OK everyone. Leave me some comments. I know how many of you are visiting, and it’s a considerable number. Feed my ego.
I seem to be the authority on directions lately, which is about the most ironic state imaginable. It started on Friday night when a trio of college girls asked me, in American, “Do you know anyplace around here to eat?” I walked them by Taverna San Trovaso, which had a line out the door, then directed them toward where I knew were some wine bars. “Wow, thanks. Do you live here?” Some college boys then approached, “Do you know where our hotel is?” Today it reached the point of Italians asking me critical local knowledge, like how to buy a Vaporetto ticket and where the train station was.
What are they thinking? I believe it has to do with my new-found comfort level here, and that I present as an open, non-threatening type. I regard it as commonplace that I am the person a couple will turn to in public when they want a photo of themselves with their camera (maybe the multiple ones around my neck suggest I might be up to the task.) It happens at least daily wherever I travel.
A partial explanation (or further confirmation) of my disorientation. I just discovered that where I thought my hotel was is a piazza displaced from its actual location. They overbooked my room and situated me in an apartment (for the same rate) just steps from the San Samuele Vaporetto stop. Armed with this information I deduced where my hotel actually was.
I find where I need to go solely by landmark. From the Rialto Bridge I cross the piazza with the view of the tower that’s leaning, go right before the blinking light of my net cafe, left at the gallery with the nude in the window, the one with the cherry red nipples. My door is one from the end of the orange building. When I turn my key, I imagine people imagining that I am one of those lucky Venetians with an apartment just a few yards from the Grand Canal.
Buona sera! Good to hear that the comfort zone has risen!! Now, have you stretched your self to try new foods on the menu, or a wine you have not heard of?? These are true tests.... Buona fortuna! Teri D.
Posted by: Teri | January 17, 2005 at 03:58 PM
i'll admit it, i check in like every day. i love reading your dispatches and getting inspired to take more adventures... ciao!
Posted by: nina | January 18, 2005 at 09:48 PM
Teri,
Yup, had squid the other night. As long as you don't look, it has the mouthfeel of mushrooms.
Doug
Posted by: Doug | January 19, 2005 at 02:00 AM