Stuff - catching up this week

I posted recently about the vegetable boat at San Barnaba closing up. The photo above was taken on their last day of work, Dec 24. The photo below was taken yesterday. Same boat, same spot, pretty forlorn looking. Venice is changing, more rapidly that I care to admit.

And below is even further evidence of it- Farmacia Morelli in Campo San Bartolmeo keeps this digital display in the front window, constantly updating the number of full time residents in the city, along with a document posting the number from years prior. You can see in 1971, we had 108,426. Today the number is 58, 990, the lowest ever.

An update on my broken living room window situation:  our landlord paid us a visit late last week to inspect the damage. He told us he would arrange for Daniele, the handyman, to arrive on Tuesday.  He also informed us we should always remember to make sure the shutters are closed firmly two times during the year- on New Years and during Carnevale.  Duly noted.

Daniele arrived as scheduled at 9:30 am on Tuesday. We were expecting the worst, as we have lots of experience replacing window panes at our Baltimore house.  It used to take us hours to get one of those windows out, dig out the broken pane, take it down to Home Depot to have a new glass cut, then re-install the thing with glazing points and glaze.  Several hours work for just one pane.  Based on our experiences here, we thought this could be a multiple day operation, maybe even longer.  Boy, were we surprised!

Daniele slipped the window off it's hinge- didn't even need a screwdriver.  He took the entire window with him, and told us he was going to Vito for glass and would come back.  He didn't say WHEN. We figured a few days, maybe a week.  15 minutes later, Daniele was at the door with the new glass installed in the window frame.  He came in, slipped the window back onto the hinge and was gone. 25 minutes tops. Holy cow!

A little blog news:  I get a significant amount of email requests asking me to blog more often, and to write more about everyday events in my life. My goal for 2012 is to write more. I'm asking for some input from you all - please tell me if there is anything in particular you would like me to write about. Keep posting comments and giving me feedback!!!

One last thing-  I am so blessed to have each of you along with me! Grazie, tutti!

The Vegetable boat at Campo San Barnaba closing

If you have ever been in Venice and spent any time in Dorsoduro, you'll hopefully have some memories of walking by a boat moored at Ponte dei Pugni, just down the canal from Campo San Barnaba. The boat -actually it's a produce shop- is closing  on December 24.  Run by 3 brothers, the shop has been in the family for 63 years. I'm sad today at this discovery, because this is a part of Venice that can never be replaced. I'm feeling sorry for myself, because I'll miss this Venice landmark, I walk by it nearly everyday. I'm feeling sorry for the countless numbers of people who from December 24 on won't know what they've missed when they walk by this bridge on their way to and from Accademia.  A piece of Venice is gone for good.