cal -3 | cut -c1-16 | grep -v "^ *$" | tail -1 | sed -e 's/^..* \([23][0-9]\)/\1/'
It turns out you need a fairly modern version of the cal command. Darn… perhaps gnu cal will help if your system has an older cal version.

How it works…

cal -3

Gives me three months; the month prior, the month I am in, and the next month.

cut -c1-16

Ignores this month and next month.

grep -v "^ *$"

Ignores any blank lines, note the space between the ^ and the $.

tail -1

Ignores all except the last week of dates.

sed -e 's/^..* \([23][0-9]\)/\1/'

Uses the streams editor to ignore all except the last two digits, and specifically, only the last two that begin with 2 or 3 (all months have 28, 29, 30, or 31 days in them). Note the space preceding the \ character.

We are left with the last day of the preceding month, no matter which month it is now. So… why was I trying to solve this again?

Update: Alan points out that on modern systems with TimeZone features you can actually just have date itself do all the heavy lifting:
TZ=`/bin/date +%Z`
DS=`TZ=${TZ}+24 /bin/date +%m-%d-%y`
echo "Current time `/bin/date +%m-%d-%y`"
echo "One day earlier $DS"
DS=`TZ=${TZ}-24 /bin/date +%m-%d-%y`
echo "One day later $DS"

TZ=`/bin/date +%Z` ; TZ=${TZ}+24 /bin/date +%d


When I have one Airport device daisy chained off another, both setting up private NAT networks, they appear in series, correctly reflecting the new topology!

Sadly this is not the case on my iOS 5.0.1 based iPhone 4, it simply shows all the network devices it can see in series regardless of the actual network topology.

I still think it is really cool that a topology map is created at all! Thanks Apple. I guess I am a geek, having fun with networks.

On the iPhone or iPad:
* Tap Settings
* Tap iCloud
* make sure the iCloud Account is your regular AppleID (iCloud/iTunes/AppleID/MobileMe/Mac.com accounts are all the same thing), it should be a full email address format account name
* scroll down and turn on Find My iPhone or iPad (or make sure it is already turned on)

On any computer:
* point a web browser at https://icloud.com
* log in with your AppleID (same one you just used on the iPhone or iPad)
* Set your Language and TimeZone
* Click the Find my iPhone Button

It should list your devices (iPhone, iPad, etc) by name if you have named them.
* It can find the one you select, and show it’s location on a map.
* You can send a sound alert (finds the devices when they get lost under laundry or between sofa cushions).
* You can remote lock or remote wipe them (if you think they are in the hands of bad guys).
* You can report location to the police too in that event.
* You can send a message that will appear on screen.

Trust me – you want to do this as soon as you get the device, just in case…. and Murphy’s law says that if you are prepared to lose your iPhone or iPad you will never lose either.

If you care, I am scottdavidnolan on Twitter. I will NOT be reflecting my tweets here, as I like preserving blog space for more detailed writing, and I’ll tweet simple one liners there.

I am experimenting with Twitterific and Twitter’s own iOS apps (iPhone and iPad) and the website on my Mac.

Take a look at this CNET poll on how angry Netflix customers intend to react to the rate hikes, note the Firefly reference:

Raining in Rome, cab to hotel was cramped, but only 25 Euros including our bags. Wait a second, for the less than 1 mile trip, that’s pretty extortionate pricing… but it was raining…

Hotel Solis is quaint… meaning 1968 called and wants our room back. At least it is clean and the A/C works. We are a short walk from the Colosseum. Sill no laundry service at the hotel (!?) and Wi-Fi is an extortionate 7 Euros for only 3 hours. Ouch!

Erci’s dad and his wife were initially given the wrong room, and they had to move and re-unpack. They lucked out though, their new room is next to ours and was redecorated in the early 1990s; a vast improvement in lighting and fixtures.

