Venice Food Highlights

Back to food again, so the restaurant, Fiaschetteria Toscana, was not a Michelin star restaurant, just a 2 fork for “buon confort” and it was indeed very good. We opted for the tasting menu of seafood. Our meal began with tuna tartare that had a slight crunch from sea salt and had an apple kiwi sauce which neither of could really note. Next up was tagliatellini nero (squid ink pasta) with lobster. That may have been our favorite. Third was fried mixed seafood and vegetables. Very light and crunchy; we think the vegetables included zucchini and leeks and seafood included shrimp, squid and clams. Dessert was caramelized apples with a scoop of ice cream. With this we had a bottle of a Venetian white wine that was quite nice, Angiolino Maule Sassaia. Sassaia is made leaving the juice with the skins longer which gave it more of a golden color. It was a little like a dessert wine without the sweetness.

Today's lunch was equally good at a restaurant on Murano. We shared a plate of prosciutto with perfect cantaloupe and a plate of small gnocchi with scallops and grilled zucchini.

Our last night in Venice we decided to try “chiccheti”, snacks, at a couple wine bars (osteria/enotecas). The first was down by Campo Apostolino on a little side street. It had been recommended in a Rick Steves Guide to Venice, but I forgot to write down the name of it. Osteria something or other. There we ordered a mixed place of chiccheti and it included some delicious rolls of sardine stuffed with raisins and pine nuts, roasted red peppers, marinated squid and some other seafood things. We each had “un uombro”, a small glass, of the house red wine. You can get a small glass of wine and snacks at the bar for less, but our feet were tired from sightseeing and we opted to pay a little more for chairs and a table! On the way to the Osteria we had passed an Enoteca near our B&B that had a good selection of ham sandwiches, so we decided to stop there on the way back. The patrons and staff were very friendly and we ended up chatting with three Brazilian women from Recife who were visiting Italy for 2 weeks. It was a mother, daughter and mom's best friend. The daughter was studying to be a lawyer and the best friend works at a hotel. The mother plays bossa nova on piano, but I'm not sure whether that's what she did for a living or not. Her son plays piano professionally. At that Enoteca you get to choose among several types of wine that are open. There were ham sandwiches of many descriptions along with various other snacks like roasted tomatoes and something that looked like quiche. There were tables in the back too for a regular meal. Jake ordered Tiramisu to end the evening with which was excellent although the bartenders gave him grief for ordering dessert at the bar. It's at the first canal after canal Guglie on the main street, left side.

Our last food from Venice were pizza arrolatas (pizza rolls) from a take-away shop that we got before boarding the train. Also quite tasty – they heat them up for you before carefully wrapping them in a paper napkin.

Venice Jails

Will someone with a brain and perhaps penal experience check out this photo? I hope you can see the bars on the window. Focus on the right half first. It looks like it is built so that the horizontal bars will slip through loops in the vertical bars to assemble the window covering. Then look at the left half. It looks like it is built so that the vertical bars will slip through loops in the horizontal bars to assemble the window covering. Wait! They can't both be true. How do they build this thing? Oh, yeah, its old and in some famous building in Venice. There were old paintings and stuff too, but this was most interesting.

Venice Kayaker

When I saw this kayaker(see photo), I figured this guy had found the trick to getting around Venice, where there are, as everyone knows, no streets. Then I tried to imagine paddling in the Grand Canal where navigating would be like trying to ride a tricycle across an eight lane highway. Not only are there no lane markings, but it is clearly permissible to travel on either side of the Canal regardless of which way one is headed. The public transport boats (vaporettos) have stops that alternate from one side of the Canal to the other, so every vaporetto is constantly weaving across the Canal. This also applies to vaporettos coming the other direction, of course, so it is a mess. This is not to mention the cargo boats (see photo) and postal carriers (see photo), barges with rocks, cranes, appliances, Guinness (!). One last beautiful photo, Sylvan with a glass of white, prior to our touring glass factories in Murano.

Rome to Venice

On Wednesday, we had the morning in Rome before taking a train to Venice. Having woken up after 9am, we headed out along back streets and found a nice little bar/cafe for coffee and a pastry. Off to the Colosseum then and its crowds of tourists! We had read in the guide book that you could avoid the ticket line by buying tickets at a different entrance, but Jake discovered that you could also avoid the line by purchasing an audio tour for 4 extra euros each. Around the coliseum we walked learning about the brutal games and spectacles that went on there. Like 500 bears emerging from a whale skeleton! The coliseum's marble, wood and most other building materials were scavenged later to build other buildings in Rome, so large parts of it have been stabilized and excavations continue. From there we explored other Roman ruins in the huge archeological area near the Coliseum.

We caught our train with no problem, but found out that we had only validated one of the 2 tickets we needed to validate (you need to validate your ticket and get a stamp for your Eurail pass). The conductress was very nice and instead of paying the 50 euro fine she let Jake get off in Florence to get the Eurail pass stamped. We decided that if he missed the train I'd meet him in Venice, but neither of us thought it would come to that. It nearly did though and you can imagine my relief when a few minutes after the train left the station Jake appeared in the aisle! There were very long lines at the Eurail ticket window (that was true in Rome too and at the time we were congratulating each other that we didn't need to go the window since we already had our tickets!).

So we both arrived on time in Venice. There we needed to get our boat passes and public toilet passes. We stood in a line for about 25 minutes and the lady told us that we needed to go outside to another ticket office. That ticket office said try the one 100m to the right, and yes!, success at last. Then off to our B&B, conveniently located within a short walk of the station across a canal.

