We have packed so much into these days that I am having trouble remembering what we did exactly on each day. I think on Saturday I woke up at 6am and was out walking by 7am. I went to Piazza San Marcos and enjoyed the peace and quiet without the hordes of tourists. You see very large groups with a leader holding a stick with a ribbon tied on it as though she or he were leading the charge. I remember seeing a whole group of Japanese women climb up the stairs to look over the bridge into the canal and in mass they all held up their point and shoot cameras – took one step forward and snapped their photo.The gondolas are all tied up along the shore and I took a lot of photos of them. I just strolled around taking hit and miss photos of anything that caught my eye.
I saw this woman with a long flowing skirt walking and kind of dancing around. She had red curly hair and the sun was giving it a glowy look. I took some photos of her back. She turned around and then I spoke to her telling her she looked very pretty in her flowing skirt. She wanted to take some photos of me so I put everything in auto focus and she pretended she was one of those modeling photographers. It was funny! Then I had her pose on the steps of a bridge and then standing in different places. She spoke English and told me she was from Russia. I gave her my card and said she could e-mail me if she wanted me to send her the photos. I heard from her today so guess I will e-mail her pictures to her tonight.
I had to watch my time as we were all going to eat breakfast together and meet another couple who was joining the group. I got back in time – though I got a bit lost but that is normal for me. I met up with everyone and we ate breakfast. It was very good – fruit, cereal, juice, hot chocolate, cappuccino, tea, croissants, bread, cheese and the usual European cold cuts.
Jim and his wife took the us back to the Piazza to climb the Basilica tower and see the square from above. The square was teeming with tourists and there were long lines everywhere. We got into the tower fast because if you check something they let you bypass the line. It was a great view over the square. We stayed there a while and then decided to go eat lunch together as it was after 12. We went to this sandwich place but since I had had a big breakfast, I just had a cappuccino. The sandwiches were on sliced white bread – no crust and slathered with mayonnaise. We finished eating and then took a vaporetto across the lagoon to walk around the other side. We walked about 5 hours that day. My back was hurting, my muscles were sore and I was worn out. I was glad when we finally headed back to the hotel. We did stop to see this art done in black and white on huge pieces of clear plastic – very interesting and unusual.
I hardly had time to open my e-mails and it was time to get ready for dinner. We have been eating in restaurants near the hotel and they have been pretty good for the most part. We ate in a crowded restaurant on Saturday. The owner waited on us. He was very friendly! The menus all seem about the same. I was happy to eat my first potato today (Monday). Anyways, I had a lemon sorbet for dessert which was the best part of the meal.
After dinner we came back to shoot the “blue hour” – time before sun up and sunset. There were a bunch of us. It was fun getting long exposures and learning how to do it. It is easy and you never know how it will turn out. I will post one that I did. We stayed until about 9:30pm.I didn’t get to bed until about 12 midnight.
The weather was great those first few days – typical San Diego weather in the 60s and low 70s and no humidity. Unfortunately, the rains came today.
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