At Home in Venice

We began to settle into our apartment Thursday around noon, and it's everything I had hoped it would be:  a great kitchen, three bedrooms, a large living room... etc.   Here are a few pictures:

The front door

The canal

Bench to the left of front door

Looking right

Looking left

Living room

It was slowly dawning on me that the second phone I had gotten from Verizon and activated in LAX was not going to actually work!  It wouldn't complete any calls, or surf the web. Plus, there was no way to call them to get it worked out.  So Ulrika and I set out to find a phone store, thinking that all I needed was a new SIM card.  We located a TIM store (popular chain for phone services) and began a comedic communication with a charming young man who spoke much better English than I do Italian...  but just barely.  This process consisted of a lot of hand gesturing, shoulder shrugging, laughter and ultimately the purchase of a phone, a SIM card and a data packackage.  It was necessary to buy the phone because the rental phone wasn't unlocked and so couldn't accept a new SIM card. 

"Say Fromaggio!!"... Donato our TIM store host, and his coworker.  It must be true that Italian men have an enhanced sense of fashion, as Donato was sporting shoes that matched his shirt as well as madras plaid bermuda shorts.

We went back to the apartment, rested a bit and while Ulrika was off getting food, our other two housemates arrived.  Deeply involved in trying to figure out the new phone , I  looked up to see two smiling faces bobbing about outside the kitchen window... Lilian and Mary from the UK.   This was the first time we'd met face-to-face, but they were feeling like old friends by the time Ulrika returned.  She had not only found a large supermarket, but a wine store as well that sells "house" wine from big jugs.  The concept is that you bring in your recycled bottles and have him fill them up with whatever you choose.  But he gave her a bottle and so returned with a big plastic bottle of cabernet sauvignon which cost less than a similar-sized bottle of Coke would have in the States.  Celebration all around!

The four of us walked out into the neighborhood and found an excellent restaurant.  After a great meal of gourmet vegetarian fare, I retired to my room for sleep.  We  planned to head to the Biennale the following day... very exciting!!