My Italian Journey. Wednesday 20 May: Day nine: Venice

By my second morning in Venice I have developed a routine. At about 7 am I walk to the Fundamente Nuove through quiet streets but passing a greengrocers that is loading up with fruit and vegetables. I can smell the peaches. At the Fundamente I’m excited because I can see the distant mountains with snow on the highest peaks. I order tea in one of the cafes beside the vaporetto stop. I sit outside and read, glancing up to see boats passing and vaporetti arriving. I then walk to the Jesuit church, buy another tea, and sit in the garden reading. I’m back at the hotel (I almost wrote home) by 9am when Chicken is stirring or may even have stirred. For breakfast we return to the Fundamente and drink cappuccinos in the café I’ve already visited. We the make our way passed the Ospedale towards San Giovanni e Paolo and “my palazzo.” We see a cluster of people in black outside the Ospedale and then a coffin emerges, carried by undertakers in the same light grey suits we saw yesterday. They have…