Venice, Extra Slow

Over the winter, I got an alert for an insanely low airfare to Venice, well under $400 round trip. Compensation for Boston winters, you jealous Californians. I texted Larry to say hey, wanna go to Venice, and grabbed tickets. I’ve also wanted to check out Friuli, so a trip plan fell into place for May.

Easy flights, although Madrid is not my favorite place to change planes. We took the Alilaguna to fondamente Nove, and were met by our landlady Elena. My friends Jan and Ken had stayed in Elenas apartments twice, so we knew we’d be comfortable. Lovely Lagoon view, although it’s difficult to really take advantage of it. Playing our usual game of “if this was mine…” I’d add a high bar table and stool at a window to enjoy coffee or wine with the water and boats for company.

  

I took a brief nap, and Shannon arrived from London. We headed out to walk and have a first spritz at the “anarchist bar” in Campo San Apostoli, watching the world go by. then picked up a few groceries. And wine. The vino sfuzo guy was very sweet, though his wine didn’t compete with his charm. Best houseguest ever Shannon also got some more enjoyable bottles.

 

For dinner, we first stopped at the bar Un Mondo Divino for some lovely wine and a few bites of chichetti. We then had a good pizza dinner at Casa Mia, and poured ourselves into bed shortly after.

Friday morning we had a late start, but eventually made it to the Rialto market. My knee was starting to bug me, so we were vaporetto hopping much more than usual. The fish market was starting to shut down, so we quickly bought some S. Pietro fillets and shrimp for dinner, then artichoke hearts, fresh peas, odds and ends, wine from Mascari. Shannon took us to two Rialto area chichetti bars for lunch and wine, lots of fishy goodness. We even somehow managed to snag tables at Al Arco and Do Spade.

 

Back home, Larry and I rested while Shannon ran errands, and then we cooked dinner together. In our bag of shrimp were several stowaways! The induction cooktop was a bit of a pain–it is hard to find the sweet spot between too low to cook, and too high. But we managed to put together a nice dinner, and we were joined by Nan, a mutual friend who lives here.

Saturday was a gorgeous day. I rested my knee while Larry helped Shannon, and then he ran errands, coming back with a knee bandage, crutch and painkillers for me, hooray. Our Venice trip was looking to be more of a time to campo sit than we had envisioned, but we’ll make the best of it. It is somewhat nice to not feel compelled to run around too much, just to relax and enjoy in this quiet corner of Venice.

We eventually wandered over to Trattoria Alla Frasca for lunch, a cute little place in a tiny, quiet campo. Very enjoyable. We shared grilled octopus, then I had spaghetti with tiny clams, mussels, and shrimp, and Larry had seared tuna. After seeing what the people at the next table were having for dessert, we split a light berry tart. Good food, fair prices, nice people.

My knee was feeling OK, so we got on the vaporetto, traveling around Canereggio and into the Giudecca canal, getting off at Zattare in Dorsoduro. We could not believe seeing two people fishing where the Canareggio canal meets the Lagoon, would you eat something that came from this close to the city?

My cane lets me sit in the “disabled, elderly, babies” seats, which is a nice compensation for the stupid knee. We walked down the Zatarre, and found the Granada pavilion of the Biennale. What I especially loved was sculptures by Jason de Caires, who submerges his figures into the ocean, creating underwater sculpture parks where his work is gradually encrusted by corals, plants and sea creatures.  Fantastic.

I also was intrigued by a triptych by Zina Assi, a highly detailed work that explores the thousands of facets of identity, and how it changed through displacement and migration. A colleague created a video from the piece, really interesting and evocative.

Vaporetto back home, and we sat for a drink on the hidden deck in the back of  We Croceferi . It seems to be combo bar, small hotel, and events space with a courtyard and bar) in Campo San Gesuti.

We made a simple dinner of pasta with tomatoes and ricotta. And now why is a tooth hurting? What’s next, locusts?