We had a quick bite at the Enotecha across the street, and a walk to Colosseum to see the metro stop in daylight and experience traffic free Sunday a little; people watching was fantastic. We found the metro stop, scored week-long all-you-can-ride public transport passes and then we walked back to the hotel, and then went out for our first non-Italian food of the trip, Chinese at Citta in Fiore, and it was excellent, and very, very busy. Standing room only to get in, and the line kept growing and growing.

May 16th: Vatican Museum

Hotel Solis breakfast is very continental; meaning you should find your own breakfast somewhere else to augment the scone, cereal and coffee they provide.

Metro from Colosseo to Termini then from Termini to Cipro and walk to Vatican Museum.

Guided tours pretty much all suck. The guide may be wonderful, but you will be rushed by things you want to spend more time on and waste precious time waiting for long explanations of things you don’t care about; and waste time for groups to gather and be herded about. We spent 5 hours in the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter’s Basilica; and yet I feel both rushed and exhausted… only 10 minutes of that was in the Sistine Chapel itself and the crowds were intolerable throughout. When finished with the tour, our guide said good-bye and collected the radios outside St Peter’s Basilica; and the museums in Rome do not accept re-entry; effectively forcing us to pay a second time if we wanted to examine anything in the museum at our own pace afterwards. Frankly, for me, because of the crowds, the Vatican Museum was a ripoff; though there are wondrous things to be seen there if you could ever figure out how to see them with no crowds.

Walk from St Peter’s Square to lunch at random place with seats, shade, and water; then on to Ottaviano/San Pietro to Metro to Spagna where we got out and walked around looking for the Mandarina Duck store Sutragirl wants to shop at. Rode Metro again to Repubblica and got out to get sprayed by the fountain of the Naiads. Got back on to exit at Cavour for gelato and back to the hotel for a siesta.

Dinner next to our hotel at Enoteca Cavour 313, was spectacular. Tapas style items on the menu were delicious and allowed us to taste many things, and the wine selection was heavenly. We learned that a proper Cannoli is really good and not overly sweet like in the States.

May 17th:
We supplemented the parsimonious hotel breakfast with yogurt from a grocer a few doors up the street, then went over to the Forum to explore. We found ourselves at the Capitoline Hill end of the Forum as noon approached, and decided to exit to examine the Capitoline Museum and get lunch. Capitoline is nice and cool with ambient music in most rooms, and we went to Bar Rudy for lunch, it being pretty much the only choice close to the hill, and it was less than thrilling. We walked back to the hotel via the monument to Victor Emmanuel and Trajan’s Column and market. Then the exhaustion caught up with us and we napped until dinner time approached.

I could exhaust my entire lexicon of superlatives to describe the dinner we had at Il Pagliaccio on Via dei Banchi Vecchi in Rome, but I will skip that and just say that it was the most expensive meal I have ever eaten, and it was worth every penny. Fantastic. Rob picked excellent wines, we have amazing service, and epicurean delights.

May 18th:

The Forum tickets we had, supposedly good for two days would not let us re-enter the forum to finish the tour. Moral of the story; to get your money’s worth out of Rome’s expensive museums; do NOT leave until you are done with everything you want to see. That means planning ahead for marathon sessions in some of them and ignoring pushing museum people and tour guides who try to trick you into leaving early.

So we went to the overcrowded Colosseum to get some value out of our combo tickets.

To try to minimize walking (one member of our group has bad knees) we took the metro to Barberini, then caught the Electric Bus #116 to Piazza Farnese. We stopped for a tasty lunch at Hosteria Farnese, then walked through Campo de Fiore, browsing the open market, and walked back to the spectacular Pantheon.

The Pantheon, used continuously since the 2nd century is very impressive. I did not cry like I did at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, but one does get filled with a sense of awe at the engineering marvel that makes a building last so long. We spent a good deal of time here and I made another PhotoSynth panorama with my iPhone while inside.

We proceeded to Trevi Fountain and then to Spagna to let Erci and her father shop at Mandarina Duck.

