Venturing Through Venice

We spent three fantastic days in Venice. The full album for Italy is available.

We arrived in Venice on the high speed train from Bologna in the late afternoon. From there, we took the very slow water bus down the grand canal to our hotel. The bus was amazingly slow, zig zagging across the canal every 100m or so, but eventually we got there and dropped our stuff off. 

Then, we walked to the other side of St. Mark's square to Locale for dinner with Tom and Ginny. Locale was a multi-course tasting menu with a wine pairing and it was excellent. The wine pairing in particular went very well with the dishes and included a vermouth and soda, an orange wine and a desert wine. Each dish was a riff on a classic venetian dish but updated. 

The next morning, we went down for breakfast at the B&B, which was a complete disaster. The only thing Catherine could eat was the coffee and everything else was pre-packaged breads and spreads. So I grabbed enough to keep me going and Catherine was stuck eating an energy bar.

We then made our way over to Tom and Ginny's hotel where the four of us took a water taxi to a glass workshop on the island of Murano. There, they were working on flowers for a chandelier and then they did a demonstration making a glass horse in one go (about 4 minutes). Then, we went through the shop, which was almost an art gallery. There were many stunning pieces, some practical, others purely sculptural. 

From the glass workshop, we took another water taxi over to Burano. Burano is a fisherman's village known for its brightly painted houses and lace makers. The lacework is painstakingly manual and the end result really isn't that captivating for the effort put in. Each woman specializes in a different stitch so a given pieces is made by 3-5 different people. It's not surprising that it's a dying art. 

The small island was swarmed with people taking posed pictures in front of the brightly colored houses. Instagram is probably the best/worst thing to happen to the island! The houses remind me of pictures of Newfoundland. There are two stories about why the houses are so brightly colored. First, the houses are easier for the fishermen to find in the fog of the lagoon when they return in the wee hours of the morning. Second, they were just drunk and thought that it would be a great idea. It's hard to tell which story is real, but the parallel to Newfoundland doesn't help settle the matter.

For lunch, we had some delicious food at the Black Cat. It started with Prosecco from the tap and a full plate of appetizers consisting of various seafood. For the main Ginny and I had the go fish rissotto, which was the main reason we came to the island. It's made using a fish broth of little go fish that come from the lagoon. They used to be the garbage fish that you'd catch by accident. Then, it's rice and not much else and it was spectacular. Full of flavour, very creamy and the rice was the perfect texture past el dente but not mush. Tom and Catherine had the spaghetti and clams, which was also excellent and tasted of the sea and garlic. 

After lunch, we wandered through the shops on the island and then eventually made our way back to the dock. From there, we took the water bus back to the main island in Venice. It was a much slower trip than the water taxis, taking 40 min. Water taxis are speedboats, while the busses are much larger and designed to carry many people. So it's not that surprising, but we were definitely glad that we had the taxies earlier that were setup by the hotel. 

Back on the main island, we slowly made our way back to St. Mark's square on foot. Along the way, we stopped for some window shopping and at a few bars to have spritzes and cicchetti. Cicchetti is the Venetian equivalent of tapas and tends to be very heavy on the seafood. There was also a lot of olive oil and even some veggies like artichoke hearts from big artichokes.

We had dinner at CoVino. It's a super small restaurant (only 15 seats) with two seatings a night. In Venice, they typically don't expect to turn a table over. Once you have the reservation for dinner, the table is yours for the night. CoVino is an exception because of its size. They were saying that it's gotten so popular that Venetians can never go there for dinner because it's always booked out at least two weeks in advance by tourists and a Venetian would never book that far in advance. It was another prix-fixe menu with a really eclectic wine selection. The food was excellent but the portions for different dishes were very unpredictable. I had some roasted clams with tomatoes to start. My main was a seafood pasta that filled me up and then for desert, I had watermelon soaked in absinth that was very refreshing. 

After dinner, we strolled our way back to the hotel through St. Mark's square at night. The square was lit up with candles in every arch casting magical lighting over all the tourists. It was very lively with four different restaurants dueling it out with their string quartets playing Vivaldi and other classics.

On our last in Venice, Catherine's joints finally caught up to her and we had to take it easier. We had breakfast at a cafe near the hotel where Catherine could get some eggs and I had some pastries. Then we did a quick visit to Ca' Rezzonico which was a trader's house and is now the main repository of 18th century art and furniture in Venice. It even has a transplanted apothecary with herb jars, alembics and all the other tools of the trade of an 18th century apothecary. After a quick visit, we went back to the hotel so that Catherine could rest up her joints.

Around lunch, we ventured forth going towards RosaRossa, a pizza place that Catherine found online with gluten free pizzas. It had the best gluten free pizza either of us has tasted, so Catherine glutted herself while I had the spaghetti nero, or spaghetti with cuttlefish and ink. It's a classic Venetian dish and has an intense briney flavour that can be a little overwhelming. It would be perfect for an appetizer, but was honestly a little much for a whole plate. 

After lunch, we walked over to the Rialto bridge, which is both beautify and packed and then made our way back to St. Mark's square. There, we waited in line to see the St. Mark's Basilica which was a little nuts. The inside is dripping in gold, mostly in the form of mosaics showing stories from the scriptures. The floors were intricate geometric mosaic patterns that were stunning, but usually overlooked under people's feet. Finally, there was a treasure trove, litterally. A ton of relics and treasures that were stolen from Constantinople in the sack of the 4th crusade. The Venetians were bastards to convince the crusaders to do that sack! For a long time, the Basilica was the Doge's personal chapel, which was also criminal given its size and treasure contained within.

After seeing the Basilica, we stopped for a quick coffee and then went into the Doge's palace. Most of the main floor burnt down in 1483 so the rooms were rebuilt and re-decorated after that using the full wealth of Venice. There was some amazing artistry. Most of the work of government was done there and different rooms were for different assemblies. There were many assemblies like the council of 10, the naval council, the court and the council of all citizens. They had a very complex form of government that survived for 1000 years. Most of the visit was about the art, but it made me want to learn more about how their government was setup. Actually, most of the museums in Venice are about the art that's been produced in the city. We weren't able to find the museum about the history, government, or how Venice is constructed, which I found a little odd. 

After the Doge's palace we met up with Tom and Ginny for dinner at a pizza place we passed the day before. Catherine's second pizza of the day wasn't as good as lunch, but it was still quite tasty and cheap. It was a great low key way to finish up the trip.

In the morning, we woke up before dawn and took a 5am water taxi to the airport. Of course you can take a boat to the airport! It was a little magical seeing the city in the wee hours of the morning when the lights are on but the city is covered in a quiet blanket where all you can hear is the lap of the lagoon.