The morning started slowly, laundry, 2 minutes (max) of exercise, reading…
Finally we got out for some coffee and went to Mascari for a few little gifts. From there we walked backed to San Toma to the bread place. I went in and said, in my almost good Italian “What kind of bread have we not tried yet?” She started reviewing all the kinds and I got two large rolls BUT she asked me if we had tried the walnut bread yet and I said no. She said they only have it on Tuesdays and she will save some for me for tomorrow. How lovely! I was really touched by her kindness and can’t wait to go back and get it!
We had a lunch date with our good friends from last visit, Daniela and Paolo. They are spending this month in Jesolo at the beach but came to Venice to visit us with their gorgeous 10 month old baby, Giacomo. We met them at the train station where I saw this in a shop window:

I was really excited to see them all. Here are photos:


We went to lunch at Osteria Pontini, just over the Guglie bridge. They chose the restaurant based on the lack of bridges to get to it. Food was OK; I had a salad with tuna.
While we were sitting there a young guy got up to leave and stopped and siad. Hey–are you American? We said yes and it turned out he goes to FSU and just came from Valencia and knew our friends’ son Chase. Ken thinks we must have mentioned Tallahassee in our conversation and he overheard. Just too big of a coincidence. But still, it was really a sweet moment.
Eventually we all went to Torrefazione Marchi, Daniela’s favorite coffee place in Venice. Ken and I shared an awesome coffee semifreddo. And then we walked them back to the train station. They are just a beautiful family and I’m so glad we had some time to spend with them.
Home again for a short rest and then we went over to Dorsoduro to look for a new book for me. We ended up at Toletta and all the Donna Leon books they had there, I had already read so I got a Michael Connely which I’m sure I’ll enjoy. (I just read a really dumb book called Crossing the Bridge of Sighs–really yuck but set in Venice)
We stopped into Pantegruelica for our last prosciutto and salami from there. Campo Santa Margherita is all full of World Cup fans.

Dinner was simple at home.
After dinner we walked to San Stae gelato. Met a family from Portland there and they sat with us at the vaporetto stop eating the wonderful gelato.