We rested our feet and had a little wine at L’EnotecAntica where I wish we had more time to sample the many wines they have by the glass. From there it was a short walk back to Metro at Spagna and a quick ride to the hotel for a nap and a shower.

We stayed local for dinner, walking only two doors from our hotel to enjoy Restorante Argentino Baires for some fantastic Argentine food and a Malbec of course.

May 19th:

We are starting to figure out the bus system, and took bus 84 to Piazza Venetia and then split our group. Erci and the others went to some Capitoline churches and a second Forum visit. I got onto bus 46 to Lago Argentino and then street car 8 to Trastevere to explore. Trastevere, is more lived in than the areas of Rome we have been seeing; the neighborhood is alive and thriving. I found Glass Hosteria, where we will be dining Friday night. I got addressed by a man in rags and debated Christianity and Buddhism with him for some time on the banks of the Tiber near the Sisto Bridge.

I crossed the river and wandered through Campo de Fiore again and found Salumeria Roscioli, where we will have dinner tonight. Then I walked to Santa Maria sopra Minerva and enjoyed the statue of Christ Bearing the Cross by Michelangelo.

After cooling off in the church for a bit and enjoying the gothic architecture I walked to Piazzo Navona to see the Four Rivers fountain and grabbed lunch at Tucci Ristorante; and had spectacular Insalada de Mare and mixed grilled fish.

After lunch I walked towards Trevi fountain and found a store with some gifts of Murano glass. Then I caught the 117 bus back to Via Cavour and the hotel for a shower and a nap. It’s hot here in Rome, at least when walking briskly.

Salumeria Roscioli was fantastic for dinner, excellent black ham, cheese, beer, and some of the best lamb I have ever had. I feel we may have missed out on Rome’s best carbonara spaghetti as well… I could very easily go back to this place again. Yum!

May 20th:

We decided to visit Ara Pacis, which is a very modern museum with the reconstructed arch pf peace. The day was getting pretty hot and we enjoyed the air conditioning, before walking to Campo de Fiori for shopping and lunch at Fratelli la Bufalata (which is quite good for pizza). We had very bad luck trying to catch a bus back and got seriously overheated.

Glass Hosteria for dinner was spectacular; each dish more amazing than the one before. Excellent wines, and even the pettifores got devoured, where usually we skip them.

Trastevere is alive with magic and romance on Friday night; a several blocks of street party. Sadly, Erci, has definitely caught some bug and is not up for an evening of fun. I definitely want to come back to Trastevere.

May 21st:

Our last full day in Rome and in Italy; I have finished re-reading The Diamond Age and enjoyed it very much, even the second time around. I am almost out of clean clothing, and I miss my friends, my cats, my own pillow, my own shower, and unlimited internet of a decent speed. Erci has filled the 4GB flash card in the big camera, and we’ve started on an older 2GB card. I have had to delete a movie from my laptop to make room for all the iPhone photos we are collecting.

Erci is definitely ill, so we are staying near facilities. We went to the National Museum of Rome and thoroughly enjoyed the sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics. The coin collection would impress even Les.

Lunch was at Argentina Baires and was good again.

Dinner was at Enoteca Cavour 313 again because it was so very, very good. The pistachio gelato with black pepper was simply divine.

We have begun the mad packing session for the trip home.

May 22nd:

There is now a 2 Euro/day/person Rome city tourist tax at hotel, in cash only.

Airport Limo picked up two other couples and delivered us to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport efficiently.
Nothing in the airport was open and edible, so we missed breakfast.

Heathrow Security is annoying and oppressive and panicky for no obvious security features I feel harassed and abused, not secure and we barely made it to the gate before the end of boarding out connecting flight.

BA 747 was packed, over-warm, and rank; we all stank by the time we arrive at Dulles 7 hours and 20 minutes later.

We did not know it at the time, but the extra length of flight time might have been dodging a new volcanic eruption in Iceland.

