When in Venice....and thriftiness reaps its own rewards

Tra la la off to Venice we go - suitably adorned with a Venetian bag and purse - made from a 20p scarf that had a hole in it -  not a bad bit of recycling I thought.

Here is the bag - I fancied a Gucci/Versace  type of bag....maybe.......not quite..

This is a heavy vintage button and as I was sewing it on I knew that it was not the right choice for lightweight fabric.  Carry On Regardless...

A bit of cutting and pasting for the reverse but left enough for a  purse (hey that rhymes)

Again a bit of cutting and pasting to get all the pieces to fit together - looks a bit of mess here

I will not be singing 'One Cornetto'... maybe I will...oh the shame I will bring on the children...

I realised that I did not have much in the way of purple fabric for the lining but as luck would have it my eldest sister had given me a stash of samples that were for Burberry (ooo la la ) - so I think that this must have been intended for their shirts!  Who knew

Anyway I had a different bag when I entered the plane....during the flight I nipped to the 'small room'.  Once in continental airspace I emerged a la Mr Benn sporting my Venezia bag.  There was a slight drop in cabin pressure when the entire passenger list inhaled and gasped!!! I spied some nudging -  'Arthur...ARTHUR...I am sure that women went in there with a different bag'.  I smiled demurely as I did not wish to appear toooo big headed.  I nodded sagely when Arthur double checked if I had indeed changed my bag....'Yes, Arthur....I do that sometimes!'. How we laughed.

There was more of a 'to do' in Venezia itself.    I should preface this with the story of how the children were suitably impressed by my linguistic skills...I woke up on Monday finding myself fluent in Italian...read on reader....  Of course already being fluent in a language rich in Latinate roots is a bonus and when you realise that all is needed is to add any vowel  to the end of alternate words - hey presto (see what I did there) you are speaking Italiano!  As you will discover this came in very handy in Piazza San Marco! 

 I entered the Square wearing Venezia bag....soon a small crowed gathered (you can just make out the crowd gathering in the photographi below).  In truth this was a group of turisti who I can only assume thought I was selling rip off Gucci!!  There was a great deal of pointing and exclaiming 'How mucho?' (this may not be a direct transcription).  Initially I laughed as I realised it was a mistake easily made...especially as I looked soooo stylishly Italian in my SHOES (some of you may recall the significance of this comment!). 'No-o, no-o', I exclaimed 'This is  turista tatto' (again I may be getting my Italian a little mixed up here - by the afternoon I rapidly found out that I was not quite as fluent as I thought I had been in the morning).  The crowd changed rapido...no more smiles....a bit of fist shaking...and rippoffo, disgustingo'.  I pleaded for them to come back but my cries of 'Ordero Catho Kidstoni' fell upon deaf ears....

Ho ho 

We had a delicious time in Venice - how could we not!  I have not been there for several decades and it was as magical as I remembered.  I will indulge a few photos as I do not usually post photographs of things outside of our home!

I stumbled upon a Venetian Charity Shop - imagine!  Many, many years ago my sister and I carefully removed an image of a stupendous Fortuny dress from a magazine and pasted it into our scrapbook - I fancied one might turn up in a Venetian charity shop..sadly not.  Sad also that few Fortuny fabrics/dresses were to be seen in the Fortuny Museum....the only minus for me.

"Just one Cornetto..."

PS - I fancied that I glimpsed The Hattatts floating by.... 

PPS - Thank you for kindly comments on 'Chair post' - I will reply and catch up on othero bloggos when I have caught up with the washingo!