When I am thinking about what would be the "one picture" that I will use as a title among the thousands I took during the seven days that I spend there in March, I couldn't decide. I could use the quintessential grand canal view or one with a couple in a gondola with the gondolier, or the one in Piazza San Marco... sigh, there are so many to choose from. In the end I decided on this simple shot. I chose it for a variety of reasons. These days I tend to forgot which street I rented which apartment! The picture clearly shows the 'street' or canal the apartment was on, and even had the bridge over which I used to go back and forth on my way to San Marco and back to Santa Maria Formosa, where my kids and I spend most of our time.

I have spent countless hours sitting at the piazza Santa Maria Formosa. This is not a popular place in Venice, thank god for that! It was just happens to be the nearest plaza where we were staying. In the morning it would be mostly empty as shown in the picture below, but then slowly people will show up. There was a small fruit stall that would open and every morning I would buy some fruit for my kids before they wake up.

Many in the world might think that this is absurd first world problem, but in Houston, I buy fruit from HEB, I don't go to street corner to buy fruit, and then go to butcher to buy meat. We have forgotten all that. I typically go to a "big-box-store" and buy everything. So when I get to do this again, I am typically full of joy!

Later after rain, a few kids will show up on their scooters and they will play a bit. By the way, Venice is very vertical so there are a lot of shots in portrait mode or vertical mode I mean, as I was looking back at my picture that is one thing that becomes very prominent.

Then there is this neighborhood bookshop, Libreria Acqua Alta, it is loved to death. It has become a tourist destination. People only go there to take picture, and not buy or even read books. "Acqua Alta" translates to "high water" in Italian, a nod to Venice’s frequent high tides that flood the city, including the bookstore. It is opened in 2002 by Luigi Frizzo, a Venetian by adoption with a passion for books and travel. I can only go there right around 9am or around closing time 7:30pm, just about the time of opening of the store, because that is the only time I can find it reasonable, I mean without tourist (see I am tourist myself!). Honestly, sometime the Instagram Tourists really bothers me.

Therefore: I must end with a similar Instagram Moment: Sigh!

I don't know man, I'd go there anytime! However, I strongly recommend shoulder seasons, definitely not summer! Just keep those f*cking instagram influencers at bay!