Loading...Our last morning arrived with a curious mixture of sentimentality (see my earlier post “Casa Dolci Casa“), urgency and fatigue. My legs were tired, my feet were sore and as I ate my final breakfast of muesli, marmalade filled croissants and zwieback toast I found myself longing wistfully for egg-white omelets stuffed with Ortega chili and sour cream and covered in salsa at S&W Country Diner. Still, I felt like we had barely scratched the surface of this fascinating city and wanted to soak as much in as possible before our inevitable departure. We had a list of souvenirs we still needed to buy- including chocolates for co-workers, toys (or maybe girly trinkets) for Rachel and Claire and a mask for me. Earlier in the week we came across Ca’ Macana- known as the best and most authentic mask shop in Venice (Rudy Maxa bought a mask there in his “Venice” episode!). We headed back to Dorsoduro to find it again. Much like last year in Paris, there was an election on and so there were colorful campaign posters on the walls, volunteers handing out fliers to anyone who looked Italian (sadly, not me) and information tables set up in the campos, where signatures were exchanged for buttons. Guided by Lauren’s uncanny navigation skills, we found Ca’Macana and, being a big old theatre nerd, I headed straight for the Commedia Dell’ Arte masks. I deliberated extensively about which mask to buy- taking into account which character would be best for me, what the coolest looking mask was and which mask we could stuff in our luggage without destroying it. Eventually, Capitano, the braggart, won out- a bright blue mask with an absurdly phallic nose. He narrowly defeated Pantalone, the miserly merchant and most Venetian of classic Commedia characters (just a coincidence that Venice also had a sizable Jewish population? I think not.)
Leaving Ca’ Macana we walked down towards San Marco, looking for Venetian glass trinkets and jewlery before taking the vaporetto back up the Grand Canal to Rialto- the nexus of the souvenir universe. With every little bridge we walked over and turn in the Grand Canal I kept reminding myself- stop, breathe, look around- this place is like no other on earth, and God only knows when you’ll be back.
The best way to view the pictures (in my opinion) is to click on the first one which opens a larger view, then click Next in that new window. This way you can also read the captions.
