Sunday 1/27 we went back to Venice to see what was going on with Carnevale (means goodbye to meat in anticipation of Lent).
On the Rialto Bridge looking for Carnivale
And the answer is almost nothing is going on. We thought things would be happening in San Marco Square. There was a play with many of the players on stilts--semi interesting. Kind of like when you get down to the end of the Malacon in Puerto Vallarta and a performance is still going on and people laugh at the jokes and you sit there because it is all in Spanish.
What is this play about?
So we looked at the event program--saw how skimpy it was. But it looked like there was a musical event at Campo Santa Sophia. So we took the bus-boat and arrived to find--Recorded Reggae and a drink stand. They were advertising a concert for the next weekend in a suburb of Venice near Mestre where we stayed.
Reggae Music Venue!
So we nibbled around for dinner and decided that Nevada City throws a better party on any given weekend with plays and musicals and bands at any number of venues than Venice does at carnival.
Monday 1/28 as we packed up to leave for Florence we noticed a big banner at the end of the square, loud music and a large number of carabinieri--4 or 5 police cars, policemen of a number of types standing and walking around. Since the populace appeared to just be going about their business, the protest or riot or whatever interesting thing was going to happen had not started yet. The banner as near as I could make it out was a protest about the circumstances of the death of the two young workers. One line said "enough death of workers", Basta morti something lavoros.
Now watching a riot in the square from the safety of our hotel window that overlooked the square would have been great---but we were leaving to catch the train.
In Florence we have a nice one bedroom apartment. I tried to use the toaster oven to warm up the bread while I was using the stove top and wound up blowing the master breaker for the apartment. Had to call the landlady and as she was trying to explain to me where the switch was a neighbor came out of her door and showed us. The bottom line is that you can run the oven or the microwave, but since the apartment has only a total draw of 3kw, you have to be careful.
I think the whole fuse blowing business was hard on the router as we have not been able to connect to the internet. The landlady is coming over. She may regret that since we looked harmless, she did not charge us a deposit.
I also learned that in the Supermercado you bag your produce in plastic bags place them on a scale and punch in the number for the item. A tag prints out and you place that on the bag. The checkout clerk showed me --this time--but made clear to me that next time I had to do this myself. Later Wm read in Rick Steves that this is the procedure..too late for me. Long ago, Gigante in Puerto Vallarta had a similar procedure for produce.
Tuesday 1/29 we wondered around Florence. Despite all the efforts with keeping nonresident cars out of the inner city and use of small cars, scooters and electric vehicles, this is still a polluted city. You can see the gray haze and that the stone walls are blackened.
A plug-in spot for your electric vehicles.
When crossing over the River Arno we spotted Wildlife. A family of giant Italian Muskrats--mom, dad and baby.
Here is Dad on the tire and Mom swimming over. Baby was swimming near the other bank.
Me at the River Arno.
Wm on the Ponte Vecchio
Looking back at the Ponte Vecchio from the Galleria Degli Uffizi
Look very closely at the figure above William.
The revelers
We took a lot of the pictures early, while the floats were still parked. We thought they were wonderful then, but to see them lit up and full of movement was amazing. The parade itself did not start until about 5 and came to a standstill in the crush of the crowd at about 7, then, while crushed in the crowd, what seemed like interminable announcements of the float winners prior to the fireworks that signaled the end of Carnevale for another year.
