If you’re a frequent visitor to Venice or are coming for an extended period of time (a month or more), you may want to look into applying for the new imob smart-card pass with a tessera di abbonamento.

Here are some to-the-best-of-my-knowledge application FYIs.

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I must let anyone know who might be in town and might be interested, that the two excellent musicians who exhibit such extraordinary patience while instructing us to sing, and accompanying us while give it our best efforts will be performing in their own right this Sunday at 9p, in the beautiful Palazzo Ca’ Zenobio. The Palazzo is behind and down the fondamenta from the Campo San Margherita; its spacious gardens, grounds and palace are worth a tour with or without music. And the music? Mozart, Schumann, Rossini, Bellini. The usual stuff…extraordinarily performed. It’s free, but if you’d like to attend, best reserve a spot by calling +39 347 421 5867; here’s a map to the Palazzo.

I couldn’t begin to describe this unforgettable evening: Morricone’s exquisite strains lilting, lifting, and coaxing closely-held emotions out of you to be swirled away on evening breezes, mingling then with those of all the other enraptured concert goers that filled the square. I don’t think there never was a more appropriate event for the Piazza and its evocative environs. Bravo, Maestro.

(A practical aside: it was during the tension-laced urgings of the Untouchables that we first noticed the acqua making its entrance up through the slots in the Piazza pavement…and pooling right under the lighting cables. The engineers inspected the scene quite regularly during the evening, not sure whether to be pro-active or just see how the situation might unfold. “è Venezia,” says one to the other. “che vuoi fare.” It’s Venice. Whaddya gonna do.)

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