Postlude
ur last day in Venice Our last day in Venice and we are unmasked. It feels strange, even though the costumes were wearing on us a bit. Now that we’re just ordinary people again, we feel a little exposed. A little normal, a little pedestrian, perhaps.
From fantasia back to the real world.
Before leaving the apartment, we had spent a couple of hours figuring out how we would get all this new stuff into our suitcases. Capes are many yards of fabric. Will they fit? Where will we put the tri-corner? How about the masks? They’re plaster, after all — they’ll bust. And all those feathers?
The exercise completed successfully, we were now back on the calles for one last time. What are undeniably exposed are our bare faces to the cold air.
Today, rather than automatically head to the fondamenta (which had been our practice on the other days), we retrace our steps from the previous evening with map in hand. The goal is the Santa Maria Piazza, where there is a reported internet cafe. And, we wanted to review some of the costume shops we had seen in the area, last night.
We’re not quite so lost. We do have to stop at practically every intersection and reorient, gain our bearings, and strike off to the next intersection. Sometimes we discover we’ve taken a wrong lead, so we have to relocate ourselves, reorient, and plot a correction course.
Again, we’re finding better quality costumes in this neighborhood vs. the turistico shops. This is where we discover the price of the sixteenth century costume (200 euros to rent, per day — 2000 to buy.) There are better tri-corners here, too, with badges and fringe on the edge. We spend an hour or so trying various articles on.
Back onto the street — a quick stop for an espresso at a neighborhood stand — and we continue to follow the map to Santa Maria. The map says there’s supposed to be a calle named ‘x’ here, but I don’t see it. Oh, wait, there’s the sign — on the arch between those two buildings seventy five feet in. See? Just behind the opened window shutter…
Ok, follow that — around this (consult map) set of buildings, then straight up. Hm. The map indicates there’s no bridge over the final canal from this main-ish looking calle? We’re supposed to take a slight detour, but I can’t find it in real space. We just stay on the main street — the one the map indicates doesn’t have a bridge — and follow the crowd that seems to know where they’re going.
And… there’s a bridge. So much for the map.
But, we do get to the Santa Maria Piazza, and we do find the internet cafe from there. A session of e-mail catching up ensues.
At the end of the day, we find ourselves once again at the Piazza San Marco. It really is the center of the Venetian universe — everything proceeds from and returns to San Marco.
Only now, with the festivities drawn to a close, it is empty in twilight. Quiet. Rose has found yet another hat shop still open on the square and goes in to investigate. I lean against a column, happy to be able to rest in the tranquility. It’s been a remarkable trip, in reflection - something unique in the world that we’ve had an opportunity to both spectate and participate. I click a few final pictures of the piazza in the deepening twilight.
And then..
The Campanile heralds the close of day with it’s carol of bells.