Venice report

Nellie and Dominique and I had the most fun in what must be one of the weirdest cities in the world. Aside from the facts that most of it isn't built on land, that the tourists in a year outnumber the inhabitants by a factor of 60, that the dialect is completely indecipherable if you only speak Italian, that the place is basically a labyrinth, the weirdness emanates from the Venetians themselves. They are a wonderful, depraved bunch.
Nights started early in Venice compared to Rome. By 7, the folks I met started a tour of the handful of eating and drinking establishments of the city not catering to tourists. The evening starts with strong aperitifs, a spritz (white wine or prosecco with soda and Aperol or Campari or another bitter liqueur) at a bar. Because we were having a little vacation, we had sit-down dinners in cheap trattorie where we could get a plate of pasta in squid ink sauce or spaghetti with clams, maybe a mixed fry of squid and shrimp afterwards (which they serve with polenta, which struck me as strange). In the wine bars, most were just have a series of cicchetti, little bites of codfish canapes, octopus salad, etc. Drinking prosecco all the while. Dinner ended with sgroppino (sp?) , lemon sorbetto blended with grappa. Finally, off to a bar to hang out. This would kill you, but the bars close by 2 and everyone walks home down the deserted but entirely crime-free streets.
Saturday afternoon we went out to Lido, the island between Venice and the Adriatic Sea. It isn't a particularly nice beach, but great to see big groups of friends lying about in the sun (after trying to keep up with one of their Friday nights, you're not up to much else). Saturday night we had a special dinner of seafood antipasti, mixed fish grill, and ice cold prosecco from a draught. Marvelous. We stayed at the table until the surly Russian proprietress literally kicked us out. Grazie mille a Dominique for being such an excellent hostess, and to all the wonderful people we met.