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Venice - City of Water
If you have heard the phrase "Italy's Cities of Art" - a sweeping way that Italians refer to the major cities that boast they have he most art; most history; most spectacular architecture. You would immediately round up the usual suspects of Rome, Florence, Milan and of course Venice. For the residents of Venice..well..what is left of them...they simply point to their city of water as if all arguments are resolved; competition over. And it is amazing. A place of tiny streets devoid of scooters and cars; where buses and taxis are boats. Here you are forever crossing little bridges in a place where a circle is not possible. A city fashioned from many islands, 177 canals and more than 400 bridges connecting all the streets. A dense maze of tiny streets that begin and end without names. Venice is a place of music, and art. For some 1300 years all girls were required to attend music school and the boys art school. Little wonder this place has produced some heavies. All of the music stores cater to classical and operatic music and especially the great dead composers of Venice - Albinoni (Fugue in Dm is to die for), Vivaldi and others were from Venice. Music spills out of old villas and churches promoting some event inside, people sing opera in the streets and oseterias. Even the bells have a song to sing every half hour. Arrival and Departure Besides its uniqueness, this place is fabulous for shopping. Great shoe stores, wonderful Venetian glass from Murano, hand embroidered table linens from Burano, Carnival masks, ceramics, excellent clothing stores...it is clearly a place to load up for folks at home. Making this a great place to stay on your way out of Italy, not on your way in. The airport is San Marco Polo. Take any transportation you can to Piazzale Roma where you will get to Venice via a water bus or water taxi. To get to the airport you have the choice via water taxi, a water bus from the area of Piazza San Marco (10,000 and forty minutes for San Marco) or take a real cab or bus from Piazzale Roma which is the cheapest and fastest. You still have to take a taxi of water bus. But you still have to walk through the streets with more luggage than you expected, climbing over more bridges than you want and battling a Japanese tour group that appears to be sweeping the street of people. The Flood Sirens In The Fall Walking the streets of Venice on a beautiful day in late fall or winter you are struck by the tables stacked in the street. "Market day," you think. "Can't wait for that." Then the weather turns windy, cold and wet. High tide approaches and canal waters begin to lap aggressively at street steps. Suddenly a WWII air raid warning is heard across the city. Frightening sound. An air raid? A tornado? The sirens warn you have approximately 60 minutes to get off the streets or brave the tide as it floods Venice. Suddenly you noticed that the general stores here sell rubber hip-waiters and realize they are not for fly fishing. You notice the locals quickening their pace. You notice shop owners begin to attach flood guards on the bottom of their doorways. Finally in the main streets as the water comes in, as much as 6 - 10 inches deep the low tables are set out and joined as an elevated walkway. Narrow for sure. Most people are inside by this time. But you will find these walkways only on the main streets that are easily flooded. Your apartment entrance will probably be on a much smaller street that has no elevated walkway and will be floods. Ours was. If you are leaving or arriving on one of these days, it is a major hassle. But very exciting. It makes you wish you had some rubber booties, listening to people slosh through the streets below. Lido During the Republic of Venezia (740 - 1794), all citizens were required to be proficient with bow and arrow. Twice a year they were to practice their skill on Lido. If you are lucky to be here in the summer, squeeze your body onto the Lido where all Venese flock. A legendary Adriatic beach that stretches as far as its history is long. Here the world weary come to revitalize their spirits in the Italian sun. Large and expensive hotels stretch from north to south overlooking the sea and sand beach below. Vaporetto number 82. Isola di San Michele This is the island north of Venice that has served as a cemetery for Venice as far back as the first of three Black Plagues that robbed Venice from 1347. The time to be here is October 31 or November 1 when the Italians remember the dead. They bring flowers, brooms, buckets and prayers to pay respect and clean off the dusty stones. You should bring a camera. Murano, Burano and Torcello Burano is the island just north of Isola di San Michele. This is nearly as legendary as Venice...not really. But