So it's true – EVERYTHING in Venice is transported by boat! Very cool to see the boat ambulance, garbage boat, DHL boat, boats carrying boxes and food, etc. They unload onto large dollies which are hauled around the cobbled streets for delivery. It's nice not to have to deal with cars, although there is plenty of pedestrian traffic. Tourists from all over the world are here. In both Rome and here our meagre Italian is sufficient and most people speak enough English that you wouldn't need to know any Italian.

This morning we took the #1 Vaporetto down the Grand Canal. Venice is very beautiful with a feel of decaying elegance. The first floors of many buildings along the Grand Canal have been abandoned to rising waters, but the upper floors remain occupied. There are so many flourishes and brightly painted shutters and hanging flower baskets that it seems very colorful. Wide streets give way to tiny alleys or dead end against a canal. The city has wisely posted signs that direct you from one area to another, but it is more fun to just take a street at random and see how far you can get. So far the food has been mediocre, but we have reservations tonight at a restaurant with a Michelin star!

We got off the Vaporetto at the Giardini stop where there happens to be an architectural exhibition. The whole area is part of Venice's general exhibition grounds where many countries have there own buildings like at the World's Fair. For the architectural exhibition they had exhibits on architecture in their respective countries. The main exhibition hall had different exhibits by architecture firms. Much of it was very avant-garde but really pretty interesting even to the lay-person like me. Jake was taken with the folding wooden chairs that could be stacked to form stadium seats and moved to be a full size chair or a short chair for kids. We took the vaporetto back up to San Marco, the main plaza, but avoided visiting it yet by taking back alleys until we found a place for lunch. I've decided that if you're not sure about the quality of a restaurant, pizza is a good bet!

Rome

Noi arriviamo en Roma! We arrived in Rome! 2 uneventful plane flights on USAir featured seats that reclined by maybe 2 inches, a video monitor that only got the teen movie channels, and charges for headphones. But on time! Customs in Rome could not have been easier with no questions, no scanning of passport, no paperwork, and no passport stamp! Are we officially here?

Anyway, we took the train from the airport to Stazione Terminali and walked a few blocks to our hotel, Luxury Le Griffe, which is conveniently located on a main street that goes down to the historic center. We couldn't check in until 2pm, so we took a walk down Av. Nazionale to the see some of the Roman ruins. Also took in the Trevi fountain which was packed with tourists (see photo) and then found a nice Ristorante/Pizzeria off of the main fountain area for a leisurely lunch on a patio. The restaurant was named Sancto y Profano, “sacred and profane”. We started with the house antipasti featuring hot and cold dishes like eggplant parmesan, salami, olives, artichoke hearts, crepes stuffed with sausage and a spicy red pepper and olive spread. As we anticipated our main courses, the fungi delivery van arrived with wooden trays of fresh porcini and chanterelles. I expressed interest in the mushrooms and our waiter took us inside for a closeup view. Jake got pumpkin and sausage ravioli as his main course and I had the swordfish in lemon and bay leaf sauce, both excellent. A ½ liter of white wine washed it down. Back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap!

Feeling somewhat revived, we went to the nearest bar for an expresso and capuccino and a little cinnamon hazlenut flaky pastry. This energized us enough to go see the Parthenon, an elephant by some famous sculptor, a jesuit cathedral, and the Navaro and Fiori plazas. Rome is beautiful at sunset, in fact the light all day seemed soft and glowing. From Fiori plaza we strolled across the Ponti Sisto to the Trastavere neighborhood, the old Jewish quarter. This was our favorite area so far with narrow winding streets and lots of shops and restaurants. We had a salad and pizza at Pizzeria Scaletti near the main church plaza. On the way home we took a few wrong turns so it was a long walk home. On the other hand, it took us by some more ruins that were quite impressive all lit up (see photo). And now, here's hoping for a good night's sleep!

Jake Says: You all know that one acquires certain expectations about foreign cities. I expected that Rome would have a lot of old buildings in a terrible state of disrepair and piles of architectural rubble. I just didn't expect so much!

Ready for Italy?!?

Yup, Sylvan says we're already to go. For me that mean preparing myself to gain 10 to 15 pounds -- not by losing in anticipation, but just getting ready by salivating. While I took the Italian class too, I am too busy learning Spanish to pay much attention. So I focused on the numbers 1-100 and how to say "I would like . . . " I also plan to say Bon Giorno all day and night. Yippee! I can also say "Where is the bathroom?" and "How much does it cost?" I figure, what else does one really need to know?

Italia

This year's major adventure will be a month in Italy! Jake has been there on business before, but has only seen a couple cities up north. In preparation for this trip we enrolled in Conversational Italian at Chesapeake Community College. This class has covered more grammar than conversation, but at least the teacher is a chef who has worked in Italy and is rapturous every time he describes foods. We did watch a great Italian movie in class last week, "Johnny Stechinno" (Johnny Toothpick). I'm learning more convesation by listening to Pimsleur's Italian CD's. So far I can say I would like to eat or drink somthing and at what time I would like to go shopping. Also, "where is the museum?".

So far our itinerary will be one day in Rome, train to Venice, 3 days in Venice, train to Florence, rent a car to get to our apartment in Castellina di Chianti for 12 days. After that, who knows! Next post will be after we arrive, September 14.