Venice Above and Beyond Our Expectations

We’re on the road again, leaving the breathtakingly beautiful Veneto Vineyards and heading into Venice. Venice is a place like no other and never fails to impress. We studied many photographs of this city in mapping out our trip and Betty even made sure she saw the movie “Summertime” with Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. Any visuals we had previously seen did not diminish our awe as we took in the beauty and uniqueness of the canals, Basilica di San Marco and the Ducal Palace.

If you are visiting Venice from within Italy some travelers, like my son, believe that it is best to travel by train. For us, you can have the train. We prefer to drive, and then if you wish, you can leave your car in Mestre, in a supervised lot, and take the train into Venice. Of course, this was not our way to travel. We drove to Venice and experienced the thrill of taking a vaporetti, waterbus, to our hotel. Needless to say, it was a great beginning to a wonderful sojourn in Venice. The main waterway in Venice is Il Canal Grande and it is shaped like an “S”. A great boat ride!

None of our accommodations were first class hotels. We found clean, comfortable hotels in the budget books and on the internet. Much to our delight our hotel in Venice was on a canal. From our window, in the morning, we would see gondolas delivering food to restaurants and construction workers arriving at their work sites in a boat carrying bricks and their necessary equipment. Less attractive, but necessary, was the daily garbage pickup.

During one of our walks we discovered The Al Vagon Hotel which is located a few steps from Ca d’ Oro and the Rialto Bridge and overlooks the delightful and picturesque Compiello. It is only a 1 star hotel but has a private bath and a charming restaurant that gives you a view of a canal while you are dining.

Another charming and interesting hotel, the Hotel Paganelli, is within walking distance of St. Mark’s square. The hotel is situated in the convent of St. Zaccaria and some of the ceilings have been carefully renovated as well as the bathrooms, air conditioning and other amenities. We might try this one our next time in Venice.

One morning I decided to take an early walk. As I walked, I was enchanted by a melodious young voice and having no set destination I decided to follow it. It turned out to be a young man delivering milk and singing an Italian aria. Only in Venice!

No matter what you are doing in Venice, you will always find a good place to dine. The food is great! In one of the restaurants we dined at we enjoyed the famous cocktail, The Bellini, which is a combination of ice cold sparkling Prosecco and fresh white peach juice. The story of this cocktail is that it was invented in the 1930’s at Harry’s Bar in Venice. Each summer they employed a man to do nothing else but cut and pit ripe small Italian peaches and squeeze them by hand to extract the juice. Incredible!

Our wines with our meals were from the neighboring wine region, which we just visited. The wine region has recently emerged as Italy’s largest producer of wine with a major quantity classified as DOC or DOCG, Denominazione di Origine Controllata and Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita. Wines we enjoyed in the DOC category with our meals were Bardolino Classico, Colle Berici, a spumonte and Colle di Conegliono, a white. From the DOCG classification, we enjoyed Recioto di Soave (Classico) another Spumonte and Soave Superiore. All were wonderful wines from the Veneto area.

The Venice area produces the best rice dishes in Italy. Also, being a water based Town, seafood is enjoyed. Our last night in Venice we dined on Risotto al Radicchio Rosso, Risotto with Red Radicchio that is produced by the neighboring farmers. Our entrée was Baked Bronzino in Fresh Tomatoes. What a meal!

We reluctantly left Venice but were looking forward to the new places we would enjoy.

For the risotto and bronzino recipe go to www.foodwineitalian.com