this is where the glass blowing began and continues today. What I ask you could be more important than Venetian glass blowing? Many Venetian are proud of their craft and it is clearly the best in the world. Beware of shops selling cheap renditions. Burano further north and less accessible is where the linens have traditionally come from, but I suspect that some of this work is now being produced in Croatia. They need the cash. Torcello is a mostly deserted medieval town with a feral cat population that replaced the people. Vaporetto number 82 This is the best way to see the city by water. A Vaporetto is a water bus that goes along the Grand Canal. For the BIG tour start at Piazalle Roma (the rail station and end of the causeway to Maestri) and take it to San Marco. If you seek more, it then goes on to the Lido. Piazza Marco San Polo Join the millions with good reason. Here the Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale), the bell tower and square are worth the visit. There are loads of interesting museums spread around this area too. With the bell tower you can see for miles but get there early as the lines start getting long by late morning. In the Palazzo Ducale it is worth the euro to get the audio guide. A little long on detail about the frescoes and paintings, a bit short on history but still worth it. If they could add one more thing to those guides, I would like it to be a history on the goofy looking Doge's hats. It looks like the top of a tapered autumn yellow squash. Very funny looking. How could you ever rule when you looked so silly? Being so tourist-ridden, Venice is notoriously a tough place to get a good meal. You may feel that the best thing to do is go to the Rialto Market, buy some of the wonderful fish and produce, and cook it up in your flat. Still, it's not impossible to find good restaurant food if you look carefully and maintain your standards. Here are some guidelines: Look for:
Avoid:
Some Restaurant Recommendations
Ristorante Agli Alboretti
Restaurant for a small hotel. Pretty back garden with a vine covered arbor, very pleasant on a warm afternoon. Traditional foods interestingly prepared. Carpaccio of salmon and sea bass, thin slices layered, rolled up, and cut crosswise, then fanned on the plate and dressed with lemon, olive oil, and a little arugula. Calamari stuffed with its tentacles and a single asparagus spear, also sliced crosswise, and served on a bed of spinach. Saddle of rabbit, braised and served in a pan sauce with basil and mint. Dentice, like our red snapper, topped with sautéed arugula. Good bread, not the Carrara stuff.
Da Fiore
Small and extremely elegant, the place to go for a splurge. Reservations essential, and if you’re not a fluent Italian speaker, but you know someone who is, get them to call for you; you can also book over the Internet via their web page. No English or German menu, and ladies’ menus have no prices (!). There are little wicker stools to put your purse on. Wait staff in black tie, even at lunch, and there is a clear hierarchy of headwaiter, order-taking waiter, wine waiter, water pourers, plate bringers, and plate removers. Preliminary little plates of two kinds of tiny shrimp and flash-fried zucchini. Baccalà mantecato, salt cod, whipped with cream and seasonings ("mantecato" means mounted or whipped up), creamy and not the least salty. Two kinds of tiny shrimp (schie and gamberetti), with flash-fried spinach leaves and grilled polenta cubes. Tagliarini in seppie nero, long flat egg pasta with cuttlefish and its ink. Grilled eel, unctuous and delicious, not quite oily, but not dry. Cuttlefish the size of a goose egg stuffed with a silky puree of fennel and big shrimp. Nice cheese plate, accompanied by a house-made fig preserve and garnished with a tumble of grated pear.
Fiaschetteria Toscana
Not Tuscan, and not a wine bar, but a well-known restaurant featuring Venetian specialties. There’ll be a whole prosciutto on the carving stand as you enter, a happy and welcoming sight, so you can order knowing it’ll be sliced to order. Interesting presentations of top-quality food. Grilled razor clams, cappe lunghi, sweet and briny, with a touch of caramelization from the grill. An interesting ramekin of roe-on bay scallops and porcini mushrooms, unmolded on the plate and garnished with parsley and red currants. Moscardini¸ tender tiny octopus, tossed with vinegar and oil and slivers of celery. Small potato gnocchi, tossed with sautéed porcini and gamberetti. Little grilled cuttlefish, only three inches long, their tentacles looking like the propellers on a zeppelin. Rich, gelatinous grilled eel. Beautiful, if pricy (C17) cheese platter including robiola, gorgonzola, and a slightly grainy cheese from Piemonte that the waiter described as "summer wind," tasting of hay and grass and chives.
