A day in La Serenissima
The canals of Venice are quiet, the muddy sediment settled down in the watery depths, the motorboats of the rich and famous napping in their berths. If you lie very still in your gondola, feeling it bob on the water, the smooth planks at your back and the sun on your face, you can hear the creak of the wooden gliders as they pass and the soft thwack of water lapping at their sides. Towards the late afternoon the sun takes on a peachy, golden tinge as it mellows and you think towards your third Aperol Spritz of the day – one to mark each stanza of the day, between galleries and gondolas. There is something irresistible about the orange globe of a glass, covered in dewdrops from the refreshingly cold, sweet-yet-bitter drink inside. You look forward to the end of the drink, when you can fish out the enormous green olive speared with a toothpick and nibble at its salty goodness.
You take immense satisfaction from finding little local places buried amongst the tourist kitsch. Every day of your trip to Venice has started with the rowdy bustle of a coffee shop - the gleaming coffee machine taking up half the counter, hissing steam and dribbling tiny cups of espresso that you sip standing at the bar like a local. Fortified, you are ready to face the bustling throngs along the canals. Even you’ve made the obligatory pilgrimage to Caffe Florian in Piazza San Marco, the oldest coffee house in Venice, serving coffee since 1720 with its ramshackle-chic mirrored walls.
This evening you have a craving for a little al fresco dining; some cicchetti at a local wine bar to whet the appetite. Last night you made an entire dinner out of red wine and small bites at I Rusteghi, by the Rialto Bridge – ham and truffle meraveje, salt cod spread on crisp bread, platters of cheese and cured meats. But tonight you have in mind cicchetti at one or two of the casual bars where you can sit with your legs over the edge of the canal, and then a proper pasta. Somewhere along the dark canals of Venice, in the corners where tourists do not venture, you feel certain you will be able to find a Venetian duck ragu, made by someone’s grandmother with the faintest hint of cinnamon in the sauce – a throwback to the days when spices were the currency and Venice the centre of the world.
For more ways to bring the city of Venice to your home this summer, be sure to stop by our ‘Visit Veneto’ page.