I watched “No Strings Attached”, “The Tourist”, and could not finish “I am Number Four” because the flight crew kept interrupting the show. It looked pretty horrible anyway.

Dave picked us up and dropped us off at cars; barely made it home awake; but it is good to be home to do
loads of laundry, shower, give/get lots of cat affection, and house recovery.

We are trying to stay awake to shift to Eastern Time.

Our train from Venice to Rome was full of American tourists and honeymooners from Venice to Florence; then became less crowded approaching Rome where we transferred to EuroStar 9515 to Napoli Centrale.

At Naples we were met on the train platform by Antonio, our arranged van driver, who showed us to his minivan and drove us to the
Hotel Gardenia in Sorrento acting as tour guide along the way. He even stopped briefly at a scenic overlook to let us get out and photograph Sorrento, Sant Agnello, Piano di Sorrento, and Meta from the cliffs to the East, and gave us a quick tour of his favorite places in Sorrento.

Sorrento Peninsula from the road:

Hotel Gardenia is very modern, very cramped, and right on a very busy street over 1.1 kilometers from the center of Sorrento along the suicidally busy Corso Italia. The hotel website flat out lies when it claims 500 meters from the central square, 500 is not anything close to 1100 meters. It has no laundry service!!! Ugh… It is not as close to the train station as we were told it would be, station and square are both about a 20 minute walk down a suicidally busy street.

This is the view from our balcony if you gaze alongside the building:

The hotel Internet access, while free, is frustrating. Web based userids and passwords that cannot maintain session for very long and must be logged into every few minutes.

The hotel staff did recommend Il Leone Russo, which turned out to be an excellent choice, if a bit crowded and noisy. Delicious meal and wine, and complementary Limoncello afterwards, I think because we ordered four healthy meals and a bottle of wine and four apéritifs.

May 10th:

Hotel Gardenia breakfast is a relief, protein without gluten, huzzah! We caught the Circumvesuviana train from Sorrento to Pompei Scalvi; and ended up waiting a long time at Meta for trains to clear the tunnels ahead of us. Pompeii is large and hilly and hot and dusty. We went to the Baths, the Forum, the Temple of Apollo, and the Villa of the Mysteries and hopefully our photos come out.

Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii:

We lunched at Bacco e Arianna right outside the back gate to Pompeii and enjoyed the caprese salads, melon and prusciutto salads, and salami antipasto. We caught the train back to Sorrento, once again being held up at the tunnels.

We braved the busy and loud streets back to the hotel and napped, after cooling off by the pool (too cold to swim, but it is nice enjoying the breeze under the lemon trees and palms).

Hotel Gardenia Pool:

I figured out some of the problems with the internet system here, it is timed, and your browser must allow a pop-up with the timer and the logout button to display; normally my browsers block pop-ups… now that I am allowing theirs I can end a session rather than using up all my allotted time and I can more easily switch from computer to phone to ipad for access. Logging in frequently is still annoying, but mitigated some with a note with the strings to cut and paste. Connections are just slow.

Dinner at Il Buco was fantastic. I really need to order what Sutragirl’s Dad orders; he continues to get fantastic dishes at every restaurant we go to. Beautiful restaurant, fantastic service, and excellent food. We tried dark grappa after dinner and enjoyed it, apparently grappa, like tequila, vodka, and soju, is getting more refinement and attention these days. The lighting in the restaurant and in the bathrooms was stunning; they have mastered elegant, indirect lighting in some of the finer restaurants in Italy to levels I have never seen before. Beautiful and amazing.

The 20 minute walk back to the hotel was more pleasant as it was so late that traffic had mostly died down, thankfully.

