Due birre, and wine to go

View toward the lagoon and Nora's apartment at the end of the street

Nora and I began this day in a particularly great way, at the wine shop just down the street. We carried the two-liter Vera Naturale spring water bottle with us, which I was forced to empty last night of the last of the Malbec it contained. At the shop, Nora introduced me to the shop owner, who kindly allowed us to photograph him as he filled our bottles from barrels with spigots, and Nora and I agreed that the pictures were pretty darn good. The shop owner is a sweet, friendly man who was pleased that I wanted to photograph him at work. He even offered us a tasting, and despite the fact that it was 10:40 a.m., we agreed and ended up buying some of that wine, along with more of the Malbec. We left the store to return home and leave the wine before we began our walk to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. In my mind, I happily planned tonight's posting about my experience at the wine shop, eager to post my pictures.

After the Guggenheim, more walking, more pictures, stopping to buy Erin a gift, having "due birre" and a sandwich, then some frothy coffee frappe and deciding to take the vaporetto home because it was just too hot, I began to download pictures only to find that the few pictures of the wine store had disappeared. Why? Who knows? How? Who knows? It is a mystery.

So. After somehow losing the pictures I especially wanted, I also could not move my iPhoto pictures to my Picasa web album, and lost the captions I had added. Nevertheless, I perservered.

The day got better again when we enjoyed a spritz with Nora's niece, Anna, and her son Martino, age three, who thoughtfully gave me a potato chip even though it meant walking all around the table.

We made risotto and salad for dinner which we enjoyed with some of the wine we got today, and now I am ready (perhaps) to do battle with my photographs. Last night's fight was with blogger, which would not allow me to upload more than one picture.

I am happy, at least, knowing that we will revisit the wine shop on Saturday so I can take more pictures and buy more wine. I do, however, have a picture of our newly-filled plastic bottles, which I present in lieu of the more interesting action shots.