Meet Me at Harry's

Once we got settled into our Venice apartment, I pulled up my pants and we went wandering like typical tourists.  I have a lousy sense of direction, but when streets are in a grid pattern, I can eventually figure things out. I never figured it out in Venice and stayed close to my compadres with cell service.  I had bought a SIM card but the process to upload a required pic of my passport was so frustrating, I gave up. The vendor will get an earful when I'm back in the States. I can still fall back on my $10 a day service from my U.S. provider and former employer, but that is better spent on food and drink.

We had some simple but tasty meals in Venice.  Our last dinner was at Trattoria alla Madonna, which provided quality fare at reasonable prices.  Our waiter was an old guy and Katie thought he seemed rather sad.  I thought he was rather savvy when he pointed out that the 12% surcharge on the bill did not include a tip for him.  He was the only one to do so. He could have just said "I just want to wet my beak". I have difficulty with tipping, or lack thereof, in Europe.  We did some tipping but I feel like a skinflint if I don't drop a decent gratuity.

We went out one night for cicchetti at two different places.  Cicchetti are Venice's version of tapas.  I was not impressed with any of those we tried, but we did run into some excitement at the second place.  We were seated outdoors and heard several rapid footsteps followed by a local criminal speeding past us with four cops trying to catch up. The dude would have taken me out if my chair was a foot or so back. We never figured out if they caught him.

We also made it to the legendary Harry's Bar for an early afternoon cocktail.  We managed to grab four seats at the bar after standing for a couple minutes.  TCG and Katie went for the Bellini, which was invented there.  My wife and I had the Bloody Marys, as it was a little too bright outside for a martini. The bill came to 92 euro but we were expecting that given the place's prominence.  TCG was a little late to Harry's as he was picking up his official gondolier shirt. He got several shout outs from the real deal on our walk back.  I think one guy wanted him to take over his shift.

Katie is a boat enthusiast, having one of her own in Tahoe, so her wish of getting a ride on a classic woody was fulfilled by our water taxi to the airport.  We went there to pick up our car rental.  I tried getting on wifi but the only open network was "VOTE Trump". I passed. We hopped in our Jeep to start the three hour drive to Oristei in the Dolomites. We had a little trouble gassing it up as they would not accept our credit card. I had to put a 50 euro note in the machine but only required 30 euro worth of gas. TCG bailed me out when he figured out how to make the machine spit out a receipt with a QR code holding the balance.

The three hikers have headed to the mountains daily after our breakfast here at Hotel Garni Snaltnerhof. This gave me an opportunity to do what I do best, which is laze around and surf the web. I then took the cable car in the early afternoons to have lunch with them at 8,000 feet. We have also spent a lot of time walking around this very picturesque town, hearing a lot of German mixed in with the Italian and English. We head to Monterosso in Cinque Terre tomorrow morning.  As of now, we've been in Ortisei for over 72 hours and my hip is still intact.

By the way, I'm a fantastic photographer.