May 11th:

Up way too early for vacation to catch a pre-paid excursion to Herculaneum. Having done that once, I will not join a guided tour without knowing the size of the tour group up front. Our group was far, far too many people for the guide to keep track of and we could not all fit around any one site or room in the ruins. Tour groups should never be so damned large; too large a group to see anything but the other members of the group. Photos were virtually impossible and we spent most of the tour waiting for the group to assemble and reassemble. Most of the guided tours are separate from the site fee itself, so you end up paying for the site anyway and the bus was much slower than trains, even if the views from the bus were more spectacular. Herculaneum is great, but you can skip the excursion tours and take the train and hire a guide if you must, but only for a group of 4-8 people; not for 60 people.

Herculaneum:

Once back in Sorrento, we grabbed a bit from the first tourist trap with shaded seating, and regretted it later. It pays to know ahead of time where you want to eat. We walked around Sorrento’s small old quarter a little bit and feel much better about the town now that we have. It is overpriced tourist shop after tourist shop, but the motor vehicle traffic is restricted and traffic is almost nil; making for vastly more pleasant walks around the shops and restaurants.

The really long walk along Corso Italia and noisy location of Hotel Gardenia is really beginning to wear on me. There are several hotels much closer to the train station, the tour bus excursion departure point, and the restaurants and shopping. Hindsight is 20/20, and I wish we’d been steered to a better location. Without scooters or a car; this location is no good.

Dinner at La Pizza del Poeta was fantastic; this may be my personal favorite meal of the trip. Shrimp on tomatoes with capers and chili oil, followed by scallopini in lemon sauce… Amazing wines in a local white and a chianti, and a licorice flavored drink to finish the meal, which was much better than ouzo or rake; and different than the better limoncellos we have had.

May 12th

Enjoyed a glorious sleep in, not meeting for a leisurely breakfast at the hotel until 9:30. The we walked to Piazzo San Antonio to catch a bus to Marina Piccolo, stopping at several tobacconist shops on the way and they were all sold out of bus tickets. Odd, and frankly, suspect. The bus driver took our Euros anyway.

At Marina Piccolo an English honeymooning couple I have met a few times at our hotel pool showed to me a fascinating iOS application on his iPhone called PhotoSynth that stitches together many photos you have taken from one spot to create a fully immersive panorama. Splendid idea, I wish I had this at several locations in Venice!

Sorrento on the cliff, from it’s Marina Piccolo:

We caught a “jet” boat to Capri, which does not appear to technically be a hydrofoil, but it is very fast. Once at Capri’s marina we caught a ride up their famous funicular railway to walk around Capri town a little bit.

Funicular Railway on Capri:

We had a glorious lunch and view at Capricorno, which was perhaps the best buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes I have ever had, and excellent risotto. The Insulata Caprese did, in fact, have love basil on it too.

Gorgeous view of Capri from Capricorno restaurant:

We enjoyed a short walk through winding, twisting, pedestrian only streets of Capri before taking the funicular back down to port and the “jet” boat back to Sorrento. We caught the Sant Agnello bus from Marina Piccolo to the Sorrento train station, and a taxi back to the hotel as we were tired, but I wish we stayed on the bus. It turns out that there are public busses running right in front of our hotel to and from the town square and the harbor. I wish I’d known that sooner.

I finally dipped into the pool under the lemon tree and it felt fantastic! A great way to wash off the heat. Then I downloaded PhotoSynth from the iTunes App store and began playing with it on my iPhone.

Dinner was at Il Leone Russo again, and it was delicious again, and once more they favored us with complimentary pizza bread, and a whole bottle of limoncello that is much better than some of the other limoncellos we’ve had. I am becoming aware that if your party orders multiple courses, wines, and cocktails; and makes an evening of dinner and quiet conversation the staff loves you and showers you with extras; but if you try to budget only one dish each with no wine, you get perfunctory service, still good, but unremarkable. Slow down and joy life a little, and magic happens.

May 13th

As arranged, Antonio from Caruso Limo picked us up at the hotel to drive us in a mini van to Paestum and then back along the Amalfi coast. Going to Paestum we took the normal road to Pompeii and then A-3 expressway to Salerno, driving through new terrain that was visually interesting and Antonio sporadically told us a little more about the Italy he knows.

