Venetian interlude

How many times has this view been sent to friends around the world in the form of post cards, drawings, or snap-shots? And probably painted by Canaletto?  

I had been to Venice many years ago, but this time I seemed to see it properly for the first time.  Three days of brilliant sunny skies saw  me ambling through this unreal city in the company of my Minnesota friends Patty and Les once more: our wanderings led us up and down the bridges across the canals with no particular goals apart from certain restaurants or watering holes... for instance the lovely bar below, where Patty, through a minimal knowledge of Italian (she claims)  managed to order us SIX Campari Spritzas rather than three...

here you eat little mini sandwiches with delicious (and sometimes rather peculiar taste combinations, such as this tuna and cocoa mixture, below, top left, which, against all odds, proved to be a winning fomulae!)

We had a lovely lunch in the sun - it was in that Trattoria, you know, the one  down by the bridge over the Canal- where I tried the strange but wonderful Venetian speciality 'Seppia Nero con Polenta'. Ah!....

And all of this of course, under the dark shadow of the Ukrainian war, which hangs over all our undertakings just now- the realization of how very lucky we are made these Venetian pleasures perhaps more poignant than they would have been, as a constant awareness took hold of us; underlining the very fragility of all this beauty and happiness, and all of us...