Exploring

We've now been in Venice for almost 2 days and have neither gotten irretrievably lost nor fallen in love with the place. I can certainly understand the attraction. The water winds itself in and around in kind of cool ways, and there are all kinds of little alleyways leading into big piazzas and almost every building we've seen is pretty in some way. I keep wondering what it would have been like if we'd come here first instead of last. This is the 6th place we've been, not counting the dozens of places we've just visited rather than stayed, and I'm afraid it's starting to blur. I think that's because everything is old. I mean, in Venice, I haven't seen something that doesn't look old since the parking garage.

The other thing that I guess is an inevitable symptom of a long trip like this is I really have lost patience with trying to walk somewhere and being impeded by people suddenly veering left or right or just stopping. I can maneuver through crowds in New York as well as anyone (Bet I can beat you from Yankee Stadium to the subway turnstile after a game), but those people all (1) are actually trying to go somewhere and (2) know how to get there. Here in Venice especially it's impossible.

After a visit to the Accademia Gallery, which was good, but oh by the way the DaVinci drawings are not currently on display, come back in October and why don't you look at our five rooms of 17th century paintings by people you've never heard of instead, we went to Murano. Murano is a group of small islands where they make glass, called Murano glass. We were told by the hotel that there was a complimentary boat to take us there. I was sort of suspicious about the whole thing, but we went and on the way Ronnie remembered that a friend of hers had done the same thing and they brought her to a place where they kind of expected her to buy some expensive glass stuff. So we were ready and actually, they were very low key about it, but they didn't offer us a free ride home either. We walked around and looked at shops bought some things and generally had a pleasant time. Then we went back by waterbus.

To the uninitiated, a waterbus sounds okay. "Oh, it's a boat ride, it'll be nice." Instead, imagine a crowded, unairconditioned city bus that hits wakes instead of potholes, complete with grinding engines, belching exhaust and sudden bumps as it bangs into each stop. At least there aren't traffic jams, but the ride back took almost an hour and dropped us another 15 minutes from the hotel. Then came the aforementioned dodging of the erratically moving tourists to get back here.

Now it's time for dinner. Last night, I decided to eat something traditionally Venetian, so I ordered the cuttlefish, Venetian style. I asked what that meant and the waiter said that it was pieces, cooked in black sauce, very delicious. Click here for a beautiful picture of a cuttlefish. This is less a fish than a kind of squid, and the black sauce is its ink reduced, as they say on the cooking shows. The dish is served with polenta, so that something can absorb a bit of the thick, black, shiny viscous sauce that completely covers the pieces of cuttlefish. It reminded me slightly of Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez without the dead birds. I can't find a picture that does it justice, so here's a picture of cuttlefish ice cream instead. It didn't really taste horrible, just rich and salty, and I made enough of an attempt to eat it that the waiter didn't give me the look that they give you here if you don't finish your food.

Tonight I had seafood risotto, which was much more successful, at least from a being able to eat it point of view. Eating at restaurants has definitely lost its charm at this point, but the place we ate tonight, near the Zattare docks, had a really pretty view over the Canale della Guidecca. The lights are very nice. We haven't taken a gondola ride yet but maybe tomorrow.

More Venice and Murano