La primavera è arrivata!

Yep, spring has indeed arrived: spritzes in the campi, saps are running (over the bridges and down the Zattere), the few trees in Venice are already green, students on school trips are pretending to absorb some culture, and we have replanted our terrace and it's almost ready for our evening aperitivi outside. Great time to live in Venice. 

My good friend Frank O'Halloran invited me to play basketball with him. He's almost 50 and not in great shape, and I am 60 and likewise physically out of condition. We both fancy ourselves hotshots at BBall but I bowed out as I know how one can throw caution to the wind in such moments of pretending one is 22 years old. I do not need a broken ankle this spring.

Five years ago, in the rain, I ran for a waterbus, slipped on the wet, wooden boat landing and completely ripped apart my knee. Had the thrill of riding in a water ambulance as it bounced (ouch!) to the ospedale. Surgery, no walking for 3 months, no kneeling for six months, no sports for a year. No basketball ever again, sigh. Can play tennis, though. (By the way, if you are at the S Toma vaporetto stop, you can see a brass plaque commemorating my fall. To the left of the ticket office, under a railing. "In latin, Howard fell here six days before the ides of April, 2002." )

Politics in Italy is very interesting. The left-wing Prodi government which barely survived a few weeks ago (thanks to a turncoat centrist senator) is in doo-doo again. On the Prodi agenda is a commitment to legalising civil unions without marriage, for both heterosexuals and homosexuals. It is a sensitive issue as many in Prodi's coalition are pro-Church and view the proposed law as weakening the family and are horrified of legitimising homosexual civil unions. There was a very large demonstration in Rome this past Saturday to support the proposed law. Unfortunately for Prodi three of his ministers attended it. The demonstration was taken over by the gay activist group (ARCIGAY) and the demonstration turned into a gay anti-Church, anti-Catholic rant, with the usual outrages. The Prime Minister Prodi did not, for some reason, proscribe his ministers from attending and when he saw three ministers there, he was "perplexed". The justice minister, Mr Mastella, is an active Catholic and was more than perplexed, he was furious that the ministers lent credence to what he considered a zoo. He is very displeased and should he and his Catholic party, Udeur, remain displeased the coalition (see my blog of 3 weeks ago) could be toast and there will be a new election. You gotta admire the lubricious and protean qualities of Italian politics. Stay tuned.

All my customers are very nice and also quite interesting. This past week, I had 3 people from Virginia. I was told to meet Rosemary, Katherine, and Cecil between the pillars in S Marco Square. It was cold so I hid in a nearby bar keeping my eye on things until they arrived. I saw three women arrive and stand around for a few minutes. Then I saw that one had a cane and my instructions told me that one of the ladies had a cane. So I aproached them and, sure enough, it was my party..."Where's Cecil?" I asked. "That's me", one said. So, memo to file, Cecil is a woman's name in Virginia. They were terrific and we had a good time.       

Dinner tonight with Mario (a Venetian tour guide) and Lynn Lazzarini and with Lesley and Carl Powell, NC residents who love Venezia. Saturday it's a St Patrick's party here, wear green please.