Arrival in Venice

We spent last night on the mainland at an agriturismo (lodgings at a family farm), a few miles from the autostrada in the countryside. Our room was of recent manufacture (done up with first rate fixtures) in a building that appeared to be a reconstruction of a line of horse stalls: -our room's door was an amalgam of entry door and horse stall door. We had dinner in a dining hall with the few other guests and the staff, a nice simple meal of spaghetti, eggplant and seasoned pork chops, with a strong red wine, and grappa (distilled spirits) afterwards.
Now we've arrived in Venice.
We were last here on September 12, 2001! What a bizarre time that was. This time, being here in August, the city seems quite a bit more crowded, which is not surprising, as most of Europe seems to be on vacation during this month. We make a game of trying to guess the nationality of our fellow tourists before we hear them speak, and we're acquiring set of "clues." For instance: anyone wearing a shirt with english words is almost certainly NOT an english-speaking person, as it seems to be the fashion to wear clothes with innocuous english words, i.e., "St. Diego -California - class of 55" or "Let's Kiss" or "Fashion Sport". Women with very stylistic eyeglasses and shoes will be italian, or possibly French. Older couples who look almost American - but slightly more "upscale" - are probably German. Deep tans often indicate Italians, or young Germans. Peoples who seem particularly pushy in restaurants or standing in lines are often French. Overweight folks are most often northern european, English or German (or Americans, although they are smaller minority this year).
Our hotel room this year, in the same place as last time, is very pleasant, if not very large. We have air conditioning, which is welcome, as it has been fairly humid since our arrival in Italy, and when the sun is out it can be very uncomfortable outside. As in Baveno, we have a TV, though only 2 channels are in English: CNN International and a British sports channel. Much of Italian TV, the sit-coms and dramas, are dubbed American shows, like "Law and Order," or "Walker, Texas Ranger" or something old like "The Munsters." Almost anything might show up, apart from shows with all-black casts, for reasons one can imagine.

–Jim