airport. They met Mike with a car, drove to Piazzale Roma, and loaded Leo and all the luggage onto a cargo boat for the trip to the apartment.

After a whole night of phone calls, the last one I got was about 7:00 am my time, with an update from Mike after getting settled into the apartment. He said it was exactly as it looked in all the pictures we had been sent. Exactly! We thought at least the owners would remove pictures off the walls, but they were still there. It didn't matter, at this point we were both so relieved to actually have one of us in Venice, in our own apartment.

Ok. Now half of the team is on the ground in Venice. Now I can stop worrying.. at least for a few days until I put my dog Sam in his crate for his journey to Italy.

365 days of Venice --- Finding your way

Here's today's photo selection......

Getting lost in Venice is highly recommended. You never know what wonderous sight is around the corner, and you would never have discovered it if you hadn't gotten a bit lost. And how does one get lost? Just keep walking. Don't pay attention to your map too closely. Walk in the opposite direction that the crowds are going. Dare to be adventurous! One can never get too lost in Venice. Someone had the ingenious idea to post signs to help us find our way back. Like the one in this picture pointing the way to the nearest Vaporetto stop. Funny they knew we'd need the assistance. And in this particular spot, you are way off the beaten path and totally in need of that push in the right direction. I walked under this archway, ran into the wall and without that sign, wouldn't have known which way to go.

Whenever you can't figure out which way to go, just seek out the nearest building and look up to the top of the first floor, on the corner. There you will see one, or possibly more signs, pointing you in the direction of a major landmark like St. Marks or Rialto or Accademia. This will either help orient you on your map again, or just allow you to keep walking in the general direction you choose, eventually you will arrive where you need to be. It's really quite simple, and so helpful.

Living the dream- apartment hunting in Venice

One of the big items on our list of issues to handle was finding a place to live in Venice. The last time we were there we spent a few days with realtors looking at available apartments. The first one was so small.. and nothing in the kitchen at all!!! We had read about having to provide your own kitchen appliances but it didn't fully sink in until we saw an example of this first hand. This was going to be quite a bit different from any of our experiences in America!



We had discussed a 3 month rental with Marco, the man we rent an apartment when we visit annually. This would give us a jumping off place when we move. We love the area of Castello so it would feel familar to us, making the inital transition smoother. As we got closer to actually moving, it occurred to us that perhaps we could find someplace for a full year that would take the dogs if we looked in advance from here.



I started using the internet to contact some realtors in Venice. Every one of them told me they had no properties that would accept pets. I don't know what possessed me, but one day I emailed a gentleman (Gianni) who had an apartment rental in Castello, wondering if he would possibly consider a longer term lease ( at least a year) and if he would allow our 2 dogs. Gianni emailed me back explaining he only rented by the week, but asked for more specifics about what we needed and he would ask around on our behalf.



It's been my experience during this whole process that the moment I verbalize- actually ask for what it is I need, amazing things happen. Inside of a week I had received emails from several friends of Gianni, all with apartments for rent long term, all who would happily take on our dogs. A few were really small, only one bedroom. We determined we had to have 2 bedrooms, and a decent size kitchen- we needed to be less crowed. Even though we planned to get rid of almost all our worldly possessions here, we still would need to not be on top of each other 24 hours a day.

After back and forth emails with a few of Gianni's friends, one came through with the ideal place. What a find... 3 bedrooms with a decent kitchen AND a private large garden on a canal!!! It isn't in the Castello area that we were hoping for, but it had more space than we had ever anticipated. The rent was also a bit more than we had budgeted for.

We emailed back and forth several times, she sent pictures of every angle imaginable. The apartment is not a palazzo, but we never planned on that. We sent our friend Marco to check it out in person, just to be sure. He thought it looked fine, not the area we want and not a glorious kitchen, cause he knows we both love to cook, but all was acceptable.

Contracts translated from Italian into English have finally reached us, and we are finalizing the deal as we speak!!! We are excited beyond belief....just can't wait. We look at the pictures on Google Earth at least once a day, checking our our new neighborhood. One more step in the process has been accomplished-- this one is a big one.

I don't know if words can even describe how incredible this journey is, or to ever express how grateful we are to each person we've met along the way who has contributed in some way with this fantastic adventure. This truly is "living the dream".