Lightning quick Venice, now Vienna!
Venice was beautiful, though gray and cloudy and dirty. I took many pictures. I think the grayness of the citz (but with water so amazinglz dark green, I would have thought the city was dying it for the tourists... still do except that would be really expensive...) in part is what inspires the culture to embrace such vivid colors of theatrical masks, glass objects, and other general trinkets and decorations and ribbons. Stores were lit up like mardi gras... but the buildings, the people's clothing, the water, the boats... all gray. The brightest natural color in Venice that I found was some moss growing on the steps in some canals. Even this was rare. I also tried looking for Venetian Blinds, but as far as I could tell, they used regular curtains. (The 'ground' level floors in Venice are often unoccupied, shut up, boarded up, as they flood frequently. Apparently, winter is the water level's high season, and when I asked one very smooth Italian man who spent an hour or so with me, he said that just one month ago the water levels were completely flooded in the streets, record highs that made national news... I told him I missed that news.
Tangent: this man I met works in Hospitality at a hotel, has good english, and was soooo good at his job, because smooth was his first, middle, and last names. Actually his first name was Jamal. Jamal, luckily, became looser with his speech after a glass (ok, 3) of wine than I do, and I really didn't care for his constant talking, blah blah blah blah blah, and obvious egoism. I said Ciao! and was again amazed that Italian men will NOT let you pay for anything. I had to beg Ettore, in Sicily, to let me buy one drink after he had paid for practically everything in three days.)
So that was Vienna for me. I did get hosed on some EXTREMELY expensive nougat. I was taking pictures of the exotic cakes, wondering what Torre de Morbida was, and decided to ask for a taste. This was right in San Polo, where the busiest and most commercial Piazza Rialto is... they were experts there. The woman said No, very matter of factly, and held the tongs and a bag next to the nougat, questioningly, and looked over my shoulder, with a perfectly bored expression in the busy pastry shop. I said, OK, one piece then. (These peices are ginormous.) At 3.20 Euros per 100 grams, I forked over a whopping 8.50 Euros for that nougat!!! I still have some. It IS delicious. I got torre di mortare bianco, a white nougat with almonds. Ask me for pictures later!
Next time, I will stay near venice and take two day trips, to Verona, and to Padova.
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