At a scenic overlook just before Salerno, we stopped and took pictures of Vietri sul Mare below us and we tried our first real panorama vista shots with PhotoSynth. I have not figured out how to share the panoramas yet, so a regular photo will have to do for now:

Antonio took us to the back gate of Paestum, where there are smaller, or in our case, no crowds and a fancy restaurant. We went into Paestum and were amazed at the site. Temples of Hera and Neptune were just inside the back gate and have remarkable structure still surviving, more than just the outer ring. Temple of Athena is a longer walk across the forum, but is also lovely and remarkable. The whole site is beautiful and peaceful, birds singing, little lizards catching bugs. I am not sure why the local signs switch between Greek names for the gods Athena and Hera, and Roman for Neptune, but they do.

I suspect our driver made a minor navigation error, because we drove back to Salerno on surface streets without finding the expressway until almost there, but we got to see industrial and rural areas of Italy we would not have seen otherwise and I was struck by the similarity of land use and basic post-war architecture that one sees in Japan and Italy.

Once through Salerno began our tour of the Amalfi coast from the van and it is stunning.
Vietri sul Mare is home to a thriving ceramics industry and so there are ceramic tiles everywhere, including the dome on the local churches all through the Amalfi region.

We diverted from the coast and began serious switch-backs to climb about 1000 feet to Ravello on the slopes of the mountains where we walked around the town square and grabbed a tourist sandwich. I did not make it to Villa Cimbrone to see the famous Belvedere because we were behind schedule already, but it is enough to have seen how lovely Ravello is.

At that elevation, looking up the valleys at whole villages perched precariously on the slopes above us in the clouds I could only think of this as an Italian Shangri-La.

The drive back down to the coast road was even more a white-knuckle ride as we had momentum behind us and we could see the huge drops involved.

Amalfi is one of the few towns where there is a small beach and perhaps a kilometer of flat space to have a town centre, and it was packed with tourists and traffic. We scurried through as fast as we could as it was mobbed.

Positano was truly stunning, and had sights I had mistaken for being in Amalfi. I wonder and marvel that people would live at such different elevations from their car, their grocer, their church, their nearest bar. You really have to think in three dimensions to get around and no map on a flat sheet of paper is sufficient to figure it out.

From Positano we saw a few more vistas of the Amalfi coast and then quickly passed over the Lattari Mountains into Piano di Sorrento and then our hotel. Antonio (aka Tony) is an excellent driver, courteous and considerate of our needs, and exceptionally alert to the traffic of both vehicles and pedestrians and even the idiots, typically on scooters, but a few times in cars, trying to make the road three lanes wide by passing where they should not and ending up facing off with a bus.

Dinner at L’Antica Trattoria was good, but two of my three dishes were overly salted, and that was a disappointment. Additionally we had a rude couple of smokers light up in the no-smoking area where we were sitting and they refused to put them out until the wait staff intervened.

Something has happened to the last 50 pictures I took with my phone on the Amalfi Coast trip… very frustrating. Hopefully these shots are clear on Sutragirl’s big Canon camera.

May 14th

Slept in again, then walked around Sorrento casually. Bought linen shirts at Sartoria Saracena for both Sutragirl and myself, and lunch at Old Taverna Sorrento. Took photos from the community center overlooking the harbor. Back in the pool again for more cooling.

Went to Ristorante Pizzaria Tasso for a fabulous meal and spectacular dessert wines.

Saturday night is strolling night for Sorrento, when the main streets are closed and families stroll in the pleasantly cool evening air without concern for the traffic.

May 15th

Time to pack for travel to Rome. Caruso Limo to Naples, train to Rome.
Napoli Centrale 13:50 Eurostar AV #9526 to Roma Termini 15:00

Valminor Albarino is a crisp, clean, refreshing white – perfect for seafood

Pearmund Viognier is fruity, with a beautiful nose and lovely notes to go with spicy fish, chicken or sausage… yum!

