Ah, YES!  This is the Venice we love. Is tourism down here or are we just getting really lucky avoiding the crowds?  Of course, we have come across a few tour groups but we have not yet been caught in the midst of the oppressive hordes like we were so often last year.

This day is one of my personal favorite kind of days.  The day where you just let yourself free fall, with trust, sink into Venice and her charms.  A shopping day!  Coffee first–we stopped in the bar Colleoni, passing first by “The red house” that so many of us have called home: 

In the bar we watched the guy making the tramezzini for the day.  I hadn’t known before that the sheets of white bread are long and they make them in threes.  (I have no idea why this is blue now???) See, in the back, what looks like a stack of towels?  That’s the bread!

We noticed that the campo has a new (not so lovely) feature.  This huge billboard going across it.  Seem like mostly posters for the mayoral candidates.

We started off towards the butcher on Calle Lunga near Santa Maria Formosa.  We loaded up with pork products and a nice piece of their cooked, stuffed turkey roll with speck.  From there we went to the fruit and veggie stand nearby, maybe it’s Calle Scaletta.  From there we passed so many familiar streets and even saw one of the Baretton brothers (our favorite butcher brothers) walking, but their store is sadly now closed. We went to a bakery in San Marco and got some rolls and got cookies in a place near the fruit and veggie stand.  All the while, the streets are busy but far from crowded.  We are walking and talking with that certain smile that only travel in a place you love can bring.

I took the first few “random canal shots”

We also stopped at the COOP for a few more little things and came home to unload the booty.

So lunch was the unfussiest kind of affair:

and then, of course, it was rest time.  I am reading The Heist by Daniel Silva.  Mostly I’m reading Facebook and random internet stuff but I am loving the book!

And then we took another great walk to Vascellari–because I had forgotten a cleaning cloth for my glasses and have been going nuts without one.  Renato (our favorite optician) was his usual clever self.  He gave me this present:  It’s a special, large, glasses  cleaner, commemorating their 50th anniversary. It is of a fresco which depicts St. Mark with glasses.  He was proud that the Venetians actually invented glasses.

Coming there we had taken the traghetto at Ca D’oro but to go home we wanted to go over the Rialto.  What a mess!  They are doing some major restoration and it’s barely recognizable!

going up the bridge!

.We made it home with a quick stop at Coin to check out the aprons but there was nothing for me.

 We made this simple dinner–our traditional dinner at home in Italia–pasta with zucchini and onions, and the sausage we bought earlier.

After supper we went to the CaD’oro gelato shop.  Oh the Nocciola was so good!  We found a little sitting spot on the canal, right across from Rialto.  Imagine us sitting on the marble step gazing out with our gelato.  There were even a few kisses–OK  TMI.  It was a wonderful day!