As soon as I walked out of the train station I was under the spell. I could breath Venice, in seconds it was all under my skin. Mauro met me at the station and made sure that I got on the right vaporetta out to Murano, Luigi, who owns the flat where I stay, met me at Murano and took me to the flat. All I could do, all I had to do, was to smile. Back in Venezia at last!
After lunch I made it to Mauro's workshop. We went out for coffee and a talk, and as it always is with true friendship, our talk just continued from where we stopped 10 months ago.
Back in the workshop I greedily drank in the colours of Mauro's glass, ths long sticks he works with, the figures he is creating.
"What do you want me to make?" Mauro asked.
"Please make a frog"
" If I kiss the frog, will it become a prince then?"
"Of course it will. Not the way you think though. It is still a secret" Mauro said while working on the frog, me totally mesmerized.
Then the frog was finished, and Mauro revealed his secret. All Mauro's work is marked with a small circle with the tiny letters MV for Mauro Vianello. He has made these letters into a glass stick, handy to use when he needs them. Now he has made another stick, to mark his very special work, a tiny, tiny little heart, still with MV inside, but now so small you need a microscope to see the letters.
My frog has this heart with the almost invisible letters, I will need to kiss the frog to see them, to reveal the prince :-)
My few days in Venezia will fly away. Today I'll meet Mauro again in the morning, then I will walk with my dottore Feli in the afternoon, and in the evening Dagmar is arriving from Austria.
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A visit in The Iris Garden in Florence is now up in the Europe a la carte blog.
