More excellent company

Michael's three weeks with us sped by disconcertingly quickly, it was all far too much fun having a friend living in our extended apartment. On his last day we had a highly successful all-day excursion through Venice combining shopping (a great leather bag for Michael from Venice's one great recently opened leather bag shop, manned by a very friendly and very well mustachioed guy with really nice shoes, and the nicest bag of course), churches, and a crazy museum-grand canal palazzo-biennale exhibition. Somewhere in amongst it all there were spritz and gelato too. A lot of fun.

The view from the 3rd floor of Ca'Rezzonico where we'd just seen a painting of a monkey holding a lit firecracker under the backside of some kind of monster-monkey-creature. Turned out it was a Tintoretto - a bit of light relief from painting religious scenes and doges I guess.

Santa Maria della Salute 

Fantastic floors in there, especially under the huge central dome.
If only one could get up onto those high balconies to look back down onto it...

I visited a few biennale exhibitions while Michael visited Peggy Guggenheim's.
Found some nice pots at Future Pass, not actually brimming with blood, but...

Michael left first thing the next morning, catching the vaporetto through the sun-lit fog across the lagoon. It was an adventure over all too soon. A couple of hours later we were in in campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, scooping up Fiona and Margo and bringing them home to fill Michael's rooms. After work that evening we met Damien and his boss Keir for a quick welcome to Venice drink at the greenhouse bar. They were staying nearby to us in Cannaregio, in a grand old hotel with what is apparently Venice's largest private garden. Very nice.

The following night we had dinner with Damien and Keir at L'Anice Stellato, an osteria in between them and us and the ghetto. Also very nice.

I started with scampi in saor, like sarde in saor but with scampi instead or sardines, and ginger and pink peppercorns instead of pinenuts and raisins. Finn had a sardine parmegiana - fresh sardine fillets and green olives layered in between the aubergine slices and tomato sauce. Yum yum. I can't remember what the others had.

Finn's beautifully presented butterfly gurnard.
Incernetta al forno con sformatino di radicchio di Treviso.

Damien and Finn looking jealously at Keir's lamb platter.
Damien had sea bass baked with fresh porcini mushrooms, mmmm. 

Me with sagne con scampi e fegato grasso d'oca (pasta with scampi and foie gras, oh yeah),
and Keir smug with his amazing spectrum of lamb.

There was berrylicious chocolaty spongy dessert too, a grappa at the hotel bar, and a late-night walk in the huge mysterious garden, including down into some kind of underground echo chamber with the most incredible acoustics.


The next night Finn cooked up a whole forest's worth of mushrooms and we somehow crammed six around our very narrow table in our tiny tiny house. Fiona, a friend of Amy's we met on out way through LA, and her friend Margo were super lovely and lots of fun to have next door. On her last night in Venice, Fiona had Finn spending some good canal edge sitting time, dangling bread laced with oil from Finn's home potted sardines to attract the fishes.

Finn and Fiona intent on fish gazing.

Beautiful sunset that evening. 

It's been super fun having so many friends! Next week we're hoping to make some new friends with a couple, friends of Fiona's, who are coming to stay for a few days before Carey and Campbell arrive. So much fun all at once! Then we will probably be on our own again until the end of November, and then on our travels until we get home. Well, that's unless any of you have a wonderful surprise up your sleeves for us!

14 October 2011