A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
Wednesday DiVoran woke up with a bad cold, so she stayed at the apartment to rest while I checked out the bus and train routes into Venice from Mogliano Veneto. I lucked out and met an Italian student on the bus who spoke enough English to help me with the transfer from the bus to the right train to get me into the Venice train station, and then which train and bus to catch to get back to the Mogliano Veneto station.
I had a snack at a small caffe on the Grand Canal and then checked out some of the smaller shops, staying close to the canal, as it is easy to get lost in the tangle of narrow streets and waterways in Venice. I bought DiVoran a small glass aquarium in hopes that it would cheer her up some. The trip back to the apartment was uneventful, and we ate roast pig leftovers, with artichokes and fresh Italian bread that evening at the apartment.
On Thursday, Divoran was still not feeling up to par, so she stayed at the apartment again, and I went to work with Marcia so I could see where she worked and to get a tour of the new Disney cruise ship “Wonder” in its final stages of completion. The Wonder was built at the celebrated Fincantieri shipyards, displaces 83,000 tons, is 964 feet long and 106 feet wide, and features 11 massive decks which can accommodate 2700 passengers along with 960 cast and crew members. I’m always amazed at how these giant ships are put together one piece at a time.
Then at 4:00 in the afternoon, Marcia took me to the dentist. The morning before, at breakfast, I broke one of my top front crowns in half, and it looked terrible, and had sharp edges. Just by chance we had met the lady, Marcia’s dentist friend, at the pig roast a few nights before, and now she had made arrangements for me to get my crown repaired. Some people might like to call this a coincidence, but think it’s just another example of how God is watching over us, were ever we find ourselves in this world.
Well, Marcia got lost looking for the dentist office, but the dentist stayed open to wait for us. She did a great repair job on my crown, and then wouldn’t take any pay for the work, no matter how hard I tried. Just try to find that kind of hospitality anywhere in the U.S.
Friday, DiVoran and I tested my bus/train memory to get into Venice for some shopping, a quick lunch, and then rode the train back to Mogliano Veneto. That wore DiVoran out, so that night, I went with Marcia, Stephano, Roberta and five Disney cast members to the Di Marcone Ristorante (a special family owned restaurant) for a grilled chicken dinner. They are only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and only cater to large groups. You have to reserve your table and they expect you to stay the entire evening. The food and the company were great, but we were there from 8:00 PM until after 12:00 Midnight
The next day we drove with Marcia and Erika to Verona, to see the sights of that famous city, where it is alleged the balcony is, on which Juliet stood when Romeo wooed her from the courtyard below, in Shakespere’s famous play of the early 1500’s. For a few Lira, lovers can write their names on the wall under that famous balcony, and of course we did.
One of the most interesting things we saw in Verona was all the trash dumpsters on the streets were painted by the local school children and are very bright and cheery. It really brightened up the streets and some of them even made us laugh.
—–To Be Continued—–
Old Things R New 