Day Ten - The Long and Winding Road

Today was the coolest the weather has been since I arrived. It was mostly overcast and thermometer didn't reach 80 degrees.  It was the perfect day for walking around and seeing more of Venice, but, all the walking was starting to take a toll on some of my ancient body parts so I decided to stay in until mid-afternoon.

At 3:45 p.m. I walked down to Fondementa Nove to catch the vaporetto for Murano.  The fritto misto I had the other day was so delicious I decided to go back and have it again. Besides the setting next to the canal was beautiful.

The waterbus was there when I arrived so within 15 minutes I was in Murano. Excellent timing ... or so  I thought. I quickly walked to "my restaurant" and asked to be seated.  There were several open spots so the waiter seated me right on the water.  I started to salivate thinking about my delicious lunch, when the waitress from my last visit came up to me and started to rattle in Italian. The only word I caught was "mi dispiace." I wondered what she was sorry about, but, then she said in English "Closed".

Noting the time I quickly looked for another open restaurant. I selected Dalla Mora which said it specialized in fish.  Besides the tables had white table clothes which is always a deal closer for me. Despite the open tables on the canal, I was seated down the side of a building near a woman from England and her daughters.  I was beginning to see a pattern.

Another sign that this experience might not go well-  the sparking mineral water that I requested twice turned out to be a bottle of naturale that was already unscrewed.  I had spotted waitstaff at another restaurant filling the empty naturale bottles with tap water and then charging 5 euros for it.

I resisted the 30 euro raw fish appetizer that was highly recommended. (I know there are no Sunday fish deliveries to restaurants and highly suspected they were pushing yesterday's fish before it went bad)

The schie (tiny lagoon shrimp) and polenta I ordered looked wonderful but, was bland and tasteless as was the heavily battered broccoli-filled  fritto misto verdure (vegetables). I didn't even order any wine to make the meal seem more palatable!

After a little shopping I was ready to go home.  A "lovely woman" from Florida sat next to me with her lap dog "Precious" . Yippee. There is nothing I like better than sitting next to a dog on public transportation! The woman peppered me with non-stop questions not waiting for the answers. I was beginning to think she was the Jewish reincarnation of my mother... except for that dog thing.

She told me that for years she had stayed at the renown Danieli  Hotel and had become such a such good friends with the concierge (which she mispronounced) after all those years, that she was staying with his family on the Lido.   Sounds to me like she either had a reversal of fortunes or the first class ticket for "Precious" put her in a bind. Because from what I hear, no one stays on the Lido if they can avoid it.

This overly made up weathered woman was 80 if she was a day and yet she began talking about her boyfriend.   Hmm, Meredith is 72, perhaps I am just too young to attract a lover?

Luckily another animal enthusiast came to chat  with woman and Precious" and share photos of her dog and the dog sitter that she was paying $1000 to stay in her home and dog sit.  Thankfully my stop came just in time. I was back in familiar territory and home was just a few blocks away.

And then it happened-  I went a few blocks and ended back up at the vaporetto stop.  I had taken this road at least 10 times and never had a problem. But, for the life of me I could not find my way back. For the first time in 10 days I hit the proverbial wall as the alley I was on came to a dead end.

After some frustrating turns and backtracking, I ended up  in the bowels of San Marco sestiere.  Deciding to turn lemons into lemonade I headed for Gelato Fantasy for some of that amazing amarena gelato. I finally knew where I was ... but, where was the gelato store? I tried several different streets outside of San Marco but couldn't find it.

I was tired of the game of hide and seek and just wanted to go home. Unbelievably, I took another wrong turn.. and then I was out on the Grand Canal. When I looked right I saw the Rialto Bridge, but from the San Marco side this time. Since I was there I took a few pictures and took the street immediately to the right. In one block I hit the cross street which is right next to the Sephora store.   A few blocks and I would be home.

I had no idea the Rialto Bridge was so close. Tomorrow I plan to get up early and hit the Rialto Market while it is still quiet to take some pictures, move onto see the inside of the San Marco Basilica for the first time and get another three day vaporetto pass... oh yes, and find that gelato store if it is the last thing I do.

The good thing about Venice is- even when you are lost something good usually comes of it. In this case I found the short cut to the Rialto Bridge and saved about 1000 calories by NOT finding the gelato store.