......Another of the very ornate churches in Venice (and all over Italy) and I'm glad I took this picture for Sonia, before they arrived because like me, she also loves artistic buildings and delicate statues. Click on the photo and you'll see how intricate they are in great detail! In the second photo, I got the bottom of the same church, where standing there on the left I believe that's one of those opera singers or promoters hired to tell the passing tourists about their opera productions in Venice. They always wore bright period costumes, to attract your attention. I stopped and talked to 5 of them, and purchased tickets for 2 events.
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.....TWO NIGHTS AT THE OPERA

....I think it's the same fellow on the far left side of the picture below, in the very elaborate red, black & white costume, who told us about one of the operas. I bought the actual tickets from the box office, (as Settimio was wary of buying them on the street from strangers). Settimio also REFUSED to attend either of the performances with me, because he was sure they would be low budget with bad singers! He was only PARTIALLY right. The first evening was a concert where the singers wore white wigs and 18th Century costumes, and I must say, they were very good singers! The price was right too - only about $45 per person (BEST deal in Venice!!) The price was the same for the second opera. The only thing I was worried about anyway was whether I got all the dog poop off my shoe that I'd accidentally stepped on just 10 minutes prior to arriving at the theatre!!

The production that Sonia and I attended the following evening was an entire opera, "LA BOHEME" (one of my favorites), but it was not fully staged as far as scenery, lighting, etc. In fact even the stage was a make-shift one, BUT the bass & baritone singers were quite good, as was the soprano. SHE was also SO ANOREXIC-looking that she was certainly believable in the role of MIMI, who was slowly dying (Has there ever been an opera written where SOMEBODY doesn't die??). Disappointing was the TENOR, who was only just adequate, until he got to the High C (on the word "speranza") in "Che Gelida Manina". At that point, his voice completely fell apart on several different notes!! Now, I've heard that aria and those notes over a hundred times, and I mean, they were *Unrecognizable*, sounded SOOO awful!! EVEN SONIA, (who isn't into opera at all), noticed!! I felt sorry for him and you could tell he felt bad too. He was young (around 30) so maybe he just needs more vocal training. I doubt very much that he was just simply nervous, because there were less than 100 people watching in all.

And he didn't even have to worry about projecting his voice much, because we were in just a small hall in an ancient building used as a school, but the hall was beautiful with many old paintings on the walls and also on the high, domed ceiling. I wish Sonia had taken a picture of it with her camera, because photography WAS permitted at these opera events. IT WAS A NIGHT TO REMEMBER -- IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE! Never mind, I think it's wonderful that they give tourists the opportunity to see opera (that otherwise many would not see) at a reasonable price, even if some of them are not up to desired standards. I've only attended about 7 live entire operas at home in my life, because the ticket prices for good seats are generally so high in Wisconsin.


....GONDOLAS & MORE GONDOLAS ! But someone has to also transport more than tourists to & inside Venice, like all the goods they need, from fruits & vegetables to all those glittery souvenirs. So that's where the "work boats" come in, as you see in one photo here, they're piling lots of packages on the ground that have just arrived. EVERYTHING is done either on foot or by boat in Venice. They even use boats for funerals, and they're black (just like hearses) and painted ornately. One boat after the other, all following each other - it's something to behold! Sorry, we got NO photos of the funeral boats nor of any decorated boats used in parades and processions. The boats you see in our pictures are just the every-day sort, but still very attractive.



......."MODERN CONVENIENCES" ?? .....The pic with the packages up there shows the famous RIALTO BRIDGE, which was conveniently located just a few blocks from our apartment. But not everything was so convenient. We visited a supermarket a few times to shop for extra food, but on SUNDAY it was difficult to find a pharmacy OR food store open. They close on other days by 8:00 PM, but are closed ALL DAY on Sundays. We walked all over forever with Sonia, looking for ANYTHING open which sold a very crucial item (to remain nameless) she needed in a hurry! FINALLY, 2 hours later and far away by boat, we found what I think was the ONLY supermarket open! I do think that certain important items should be packed before leaving on a trip, however, ...."Just in Case"!


ANOTHER THING WE LEARNED: ALL OVER ITALY, EVEN IN THESE MODERN TIMES, SUPERMARKETS DO NOT SELL MEDICINE, ONLY PHARMACIES DO! Romana said they hopefully will change this law or custom in the future.. I hope so! Because even finding some simple cold medicine we needed later was an ordeal too. Plus, paying $10 for a small bottle of 12 pills - which also seems can only be purchased directly and through the pharmacist himself, as we noticed that many or most items in pharmacies were located only BEHIND the counter! This made it difficult to choose what we really needed. CONVENIENT OR PRACTICAL?? --- I DON'T THINK SO!!