Food, Floods and Fine Art

Hallelujah, It’s Raining Men

It’s not, but a girl can dream, right? I had that damn song in my head the whole day today, so hopefully, you do too now. Anyway. I planned for a lot of things when I was putting this trip together – lost luggage, museum closures, gorgeous Instagram pics. One thing I did not envision: rain. I’ve had a lot more rain than I was hoping for. Yesterday, it rained pretty much the entire day, except for about an hour in the afternoon, which is when I stopped at my hotel to use the bathroom (Venice is SERIOUSLY lacking public bathrooms. I could do a whole blog post on this topic alone. I won’t, but I could.). It had been sunny leading up to my bathroom break so I figured, hey, I’ll dump my bags (yeah, I went shopping) and my umbrella, and finish up the rest of my afternoon without all this extra weight! Katherine planned, and the Universe laughed and dumped a crap-ton of rain on me. You win, Universe, you win.

Except! I still needed to learn what happens when a city built on a marshy island gets that crap-ton of rain: oh hey, it floods. I came out of my dinner restaurant later that night, and after about 6 hours of straight rain, plus that morning’s rain, the canals were overflowing into the streets and the streets themselves had water coming up between the stones. I literally had to wade through water up to my lower shins to get back to my hotel. My gym shoes had water gurgling out of the laces as I squished my way down the hall to my hotel room. Traveling tip: a hairdryer and a heated towel rack do yeoman’s work drying out gym shoes.

Mangia, Mangia

Alright, enough complaining about the rain. A few people have asked what I’ve been eating, and it’s pretty simple: pasta and gelato. Which is great, since those are two of my favorite foods! When I travel, I usually have to make a conscious effort not to have pasta too often, or my family members will give me a ton of grief (“do you find every Italian restaurant in X city?”). This trip, I can eat ALL THE PASTA and no one can give me any grief. So I am! As anyone who has ever had a meal with me knows, I’m no foodie. I eat because I would pretty much die otherwise, so nice restaurants are wasted on me. I’m simple, so my food rating scale is basically: eww, gross – not great – it’s fine – hey, that was pretty good – wow, even I’m impressed.

After a couple “it’s fine” meals to start the trip, I’ve had two “wow, even I’m impressed” meals in the last two days and one “hey, that was pretty good.” Yesterday’s dinner, prior to swimming my way home, was a “wow” one. I usually rely on my guidebook for recommendations because I tend to wander indecisively for hours and give up if I don’t have advice. I did not set out with much of a plan last night, so after about 20 minutes wandering in the rain, I was seriously considering a fast food place when I reminded myself that I’m in Italy, for god’s sake, and I’m adult and I needed to pull it together and have a grown up meal whether I liked it or not. I told myself, very sternly, that I was eating at the next restaurant I came across, also whether I liked it or not, and I ended up at Osteria ai 4 Feri in the Dorsoduro neighborhood. It’s a local spot, which was evident by the handwritten menu only in Italian (most places that regularly serve tourists have bilingual or multi-language menus), and it had a creative menu, which was freaking a non-foodie like me out. I picked the safest thing I could translate on the menu, skipping the spaghetti with squid ink (!!!), and ended up having spaghetti with clams in butter sauce. I thought I hated clams, but I actually loved them and the whole dish was fantastic. So was the €5 house wine, and this amazing chocolate cake!

Today, I went out to the islands of Murano and Burano (more on those in a bit) and ate at Trattoria Bussa alla Torre, which was a recommendation from my friend Andy. Andy knows his trattorias, because this place was excellent and a great bargain, too (I’m especially cheap about food.). For €15.50, I had really good spaghetti, fried calamari, and a salad. Most Italians drink the house wine, so I’ve been trying it wherever I go and it’s usually €5 for a glass; this trattoria gave the equivalent of 2-2.5 glasses for €5. Needless to say, I drank a small carafe of wine for lunch and had to consciously steer clear of the canals until I sobered up enough to not fall in.

My “hey that was pretty good” meal was at Pizzeria Oke two nights ago, also in Dorsoduro. The pizza was the size of an extra large dinner plate and really tasty. I met a nice couple from Kentucky who were vacationing without their two boys; we commiserated about being Americans abroad in the era of Trump.

And of course, gelato. I decided to keep a running update of my gelato count, so I know why my pants don’t fit even after all this walking. I’m also going to track all the flavors I try.
Today’s gelato count – 5; lemon 3, mango – 1, strawberry – 1. Lemon is still my favorite!

ETA – my hotel is 3 for 3 in peaches at breakfast! Crossing my fingers for a 4th and a 5th…

Goodbye, Money

Today, I journeyed out to the islands of Murano and Burano, about a 90 minute vaporetto ride from my hotel across the lagoon surrounding Venice. Murano is famous for its glass-making. Everywhere you go in Venice, you see Murano glass for sale – vases, jewelry, plates, etc. There’s dozens of different styles and mediums, so the options are endless. The island of Murano is composed of two types of buildings – glass shops and warehouses with furnaces for making glass and glass items. The latter are often open to the public and it’s fun to watch the artisans with their pipes making things. If I’m cheap about food, I’m the opposite of cheap when it comes to crafts and stuff, so this island was my heaven. I think I went in 1000 different shops today and bought a lot more than I planned, but mostly small things because I have to haul this stuff around for 6 more weeks!

Burano is known for its lace-making, and fortunately for my credit card, I do not have any interest in lace. I do, however, love color, and this island is full of color. All of the buildings are painted brilliant and bold colors and it’s just so cheerful and fun to walk around and photograph them. It’s still too cold for the owners to have flowers out, but I would imagine some sun and some flowers make for some spectacular pictures. Mine are slightly overcast and probably off-center, but prepare yourselves for a boatload of colorful houses coming your way on Instagram and Facebook! If you find yourself in Venice, do not miss these islands. It’s a simple vaporetto ride, with a transfer, and they’re both really beautiful and interesting!