Montes Purple Angel from Chile was a delightful full bodied red surprise; really delicious and with many complex flavors all blending slowly on the tongue…

Ramey Claret packed a delightful punch, full bodied, luscious, and heady

Yum!

Having an Enomatic in Fair Lakes Whole Foods is a real delight.

Wow, British Airways owned Boeing 777 planes are amazingly quiet; you can actually have a normal conversation and I did not need my canalphones to block out the noise of the jet engines. The seats seemed a little wider too; perhaps 19″ wide instead of 17″ – and that two inches makes a world of difference for my shoulders. Watched Burlesque with Cher and Christina Aguilera, who is hot in the show… wow; she really can sing.

Heathrow is annoying in that nearly every flight needs to stop well away from the terminals and they bus you to the terminals where you have to pass through security again for all connecting flights. On the plus side, the food places take virtually any currency you have and you can do vodka tastings at the duty free stores in the airport even though it is 7am local time.

Our second flight was a little more cramped (A319) but we had spectacular views of the alps in bright sunlight coming into Venice airport. No problems with customs nor our luggage. We met Erci’s Dad and his wife and caught the Alilaguna to Sant Angelo stop on the Grand Canal in Venice. A short walk from Sant Angelo and we arrived at Locanda Art Deco. The hotel is a beautiful little hotel with clean, comfortable rooms, free wi-fi, clean bathrooms, and it is located in San Marco at the North end of Campo San Stefano; one of the larger and more casual open spaces in Venice. The room comes equipped with a shuttle PC running Ubunto and Gnome that is wired to the internet!

Campo San Samuele near our hotel in Venice:

We are hearing the bells of San Stefano church regularly, and have taken to meeting each other at Le Cafe or Gelateria Paolin in the square because it is so convenient to the hotel.

The staff at the hotel have been very helpful in many languages and they recommended we try Rosa Rossa for dinner; it was excellent: stunning lighting, beautiful decor, very good food and wine. Perhaps the music was a bit lame.

May 6th:

The Locanda Art Deco has a very small continental breakfast, and with Erci being gluten-free, we have taken to augmenting the breakfast in the hotel with yogurt, cheese, or sausage from the grocer next door.

We walked to Piazzo San Marco and toured the Basilica at length. We stopped at Trattoria da Nico for lunch, and then bought Murano glasses and a gecko at Atmosfera Veneziana, The Bead Shop di Caponsacco De Lorenzi Theresa, and purse hangers and glass snake at another shop (across from Rosa Rossa).

Piazzo San Marco from the Basilica; preparations already underway for a papal visit:

We walked to San Salvadore church to see it’s interior and then to the Rialto bridge where Sutragirl bought a new purse and we exchanged a little gossip.

Our specially arranged meal was at Fiaschetteria Toscana and it was splendid. I should have copied Rob’s order as his meal was fantastic, where mine was merely very good.

After walking back towards the hotel, we stopped at Osteria Al Bacaro for a late night drink.

We heard from the hotel staff that the Pope will be visiting Venice this weekend and that will force some plans to change (certain sites and vaporetto stops will be closed).

May 7th:

We walked across Accademia bridge into Dorsoduro searching for Ca’Macana Venezia looking for masks, we ended up ordering from Alesia di Bognolo Silvia at L’Arte di Alesia on Campo San Barnaba instead, but they had beautiful masks at Ca’Macana and workshops too. The lady at the smaller shop was delightful and had the plague doctor mask Sutragirl was looking for, and she was happy to arrange shipping, which many shop keepers are not as willing to do.

Dorsoduro is far more comfortable and lived in than San Marco which is overloaded with tourist shops and empty buildings. The natural beauty of the quiet streets and canals of Dorsoduro is breathtaking; and I want to spend weeks sipping coffee in the various squares and taverns in the area.