Trattoria da Remigio
I almost hesitate to recommend this place, because it is so intensely local, and frankly, my sense is that they would really rather not have American tourists. Nonetheless, it is terrific, so be very polite, trot out whatever Italian you speak, and leave the fannypack purse and the shorts at the house (well, actually, that’s good advice for anywhere in Italy).Sit for a bit and watch what the locals order &emdash; and notice that they may not look at the menu at all, but rather consult with the waiter. My husband and I had a perfectly nice meal off the menu &emdash; cold-smoked swordfish, an antipasto misto made up of uove di seppie, octopus, gamberetti, some snails, and a couple of cicale,, followed by a beautiful red fish soup, zuppa di pesce, spaghetti with mushrooms (good, but, upon reflection, a slight miscalculation, not being of the sea, and I rather wish I had the spaghetti with cicale). Then we shared a grigliata mista, mixed grill, of little cuttlefish, sole, eel, bream, and scampi. We were pretty well satisfied, but then we watched what the Italians next to us ate after a little consultation with the waiter: grilled, split, very large shrimp tails; granseola, spider crab, the cooked meat served in the shell; a big plate of razor clams (I know those hadn’t been on the menu, ’cause I would have ordered them if I’d seen them); a plate of the cold-smoked swordfish; potato gnocchi in tomato-shellfish sauce; a bowl of arugula salad; a giant platter of grilled scampi. There’s the lesson: watch what the locals eat, and ask your waiter.
Ristorante Gianni
Touristy, and frankly not a place I would have thought to go for lunch, but it was a miserable rainy day, and there was nothing else open in the neighborhood, so we took a chance, violating two of my rules: the menu was in four languages and had pictures of the food, and there was a French tour group huddled under the awning on the terrace (I assume their tour schedule said, "lunch on the sunny terrace overlooking the Giudecca canal," and if that’s what they signed up for, that’s what they were going to get, sun or no sun. The food surprised me, although we did order carefully, rejecting the fire-engine red pizzas and a rather tired-looking fritto misto that went by. By ordering food requiring the least amount of preparation, we had a good meal: plates of prosciutto and of carpaccio; grilled scampi and grigliata mista, this version with sole, a couple of smaller scampi, a small orata, called in English gilthead bream, and a local fish that the waiter said was lotte. The olive oil on the table was old and tired, but they brought me a fresh bottle on request &emdash; snatching it back, presumably for the kitchen, when they deemed I was done with it.
Ristoteca Oniga
Small casual place, wood &emdash;paneled. Very traditional Venetian cooking, including sarde in saor, sardines pan fried, then marinated in a sweet-sour vinegar combination with thinly sliced onions; tender little seppioline, or small cuttlefish; equally tender little octopus; sardines in another marinade with a whiff of cinnamon (remember, Venice was the end of the Silk Road and a key location for the spice trade); fegato alla Veneziana, grilled polenta, and nervetti, which is beef tendon, another Venetian specialty that I had heard of but never seen. It’s gelatinous and a little gristly, but one of those check-it-off-the-list items.
Da Nico
The best gelato place in Venice. ’nuff said. There are those who tout Gelateria Paolin, at Piazza S. Stefano, but it’s not as good. Hint for finding good, all-natural, artigianale gelato: even if you don’t like pistachio, take a look at it. If it is gray-green and a little pale, it’s the real deal; if it is the color of guacamole, it was artificially colored/flavored. What do you think this tells you about the other flavors? Gelateria Paolin’s pistachio looked like guacamole made with those watery Florida avocados, but we did get to watch the manager and another employee have a hissy fit, after which the employee stomped out. Not entertainment value, but I can’t promise you’ll see this every time.
Places To Buy Wine:
Enoteca Già Schiavi
This well-stocked little wine shop also sells panini and cicchetti for a quick, standing up lunch &emdash; just like the locals. They also bottle and sell a lively little dessert wine called fragolino, which, despite the name, is made from grapes, not strawberries. On your second visit, they’ll probably offer you a glass to taste.
Vino e . . . Vini
Elegant and high-end, this wine shop has a wide variety of Italian and international wines.
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