Today's walk - Aqua Bassa

Last night as I was closing up the shutters I noticed a thick fog had rolled in around our canal. I wondered what morning would be like.  We've had an unusually mild winter so far in Venice- pretty mild temperatures, very little fog, no ice or snow yet, and only one morning of high water. Weird season, actually, but I am not complaining. I'm a summer girl.

In the morning, my first order of business was an appointment at my hairdresser's, Simone.  His salon was FREEZING this morning!!!  I had checked the weather when I got up, supposed to be 33 degrees F. At Simone's I think it was colder, and my hunch was right, he explained that his caldaia (the water heater) was not working when he arrived earlier.  Yikes! I shivered through the whole event. 

On my way home from Simone's I noticed a familiar gondola parked right in front of the Frari. Alessandro!!!  I haven't seen him since early fall. I looked around to see where he was standing, hoping it really was him today. Sometimes gondoliers who are not working will lend their boats to other gondoliers. This was clearly Sandro's gondola, but where was he?  Aha! There he was having a coffee in the window of the cafe at the foot of the bridge. When he spotted me, he waved  and motioned for me to come in. We had a coffee together and caught up a bit. I'm excited, he is going to check around to see if any of his friends will be rowing in the Volo in Silenzio on the last night of Carnevale to hopefully secure me a seat in a boat for less money than the official tickets are being sold for.  After kisses and hugs, I left Sandro to his work and I headed off to Campo Santa Margherita for a stop at my fish guys. 

I love my fish guys! While I waited a few minutes, they peeled and deveined my kilo of gambero (shrimp) for me.  Makes my life really simple come dinner time. I also stopped at the vegetable stall, then met Mike at Mood Cafe for a cup of tea and a little light lunch. By this time I was freezing. Today is the coldest day we've had so far. I checked on my iphone- the temperature was now 26 degrees F or  -3 C!!!!  It wasn't too warm inside Mood either, but better than being outside.

I had one more errand to accomplish before I could get home and warm up. Mike and I both walked together to Giustinian so I could drop off my request for prescriptions at my doctor's office.  My doctor has a new system now, which I am very grateful for. Instead of having to wait in the queue at his office each month to renew prescriptions, I can drop off a letter in his mail box, then return the next day to pick up the prescriptions. 

On our walk  home from the Dottore's office, I snapped a few photos of the unusually low water in the canals today. On a typical day at  high tide, the water level is even with the highest dark line you see on the canals. When it's low tide on a normal day, the green area on the canal wall is visible.  During this period of  very  low tide, the water is so low the last stairs are visible.

Even the algae is out of water today by several feet. Very unusual.

And the steps at my own water door (photo above) are completely out of water. This is the first time I've seen those bottom 2 steps. Fortunately, most boats are flat bottomed and don't require very much water. I can't imagine all the boats that would be run aground otherwise. Italy has had all the ship problems it can handle for one week!

Almost Venetian

Usually I leave my hairdresser Simone's place feeling pretty good, cause he can make my unruly hair do remarkable things- but this week, I left with a big grin on my face. Simone always takes the time to keep me up to date on things going on around town he thinks I would be interested in attending, or introducing me to his friends and acquaintances who pop into the shop. This time, during introductions to another friend of his, he added , "Karen è quasi Veneziana" (Karen is almost Venetian).  Made my day!!!

Living the dream - my first Italian haircut

On Thursday of this past week I had my first Italian hair appointment. Another first in Venice for me! I have to say, I was a bit apprehensive. I've gone to the same place to have my hair done for the last nine years in Ellicott City, Maryland. The wonderful women at Envy Salon certainly can work magic with hair, at least they have with mine all these years!

Finding a new hair salon was a big deal. I figured I had two courses of action I could take. A) If I found someone who had a great haircut, I would stop her and ask her for the name of her salon, or B) just take pot luck and make an appointment at a local place, and see how things turned out. I ended up not doing either! Mike had found a salon the week before and had his hair cut at that place. He liked the guy (Simone), so I went to the same place and made an appointment for myself.

I took the formula for my hair color that my previous salon had been using, hoping this would help out some. I didn't have too many expectations, but one that I did have was that I would not be walking out of this salon with Italian red hair. For some reason, a very mahogany-red color is very popular here. It's not a color I would ever want on my head, so I was very hopeful that this guy understood me enough. My Italian is limited!

This salon is quite different from what I was used to. First, the owner is the only person in there. Simone does not have a staff of stylists, nor does he have any shampoo girls. He is it. Also it's a very tiny place- one sink. He does it all, from the appointments to the shampooing.

Simone doesnt speak much English, and I don't speak much Italian, but he understood that I had a hair color formula with me. He explained that he doesnt use the same kind of product, although the formula I had was for an Italian brand. I told Simone I didn't think it mattered, as long as I didn't leave with Red hair, pointing to the sample hair color he had in a big book. He understood!

Things went pretty much as normal, how different could color and shampoo be, afterall? But the haircutting was where I got my next big shock. He dryed off my hair, then goes off to a little back room. He came back with a holster like thing that he straps around his waist, and in it are an assortment of scissors and combs. He straps this on his hip like he's getting ready for a gunfight! And it gets better. He picks out a pair of scissors, positions the end of the scissor on this thumb, and begins to twirl it exactly as a gunfighter would twirl a pistol! I've never seen anything quite like it- all I could do was laugh! He got a huge grin on his face when he saw my reaction, and proceeded to whip that pair of scissors around on his hand as he made each cut. Actually, it was Edward Scissorhands-esque! He wasn't doing this for show, like bartenders do throwing bottles as they mix drinks, this just was his technique.

Simone actually looks you would imagine an Italian hairdresser to look like - his own long hair is pulled up in a ponytail, and he has a little goatee. However, once he started doing his Edward Scissorhands impression, I thought, good god, I hope I have some sort of decent cut when he is done. My worries were unfounded!

I left Simone's studio with a great cut, and perfect color. Not to mention a new experience. I've found my hair stylist!