Martedì Grasso on Via Garibaldi, This Afternoon

Fat Tuesday has a lot different feel on Via Garibaldi than it does in Piazza San Marco. Not nearly as many people in costume--and not nearly as many people, period--but a lot more actual socializing and catching up between old friends. It's a local crowd, which gathers to enjoy the food and drinks table set up in front of La Società di Mutuo Soccorso fra Carpentieri e Calafati--or the Mutual Aid Society of Carpenters and Ship Caulkers, whose membership, sadly, is surely dwindling, and whose headquarters is probably my favorite storefront on Via Garibaldi.

Like Piazza San Marco, Via Garibaldi (as you can see to left) offers live entertainment of its own. After watching this singer for a while I think he has some right to lay claim to the late great James Brown's title of "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business." It can't be easy to give your all when your performance, amply amplified though it is, rarely draws a single person away from the food and wine some 20 yards to your right. But give it his all he did, nonetheless.