When I saw the announcement for this apartment last summer in www.casa.it, it specified contratto di un anno, rinnovabile: a one-year, renewable contract. When I met the agent in the apartment to sign it, however, I noticed a teeny little clause, per motivi famigliari… In other words, if one of the landlord’s kids decided to come to Venice to study, I’d have to move.

(I’d like to emphasize that although moving isn’t a simple thing no matter where you live, in Venice, it’s an incredibly stressful undertaking, especially considering that all the apartments above piano terra are for expensive, short-term rent to travelers, not reasonable, long-term lease to residents).

I got the call in late April, Jr’s made his decision. Dammit.

Somehow I knew this would come to pass. It just breaks my heart…this apartment was made for me. Everyone says, don’t worry, you’ll just find something better; but this is a frequent Italian response by someone who wishes you well to things that are out of your control. Everyone who offers this encouragement knows perfectly well that house-hunting in Venice (if you are not Elton John) is exhausting and impossible. (OK, I hear you. Woe is you, house-hunting in Venice. We should all have such problems. You have a point.)

On a recent whirlwind trip to Tuscany, I arranged to meet the owner (who told me later that she is the permanent pianist at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna) for the first time shortly after I received her call. The brief conversion we had about this “decision” was confounding, to say the least.

“Listen,” she said, “I don’t have any problem with you as a tenant, you’ve been great.” (Beata me…good for me, I guess.) “But, you know how it is, kids think they know what they want, ma non si sa mai, you never know. So, we’ll need the apartment in September when your contract’s up (and if you could move by the 1st that would be even better), and then, we’ll see. Perhaps you could stay with a friend for four or five months, or take a trip around the world, che ne so io, then, if [Jr] decides to leave once he completes this program in January, you could move back in.”

A trip around the world? Prego?

Must be a pretty insulated world there inside the Teatro Comunale.

So…let the games begin. The process generally is that you include in every single conversation from now on that you’re looking for an apartment. Everyone, everywhere; friends, associates, the cashier, your blog.

So let’s make it official, shall we? If anybody knows of a modest apartment in Cannaregio between the Ghetto and Santi Apostoli, luminoso, non piano terra, but not necessarily large…please contact me.