This morning Alan walked over to the TIM store this morning to see why we had no phone service on our Italian SIM card, and true to form, as soon as he walked in the TIM store, it started working.  The people at the store said that where we are is a black hole for cell service and internet, so I guess we will just have to live with it.  I saw the store owner from next door, out by the canal trying to talk on his phone, so I imagine it is not just us.  This is really the perfect apartment except for the cell service, so it is a trade off.

After we had tramezzini for lunch, we set off on our quest to find Ratti, which is the local kitchen store.  If Ratti doesn’t have it, you really don’t want it.  What we wanted was a larger cutting board and we got it along with a vegetable peeler, another thing I forgot to put in the suitcase.

After we left there, Alan told me we were supposed to meet our friend Ricardo around 4.  He is a violin maker and restorer and a really great guy.  Some of his recent restorations, for my music buddies, were a Guadanini and an Amati.  His new instruments are very good also, as well as beautiful.  His shop is also in Castello so this was convenient.  We decided to go to one of our favorite bookstores (also in Castello) called Acqua Alta Bookstore.  This is one of the funkiest bookstores ever, with books stacked to the ceiling in room after room and in gondolas, kayaks, sinks, anything to do with water.  Alan is in Heaven here.

We bought a couple of books there, because, why not?  After we left there we wandered up and down and in and out of some of the streets and alleys of Castello.  Some we had been to and some places were new to us.  We came upon what looked like the tallest building outside of the Jewish ghetto in Venice, but turned out to be the restoration of a church (we think it was ex-chiesa San Lorenzo).

We were also in the neighborhood of San Giorgio dei Greci with its tilting bell tower.

.Easily finding our way back to our old neighborhood Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo, we sat on a bench like old people and watched the kids run around, hopefully getting rid of some of their energy before dinnertime.

After resting there a bit, we went around the corner to Ricardo’s shop, and had a really good visit with him.  Even if I couldn’t speak the Italian, I could understand almost everything Ricardo and Alan were saying, even the English parts.

We left so Ricardo could do some work, caught the vaporetto at the Ospedale, circled Venice and got off at the Zattere stop, just down the canal from us.  As we have mentioned, this apartment is in a super location.  Leftovers for dinner and, hopefully, an early night.

Tomorrow we are meeting Nan M. for lunch, and have dinner reservations at 9:15 at Ai Artisti.  There probably won’t be a blog tomorrow because of the late hour.