Is that a puddle or is that Alison?

Trip Start Jul 07, 2007

Trip End Jul 31, 2007

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Flag of Italy Venice, Italy
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

We decided to try something different by getting up early this morning and starting our final assault on Venice. Larry and I went to the fish market by Rialto Bridge and discovered that it is the day for the produce market with only a few stalls for the fish sellers. It is clear why Italian food is so good--all of the freshest, local produce that is available makes all the great things we have eaten here. The food brokers, who were dealing in cases not kilos, were clearly representing restaurants and smaller produce stores. Neither of us had ever seen so many different types of cephalopods for sale. We returned to the hotel to collect the girls (who were not that excited to get up)and we ventured back to St. Mark's Square to tour the Doge's Palace. I liked the prison and the Bridge of Sighs. It is never good to be in prison but I would say that conditions looked pretty bleak. The history was great (I have learned so much about Venice)and then we got in line to go back into St. Mark's Church

Horse and campanile

. We climbed to the top (steep steps but not that many)to get a nice view of the piazza and look down into the church. We are pretty tired of tourists--today's comment I overheard when he was looking at the roof of St. Mark's, "You know, this is pretty well built!" Really? No kidding? Couple this with all the complaints we have heard from Americans, "This is so expensive" no wonder many of the Venetian vendors/service people are so curt. We have been lucky-the fact that I speak Italian helps, I am sure. Completely soaked with sweat, we made our way to Fed Ex store for some supplies, and we happened upon a small gallery with some of the greatest t-shirts we have seen. Their web site is Ilovetourism.org. T-shirts are designed by well-known local artists and sold in the entry to Galleria della Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa right near the Fed Ex store. We decided to go into the gallery and saw a small show by an artist Yasumasa Morimura who dresses up like various 20th century figures and is either photographed or filmed, in most photos he is recreating famous ones like the assassination of the suspected Viet Cong sympathizer by the South Vietnamese general (you might remember the Time magazine photo). He makes an impressive Einstein and a believable Mao (same for Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald); he made his name by impersonating Marilyn Monroe and being photographed around Osaka, Japan. I would have liked to see that! Afterwards, we retreated to our hotel room where we are holed up now, in the air conditioning. Larry and I will venture out in a little while to ship various packages home (we are going to jettison many of our clothes that we won't be needing for the next two weeks in order to not pay penalties on European air carriers). Paris is an unbelievably cool 75 degrees today (it is nearly 96, here).
We went out for a late, simple dinner and talked about the fact that Milan seems like a life time ago. As of tomorrow we will be half way done with our trip. Sigh!