Scene I. Venice. A Street. Enter Salanio And Salarino ...

[Dickkooty2]

Act 1, Scene 1 The Merchant of Venice

 

Salanio

 

Now, what news on the Rialto?

 

Salarino

 

Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath

a store with rich lading found on a narrow street;

Dolcetta Aldo, I think they call the place; a veritable

treasure trove where the carcasses of items of the

olden days lie buried, as they say, if my gossip

Report be an honest woman of her word.

 

Salanio

 

I would she were as lying a gossip in that ever

put seal to sealing wax or made her neighbors believe she

wept for the death of a third husband.

 

and speaking of Venice and sealing wax and other sundry items in a shop just off the Rialto:

www.dolcetta.it

 

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj157/dick168/Screen%20Shot%202015-12-14%20at%206.43.18%20PM_zpsbvs0wrtw.png

 

Followers of sealing wax and shoes and ships (to switch allusions as we insufferable Liberal Arts majors are wont to do) may find they carry the requisites ti ti ti ti. If you can stand Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (not the Mozart Variations), the instructions seem reasonable.

 

I have received a Christmas gift from this very shop but cannot open it until the Day.

 

That Dick in Hood River

[MrThoth]

::golf clap::

[Dickkooty2]

::golf clap::

 

IFIYGD.

 

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj157/dick168/dip%20pen_zpsnfgzapoe.jpeg

 

This is what was in the box from Venice.

 

I am unknowlegible about dip pens. As I can assure you the family member who bought it for me is as well. This was picked up on a break between Switzerland and Iraq.

 

I may have an article for the tourist trade. But it is an attractive combination of dip pen and three nibs with a bottle of sepia ink included. The nibs are from different manufacturers.

 

My question (recognizing I will have a learning curve) is how do I get the oil/grease/pomade off the nibs so that they will hold ink?

 

I remember using wooden dip pens with school ink and a cursive practice book in 3rd through 6th grade. The nib held plenty of ink.

[Ceilidh]

I know nothing about dip pens, but that is a lovely gift!

[bobje]

Late I am to partake of this argument,

but reading such high level of discourse,

Do tip my hat in the Western direction,

where the author lives, in Oregon.

And then turn around, and bow toward Venice,

where this unequalled pen originated.

[dms525]

I've been in that store! There is a very nice restaurant just across the passage where I had lunch after a visit to the music museum. What impressed me most about the store was the vast array of powdered pigments with which you could make your own writing fluid.

 

Anyway, wash the nibs with a little dish soap or rubbing alcohol or pass them through a flame or use saliva. All these have been recommended at one time or another.

 

And enjoy.

 

David

 

P.S. EVERYTHING in Venice is for the tourist trade! That doesn't mean that some isn't also high quality and very usable.

P.P.S. I wanna go back to Venice!

[GatzBcn]

I've been twice in Venice, the second time with my boyfriend, and we both fell in love with the city. So much that we decided that, if we could afford it, we could go 2 or 3 days every year (unfortunately, we haven't been able to afford it since 2011... oh well).

You made me want to go back to Venice so bad!!! And now I decided before I go back there I will read The Merchant of Venice.

I seriously would buy everything from this kind of shops in Venice. I would buy the entire shop and install it into my house, and pretend I go shopping there whenever I want, except everything would be paid off. Oh, the good life....

 

PS: Also, the only city I've found that is full and sick of tourists, yet the attendants in the shop are still VERY nice to them, when in many places it isn't the case.

[sidthecat]

I was there in 1973, with a group of my fellow students on Christmas holiday. We had two hours between trains and decided to walk to St. Mark's Square. Needless to say we got lost and wandered around the dark canals and stone walls until we stumbled upon the station again. It was just like "Don't Look Now" except for the lack of a homicidal dwarf in the a red raincoat.

[Dickkooty2]

I agree with all the wonderful reminiscences of Venice. I was lucky enough to be there in the late 60's as a suit for part of the shooting of "Is Venice Sinking" and then as a suit and a tourist in the 70's and early 80's (still a suit). Our company office was in Milan. In honor of May Day, a friend and I sailed (in his actual sailboat) into the harbor from Chioggia across the lagoon and spent an interesting evening singing songs and drinking red wine at the Communist Party HQ in Seta Martiri with union compadres from a local transport company.

 

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj157/dick168/Sets%20Martiri_zpssfmhwd7b.png

 

I don't think it was quite as crowded as it is now that great cruise liners disgorge their passengers every day. It was busy in places but great walking off the beaten track. The vaporettos were public transport for visiting the islands of Morano (glass), Borano (lace), and Torcello (The Loganda Chipriani where Hemingway wrote Across the River and into the Trees and the vegetable garden of Venice).

 

Enough, except to say I loved the visits I was so lucky to have back then. The euro hadn't been invented and lira ... you needed to drop a lot of zeros but even after the math, there were quite a few to the dollar!

 

I am just as glad to have spent time in Venice in less crowded days. I've been spending time now in the lovely area of Bologna and Verona and small towns around Garda.