last marangona for a while

That midnight bell started tolling as I walked past the Teatro Goldoni.  Finished about the time I was by the monument in Campo Manin.  It was a beautiful, great day.  I didn’t get those crucial, last-minute gifts bought.  The ones I wanted to buy fresh and not a week ahead of time.  (So don’t expect any bussola or parmigiano reggiano from me.)  I did however have a marvelous, over-the-top meal of fish at Fondaco dei Pescatori.  Capilunghi (a revelation), the orologio (crudo, of course), a risotto, and then for good measure some tuna, also cruda (or practically so).  If I were a foodie, I could and would describe in loving detail all that edible goodness.

I walked home from Cannaregio.  Decided to skip the Piazza.  Decided to skip the Rialto.  Decided to skip the other random detours I considered.  No point really.  I took my usual, well-worn path. The path that used to lead home (in Campo S. Angelo), then past S. Stefano, over the Accademia bridge (pausing to note the scaffolding coming down off the Salute and the lone figures at the vap stop below), past where I got my photos taken for the Questura last October, over to the Zattere,  Then a short boat ride home to Palanca.  All I have to do now is take out the trash and bed down.

Luckily it’s not a terribly early start tomorrow.  I’m planning to take the 2 instead of the 42 — my gift to the locals who would not appreciate someone loaded with massive quantities of luggage getting on the little, fast boat.  Plus, to get to my bus I have to leave at 8:00 anyhow, so i’m not really saving any time with the quicker journey. And, hey, I get to see Tronchetto one last time.  Woohoo!

Oh, and lest I forget — I was party to a fabulous interview for the documentary on the voga I’m working on with Nan.  What a fabulous, compelling story it makes!  More later.  www.vogadoc.org.

The breeze has kicked up.  I hear it in the trees outside my window.  Winter is cold and dank here, and the Giudecca is the worst of the lot.  Perhaps I’m getting out while the getting’s good.  My ducks are more or less in a row.  Next stop, Chicago.  Much love to any and all who are reading.  xoxox

perfect, sunny day

What a gorgeous day it is!  Cloudless skies, cool breeze, full sun.  The sheets are drying out on the terrazza.  I’ve cleaned and mopped.  I’ve packed.  I’ve shipped a box.  (And realized, for the last time this trip, that no information found online regarding anything here is to be trusted without a call for confirmation.  The cheap way of sending books to the US?  Only possible from some post office near the airport.  If I’d gotten this far last week, perhaps I’d have done it.)

The light has changed so much in the last weeks.  The narrow alleys really accentuate the seasonal change of light.  The city is like a great celestial time piece.

Clean laundry put out to dry scents the entire calle.  That’s at least true here on the GIudecca, where the houses are mostly two stories and everything feels very small and close.

The campo near my grocery store was full of kids riding bikes overseen by some grandmas in chairs they’d pulled outside. The first time I tried to find the grocery I came through that campo –and thus from the back way.  The only obvious thing I saw was a shop front with three carrelli parked in front.  You never know, so I poked my head in.  Hairdressers.  Just around the corner is the Coop, with its big, bold signage.   Compare this to the Prix which is down the fondamenta near the Redentore, which has no outside signage, meaning it’s only visible when open.  I still wish I had a photo of that hairdressers with the carrelli out front.  It’s one of my favorite mental snapshots of this year.

packing

I’m packing.  It’s a state I’ve been in for about a week, but I’m now to the point of getting ALL the stuff in actual bags and making final decisions.  I have a little box to ship home.  Another bag of stuff to stow away for my inevitable, not-to-distant return (knock wood), and another bag of stuff to give away wholesale.  Not bad.
It’s a beautiful, sunny day — defying the prediction for heavy rain.  Hurrah!  Let’s hope for more of the same tomorrow.  As for Thursday, well, that’s too far in the future to consider.

photos past

I may not have been “processing” (read: blogging about) my experiences of the past couple of months, but I have been documenting them with my camera. No, “document” isn’t right. I don’t really chronicle my experience: the people I’m with, the places I’ve been. Sometimes I make some gestures in that direction, with a certain audience in mind (i.e. Mom), but usually I’m looking for the makings of interesting photos. I end up posting a mix of the two, though.

Anyhow, all this is a preamble to posting some slideshows of photos taken earlier this summer. This first, short volley focuses on a freak hailstorm and a gorgeous sunset, with a couple of odds and ends thrown in. In the first photo of the hailstorm, you can see that they are beginning to construct the pontoon bridge for the Redentore. These were taken in early July.

2008 luglio — 2

For better viewing, go directly to the slideshow.

I have a German accent

I don’t know why, but several different Italians have told me so, so it must be true.  A couple of months ago, a Venetian barista thought perhaps I was from Bolzano.  And just today the owner of a little osteria here in Florence gave me a knowing smile and nod when I reminded her that I’d been in the other night with the German girls who are regulars.  “I can tell by your accent,” she said.  I asked her if I really sound German, and she and the other guy at the counter agreed that I did — albeit a gentle one.  This must be something deep seated since, now that I think about it, I was mistaken for German once when I was here in 1990, just months after starting to study Italian.  What the heck is going on?  Gotta get some coaching from my Italian friends!  (I’m repenting a little of the pleasure I’ve always taken in “Matona mia cara” and other 16c-century songs that mock German inflection.)

In my long stint of not posting I have

• been to Florence, Ravenna, Pesaro
• rowed with my club to Lazzaretto Nuovo and S. Francesco del Deserto
• heard “Death in Venice” and a concert drawn from the Faenza Codex
• celebrated Redentore

I have a thousand photos; don’t you worry.

The concert season is over, so there are no more rehearsals.  Everyone is gone on vacation, leaving very few other rowers to go rowing with (heck, very few people to do any kind of anything with).  Meanwhile, the library closure season is upon us, so I’m scurrying around the peninsula trying to tie up loose ends (that is, see manuscripts) while I still can.  Just as well, since I need to get into a WRITING routine, asap.

One of the loveliest things about this trip to Florence is the weather.  The days are warm, as you’d expect, but the nights are surprisingly chilly.  Makes for fabulous sleeping.

sera

SS. Giovanni e Paolo

For better viewing, go directly to slide show.

concert at S. Bortolo, and row the Po

Last night the Coro Amurianum gave a concert in S. Bortolomeo — a charming little 18c church hidden behind shops just off the Rialto bridge. We had a full house, and it went pretty well. That marks the end of this concert season. Whew.

Today I’m heading to Cremona on an overnight trip with some other rowers from my cannottiera. Tomorrow we row the Po — downstream and just for a couple of hours. Let’s hope the wind, rain, and cold stops by that time. We’re also getting a tour of the city and are supposed to eat well, so it won’t be a total loss, even if rowing is impossible. (In case I haven’t said this before, the rowing in question is the “voga alla veneta,” i.e. venetian rowing, which is done standing up and facing forward. It’s not punting!)

pigeons out

May 1, the grano turco sellers were officially out of work. Here’s the piazza — midday, midweek– without the feed sellers.

They set up a protest at the Molo.


That ruckus has now disappeared, replaced with these simple, multilingual signs.

And this bit of doggerel.

Non l’ho fatto io

I didn’t do it.

enjoying the camera?

Yes.