Day 4, Continued: SF leaders, I love you

Today we had a late start, but we went over to Campo S. Margherita again...



...and had excellent sandwiches and coffee. Tangobaby wrote postcards...



...while Nuit and I stared off into the distance in a caffeinated haze.

Then we padded out into the rain and peeked in on the Squero di San Trovaso, one of the three last remaining gondola repair shops in Venice that I think was built way back in the early 17th century:



This was a treat because they are not usually open to the public, but the artisans were super cool to us and let us in to hang out for a bit.

After that, we went over to visit a Venetian gentleman who Nuit met in front of our apartment the other night. He had just stopped to chat and it turned out that they had a love of photography in common. He invited us over and we went, with Limoncello, a chocolate cake, and some flowers in hand. He's a bit of a senile octogenarian who can't speak a lick of English, or French, or Spanish...and none of us speak Italian, but somehow we managed. He showed us his beautiful three-story remodeled house, his Leica M6, and photographs of his travels around the world:



He had some crazy-ass glass chandeliers that were hand-made in Venice:



Then Tangobaby went off to explore on her own while Nuit and I stopped in at the local bar to get some cicchetti ( fig over some crumbly mild cheese, tuna and egg, anchovy over pickled shallot, chicken salad with green onions, all over sliced baguette... if only American barfood were this good) and wine:... the rustic bars that the locals frequent don't have seats, and we did what most people do (that is illegal in the U.S.); we took our goods outside to drink and eat over the water, using the stone bridge guard as a table. It's so heavenly being able to have a glass of wine al fresco.

We went back inside and met some Venetians (Giacomo and... Alberto?) who made us laugh. We ended up going out with them to meet up with their friends and celebrating Alberto's 29th birthday:



We drank too much. But they were so lovely and fun, that we couldn't resist:



OK, now for the tango:

Tango Oblivion!

We got some *actual* dancing in tonight! We were psyched. The level of dancing was much closer to what we were used to, and we just ate it up. There's an Argentinian maestro, Claudio, who hosts it. (I hate to say it, but that might have been the thing that made this one so different from the one last night, which had no focus whatsoever.)

He came late but greeted all of us as if we were regulars, and he was awesome to dance with. I was so happy.

After our stay in Venice, I realize that I have been taking our leaders way too much for granted. I didn't know how lucky I was to have them.

So, Bay Area Leaders: thank you. Thank you for kicking butt so much.

I have a massive headache. That's what I get for letting a Venetian buy me a glass of red, two glasses of fragolino, and some random-ass golden liquor in the late afternoon. Then running away gleefully.

It was a good day. What would make it perfect: a big hunk of steak with mashed potatoes. Or a pizza. And gelato.

We're all starving but there's absolutely nothing open at this hour (1:30 A.M.). So we have to make do with Nutella and salad. But not mixed together.

Buona notte.