I am now quiiiite madly in love with Venice, despite the carnivorous pigeons and huge-lunged gondoliers and unfriendly locals and crapola overpriced food. This morn we took this long, amazing tour of the Doge's palace and all the secret chambers of the Circle of Ten and all the 50000 other secret groups of long-past empires, not to mention jail cells and torture rooms and ceilings sagging with gold. And we learned all about Casanova so that by the end of the tour I'd developed a hyuuge crush. I bought his autobiography, then Joi and Eric wandered off to the Jewish ghetto while I had a hot chocolate in this lovely cafe in San Marco Piazza and read, and then I wandered along many pathways and across the wooden bridge to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, where I saw this gorgeously strange Rosso exhibition and the regular collection that includes three Cornell boxes and, my other favorites, this beautiful collage by Juan Gris and another by Max Ernst. Then I wandered around some more and read some more--Casanova is so funny!! I love him with my whole heart and maybe yours too--and then I went into this mask store and took a long time selecting the most beautiful one, a full face mask with silver and gold and lace and crystals. Then we all met up again and had (an overpriced) dinner and vino. Tomorrow: Rome!!