non ci credo. sono arrivata.

After an inordinately long but largely uneventful trip, I arrived in Venice yesterday morning at 9am. Took the new Alilaguna orange line directly to the Sant’Angelo stop where I was met by S. and little G. and the even littler S. (the tiny dog — a miniature pincher that is, in fact, the most miniature pincher I can imagine). with two of my bags in the baby stroller, we traversed one little bridge before we were at the facade of San stefano — and the tables of the bar (e.g. cafe) that S frequents. She treated me to a capuccino and brioche con marmelata, while a host of friends said ciao and stopped to love on the adorable G — who is a very cute, very verbal two year old.

The hardest part of the whole trip was manhandling the 65 pound suitcase up to the second floor with the 40 pound suitcase strapped to my back. The apartment is large and very luminoso by Venetian standards — with an enormous salotto overlooking the campo. Even better, the campanile of San Stefano is directly in front of us, and I insipidly teared up when the bells first rang last evening. there’s a tiny courtyard and big pozzo (well) on the ground floor as you enter the building.  Windows in the apartment’s kitchen and hallway open onto the interior courtyard. My room is small, but the ceilings there and throughout are about 15 feet.

S has been very generous and welcoming — has fed me and not allowed me to help or do dishes, pointing out that I’ve just arrived and that there’s plenty of time for me to do things like that after I’ve gotten settled. And I can give her the rent after I get the borsa di studio checks in a couple of weeks. Cool.

Emailed Gio, my long lost trumpeter-lawyer-gondolier friend, since I didn’t have his phone number. To my surprise he gave me a call and took me out to a spritz here in the campo and then a lovely pizza in Campo S. Margarita, topped off by a sambuca con mosca (fyi, not a real fly but some coffee beans floating in the liqueur). He’s really made me feel like a long lost family member who has finally returned home. Perhaps such generosity is an italian thing, but given how overrun with self-interested outsiders this city is, it’s hard to believe anyone could be so enthusiastic about welcoming and helping someone who’s here for a short while (even if 10 months is a relatively long while).

I successfully stayed awake all day yesterday, getting home around 10.30. then slept as soundly as I have in a long time, awaking at 1pm. Is it really still only Wednesday? Well, at this point of the day, it is the height of spritz hour — nearly 6pm. Have not been out today. Completely missed the few morning hours in which I could’ve gotten my application for the permesso di soggiorno (which they’ve run out of at the main post office, meaning I have to hoof or vap it to Piazzale Roma). Looked at cell phones yesterday but couldn’t bear the thought of making such a decision. Not feeling too much like a procrastinator, given how jetlagged I was. Am.

Have scheduled lunch with an American expat for Friday. Haven’t gotten ahold of everyone on my list of People to Contact, but am doing pretty well.

Will try to get photos up soon. Am also hoping to get my own computer hooked up with the DSL we have in the apt — then I’ll be independent AND I won’t have to struggle with this Italian keyboard. (But wow, how cool is it to be able to type èéà etc with a single keystroke!)