First day back

During the bottom and brain numbing trip from Down Under, one of the transit airports was Munich (highly efficient). The gate next to the one for the plane to Venice was loading passengers for Paris. It was a little chilling to see policemen with heavy duty weapons watching the people. They relaxed visibly when the last passenger was checked through.

Alvise (the hard working young man who finds interesting places for me to stay) met me at the Sant’ Angelo vaporetto stop, and brought me to the apartment where I’ll be for the next 7 weeks. It’s on Campo Santo Stefano; the 4 windows on the top left corner are the front rooms of the apartment.

I wasn’t looking forward to several flights of stairs, especially  with the luggage. Alvise had a surprise for me, the suitcases (and Alvise’s cap) travelled in style on the chair lift! I may be tempted to use it myself just for fun one day.

The first thing I did, once I had unpacked, was to buy a dose of the flu vaccine at a nearby pharmacy. I discovered that the Pronto Soccorso (First Aid) station tucked in beside and behind Florian’s provides the service for the actual injection. (I toyed with the idea of doing it myself, but chickened out.) The area where the First Aid place is found is part of the Museo Correr, where I had seen this statue, in this condition, a couple of years ago.

A group of volunteers (I think they were sponsored by Save Venice; please correct me if I’m wrong), have transformed it to look like this. I still don’t know why that elephant has lion’s feet!

It’s really good to be back here, and to see my breath in the cool air. It’s time to get out and about, and see what’s happening.