15. Touring Venice with Silent Masked People

Thursday 27 February.  Hotel Ala.  Tourist sights today: the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's, Rialto Bridge.  Dinner at La Caravella.

Friday 28 February.  Hotel Ala.  We take more tours today and walk over to St. Giovanni and Paolo (sanitarium next door); walking back past St. Maria Formosa.  Venice is foggy, mysterious.  No dinner.  Ill.

             *  *  *  *  *

 8:40 p.m.  Hotel Ala, Venice.  Beat tonight, still shaking off a bug.  Steak au poivre last night at 10:30, even with fresh peppercorns, didn't make for a good night's sleep.  Walked around a lot, carried Thomas on Doges' Palace tour.  This evening, watching all the masks and costumes and sitting in Wendy's: it all seemed rather unreal, almost like the Thomas Mann story.  Strange feeling this evening, that and the fog creeping in, all the energy the children and revelers seem to have, while mine flagging.  Jeffrey and Robert running around without coats.  I'm cold!  Time to rest and go to bed without dinner!

Note today:  Waving to old lady and blowing kisses to her in the sanitarium connected to St. Giovanni E Paolo.  Hermes talking to us.  Angelo tour guide.

            *  *  *  *  *

Saturday 29 February.  Warmer.  I have no voice.  Mara stays with me, while the others go off to Murano glass factory.  Mara and I go to the Accademia.  The streets are more crowded there, perhaps just the weekend.  Mara and I have lunch again at La Raffaela, then go on a gondola ride.  I rested in the p.m.  We have dinner at Da Arturo and I have all the courses: antipasto, pasta (primo), secondo.  It is the weekend of Carnivale.  Revellers, but not drunks.  People in costume with masks, walking, talking.  Many silent, Fellini-esque.