La Dolce Vita in Venice

We remain with ROSSO, but this post highlights some of the "dolce", or sweet, surprises that reveal themselves around every corner of Venice.  Oh, if we could only learn from Venetians not to fear joy!

As I was walking down a narrow calle I heard the beautiful song of a bird, and looked way, way up.  What a story of domestic joy this picture tells.  

Before my mother died, while deep in dementia, her greatest joy was watching flocks of flying pigeons.  I asked this pigeon to show me its red toes, and she demurely lifted her left foot.  I knew then, that my mother had joined me in Venice.

Poodle street style.  Venetians love their dogs!  This dog's proud owners utterly beamed at the attention their poodle was drawing from the throngs at the train station.

Just one of zillions of touristy carnival masks.  Carnival, or Carnevale, is a party that takes place for the 10 days before the abstentions of Lent.  In 1646, John Evelyn wrote, "All the world was in Venice to see the folly and madness... the women, men and persons of all conditions disguising themselves in antique dresses & extravagant musique & a thousand gambols."  And so the tradition continues.

In Campo Maurizio, where I'm living, is a lovely store called "Il Papiro".  It has handmade papers and woven linens, and these beautifully crafted puppets.  Behind the puppet, the card reads, "A wish for a good birthday".   

More puppets in the form of pencils.

Who wouldn't want to sit at this cafe?  One evening, my roommates and I were sipping a sweet spritz (the local choice for an after-work cocktail), and we had to rearrange our chairs because we were sitting outside the confines of the cafe's "seating zone".  Apparently, cafes pay dearly for the rent of their outdoor seating spaces on the campos, and their boundaries are strictly enforced!

A Murano glass pendant.

Here are two antique Murano glass vessels.  Shops here are full of Murano glass souvenirs and trinkets, some made in Murano, some fakes from abroad.  However, these are the real thing.  In the 11th century, all glassworks were removed from Venice (because of fire risk) to a small island north of the city named Murano.  The Muranese glassmakers have been renowned for centuries as masters of every aspect of making glassware.  Dale Chihuly, the famous American glass artist, has collaborated on projects with Muranese masters. 

Velvet slippers.

Today it is 40 degrees celsius and so humid that your clothes are drenched the moment you put them on.  Many Venetians take to the Dolomites for most of August.  Those remaining in the city do nothing but drink cold beverages and eat fresh fruit from the open markets (ripe figs are a favorite among the Scuola's printshop artists). 

Coin (pronounced "ko-een) is Venice's equivalent of Macy's.  It's the only department store I've seen here (most shops are very small), laid out in a vertical fashion with lots of steps.  Not exactly a "big box" store...

Canned cannoli in chocolate and hazelnut.

There are outdoor fruit and vegetable stands throughout the city.  Look at the tomatoes on the right.  Yes, they're real tomatoes - not the hard, clone tomatoes in many American markets.

Many of the calle (alleys) are this size or even narrower.  This is a quiet one, but imagine the busy ones, with shops on both sides, in the center of the city.  The Venetians are very tolerant of the throngs of visitors who stop, in mid-stride, to look at something in a store window, or constantly ask for directions through the maze that is Venice. 

I'll finish this post with a frenzy of "light red ", or PINK pictures.  "Confection" is the only word I could think of to describe this.

Pink boots and pizza!

I was taking a rest in the shade of the Peggy Guggenheim museum (more on that later) when, poof!, a puff of wind lifted the skirt of this woman's steel gray dress.  Who would have guessed that, hidden underneath, was this ruffly peach meringue?

Street style on Fondamenta Zattere allo Spirito Santo (Holy Spirit).

Men in pink (with satchels).  The white and peach outfit is pure linen, beautifully crafted and cool.  Linen is worn by men and women everywhere, colorful, crisply starched and elegantly styled. 

Even pink boats!  Behind the pink boat is the new vaporetto (water bus) specifically for stops at art and cultural venues.  I hear it's very over-priced and that it's just as easy to take the regular vaporetto, or on some days, faster to walk.  (The whole city of Venice is roughly the size of Central Park in New York.) 

My next post will focus on architecture.  See you then!