[Itinerary Page]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 15 - Venice/Valbona
What do you do on an absolutely perfect day in the Veneto? Go to Venice, of course! The original plan was to take the train in from the neighboring town of Monteselice, but they were doing road construction and we couldn't get to the station in time. So Plan B was to drive -- not my first choice but workable. Other than an minor traffic jam, we made it into town and found a place to park. (You realize, of course, that cars are impossible in Venice. A boat could work, but a car? Fuggedaboudit!)
Margene and I had been to Venice on our first trip to Italy in 2000, so we had a fair idea of how to get around. Experience definitely makes a difference. We caught the vaporetto (think of it as a bus that floats) to the Piazza St. Marco. The last time we were here it was in July, the line of tourists waiting to get into St. Mark's Basilica stretched for hundreds of yards and we gave up on getting inside. Margene still wanted to see the church and we were hoping that the lines would be shorter this time.
We ran into a work stoppage by the gondoliers that essentially closed down the Grand Canal for awhile. They were protesting some sort of new government policy I think -- we never did learn the reason -- but we eventually got past the blockade and headed to tourist central -- St. Mark's square. There was hardly anyone there ... on a perfect day with the sun shining! Unbelievable! As hoped, the lines were short. Margene did the tourist thing while Marv and I just wandered the streets for an hour to pick up the flavor of the city.
We ate lunch in a small trattoria in a back alley somewhere. The local Cabernet is soft and fruity -- very drinkable. Margene had pizza with white asparagus. Marv had once been the operations director for a chain of 30 restaurants that specialized in pizza and was "pizza'd out" for the rest of his life. He opted for a lasagna while I tried the penne all'arrabbiata again. The sauce is tomato, garlic and chili and has a nice bite to it -- definitely a step up from the convenience version I had at the snack bar on our first night here.
Back on the vaporetto for a trip to Murano where most of the Venetian glass is made. The factory tours are rather tourist-y and the lower showrooms are packed with kitsch that satisfy the feeding frenzy of the average visitor. When the sales guy saw us showing interest in a couple of the more artistic pieces, he invited us upstairs to an amazing display of their higher quality work. An hour later we were the owners of two gorgeous pieces of layered glass -- truly pieces of art. They will ship them to us in a few weeks (we hope!)
It always seems that the drive home goes faster and we were soon back in Valbona. Guiliano and Stefania were working in the garden and invited us back for a glass of wine after dinner. Elisa works part time in a pizzeria in in the neighboring town of Vo' and that seemed as good as anything ... particularly since there was not much in Valbona to begin with! Dinner was pleasant, but had we known what was ahead, we could easily have skipped it altogether!
When we got back to the house and stuck our heads in on Guiliano and Stefania, we were greeted with a table loaded down with five or six different cheeses, three different meats and several different bottles of wine ... all of which we finished before the evening was out. It was a delightful schooling in the various local products. The wines were followed by a sampling of prizes that Stefania kept bringing out of their liquor room -- limoncello, a bottle of Ukranian vodka a guest had left them, Italian brandy -- all accompanied with good conversation and a lot of laughing. All in all, a totally perfect way to end our last day in Valbona. Tomorrow start heading south.
© 2003 Restaurant Doctor