Islands of tranquility among the tourists

After our Thursday trip to the islands of Murano and Burano, we attended a concert by Interpreti Veneziani, a small chamber orchestra with cembalo/harpsichord, in the Chiesa San vidal, quite a setting for a concert (pic). We were fortunate to sit in about the third row back so that we heard mostly direct sound as opposed to the great amount of harsh reverberation likely heard further back -- most churches do not present good accoustics. The program featured the hackneyed "Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, selections from which are easily recognizable as jingles in TV commercials. Fortunately however, the Interpreti Veneziani musicians play with a great deal of verve and elan, as opposed to the saccharine approach to what can be saccharine music so often heard (in elevators, as background music at some restaurants, etc.) in this music. A minor revelation, bravo! The remainder of the program was a Bach concerto (it seemed at least to me, played a little unidiomatically for Bach, but again with much verve, perhaps not as successful as the Vivaldi in my opinion), and a piece by Paganini, for cello. The little I know of Paganini is that he was one of the great, or by some accounts, the greatest, violin virtuosi in history and quite a showman in his time, so I expected a showy piece and was not disappointed. Davide Amadio is a physical, showy and accomplished cellist who really dug into this piece to the great delight of the audience.
Like the Thursday night concert, a Saturday morning trip to the Dorsoduro sestiere (district) of Venice was an island of tranquility compared to the jostling crowds in the San Marco / Rialto areas. Dorsoduro is comparatively quiet and residential and we really enjoyed walking this area, running into only a few local residents and likewise walking visitors. A couple pics here do not do the area justice.
Today (Saturday) we also finally went into the tempting pasticcerria (pic) with pastries, coffee and small sandwiches, located on Campo San Luca very close to our hotel. Really great -- if one could reasonably live on fruit tarts and cannoli, this might be the place to do it. More later.