Campo San Barnaba in Dorsoduro, Venice:

We then walked back through Dorsoduro to the church of S. Maria della Salute, and discovered it closed for security to prepare for the Papal visit and music was blaring really loud preventing normal conversation; so we wandered back to Dei Rossi, a small bar at Campo San Vio for lunch of salad, fried fish and beer. They had beautiful, but practical glasses of Murano glass that were translucent blue. We caught a handsome gondolier at the Accademia bridge and paid for a pleasant tour in a gondola through parts of the Grand Canal, San Marco and back.

Once off the gondola, I finally got to explore the SouthWestern end of San Marco district around our hotel and through Campo San Samuele and back to the hotel for a nap. I have always enjoyed walking around whatever lodging we find to get a feel for the small details of a neighborhood.

Grand Canal from a gondola, Venice:

Dinner at Vecio Fritolin on Calle dell Regina in San Polo near Campo San Cassiano was amazing! Our favorite meal so far in Venice, and that is huge praise as we have been very fortunate so far. Our waiter, Mauro, was amazing and the wines and the grappa were delicious. The staff at Locanda Art Deco is to be praised for such excellent recommendations.

View from the Rialto:

Romantic walk back over the Rialto where we all decided this trip is amazing. The absence of car noise, traffic, and gas fumes is a delight. The small noises of Venetians going through their routines and laughing and making fun of each other is music to the ear.

May 8th:

The staff at our hotel arranged “free” water taxi to B.F. Signoretti Murano glass factory where we toured and bought some Murano glasses and a serving dish at prices that paid for the convenience of water taxi service to and from Murano island. We walked from Fondamenta Nove through Cannaregio, Rialto and to our hotel, stopping so that Sutragirl could buy some sleek Italian shoes. Cannaregio, like Dorsoduro, is also more lived in and comfortable than San Marco. I must come back and explore and enjoy this district more thoroughly. We walked through one square that was beautiful and relaxing, and I wished to stay longer; I think that was Campo Dietro la Chiesa; and it had trees, and a cafe, and children playing.

Canals in Cannaregio:

We grabbed a quick lunch at Gelateria Paolin at Campo San Stefano, then tested out the excellent Vaporetto service to Ferrovia (the train station) to get our EuRail passes stamped and verify the ease of use of the Vaporetti. Then we took the Vaporetto back to Rialto to wander and shop a little more.

Grand Canal of Venice:

Dinner at Met in Castello was new cuisine and we chose the tasting menu, which really was too much food. The dishes were very experimental, and quite surprising; but some of them I did not like very much and others were spectacular. The carbonara cuttlefish “fettucini” (no pasta involved) was spectacular and worth the price of the meal by itself. The scallops were delicious, and the venison was a delight. Service was so formal I was a little uncomfortable. The walk to and from Met was right along the water as far as Piazza San Marco and it was briskly windy and chilling. The Bridge of Sighs was so wrapped in advertising and renovation sheeting that it looked quite silly suspended in the clouds of the sheet poster material. There were obscenely massive cruise ships in the water off San Marco, setting out to sea.

As we packed up for travel to Sorrento, we were serenaded by the season’s first mosquitoes and suffered a few bites before Erci loaded the pest deterrent that was in the hotel room since our arrival… Not sure if it worked, or we were too tired to care, but I noticed no more mosquitoes after the thing had been running for about 10 minutes.

May 9th:

Breakfast at the hotel was crowded with Americans on a tour of religious sites in Italy and we grabbed a bit of protein from the grocer next door and waited until there were tables available to eat in the hotel. We checked out, hauled luggage to San Samuele (Vaporetto stop) and took the Vaporetto to Ferrovia again, this time to board EuroStar 9409 to Roma Termini and then on to Naples. Note to those with wheeled luggage, from the river, the North (right) side of the train station has a ramp that looks like it is going to the street but simply goes into the station without steps.