More visitors, Finn's birthday, Bassano del Grappa, acqua alta...

 So we're already up to and almost beyond the part where Finn's cousins Carey and Campbell come to visit. As it has been pointed out to me by several readers, yes, I am getting a wee bit behind. So here's a quick photo essay to get these latest excursions and occasions rattling along.
Well that format didn't go down quite so well, so I've gone back over it and filled in a few of the gaps.

The night C&C arrived we whisked them over to Giudecca, to Simone's restaurant previously featured in Mondays - fun days. It was a welcome-to-Venice / Finn's-birthday-eve dinner, as his real birthday landed on a Sunday-no-fish-day.

Campbell contemplates the phenomenal fish antipasto platter. 
The smoked swordfish (looking like thinly sliced ham there on the right) was amazing. It was dressed with olive oil, peppercorns, and tiny capers. Incredible.

My first selection from the platter. So delicious. 

The raw tiger prawns. Wow.

A few fried bits. 

The scallops.

Next morning, Finn and Campbell had a big birthday hug.

And Finn chuckled into his birthday breakfast crepe.
Probably all those birthday breakfast bellini.

Finn's birthday was also the day of the 26th Venice marathon. 

And the evening of another beautiful sunset. 

And the night of a cake (thanks to Svetislava and Arnel!) 

On Monday we caught a train towards the mountains, to Bassano del Grappa.

A small city in the north of the Veneto region, Bassano del Grappa's two specialities are grappa (obviously) and ceramics (apparently). Both seemed like good prospects to us, as did potentially getting a closer view of the ever-snowier mountains and visiting a town with hills (and therefore longer views than in the flatlands of Venice). 

Ponte degli Alpini.

Sure enough, there were various shops around town, and especially near the bridge, selling ceramics. But they were not appealing pieces, no rustic charm or fine porcelain precision, rather just a bunch of chunky clunky platters shaped like cabbage leaves or decorated with lemons or tomatoes or lobsters. You know the drill.

Finn and Carey on the bridge.

One of the things that it seems like we will never get used to about Italy is closing time. Or lunch time. Whichever you want to call it. Shops here open for a few hours in the morning, then close at 12.30 or 1 for the afternoon, reopening sometime between 3 and 5. As this is also the period of the day I am at work, I only experience it once a week, and on Mondays it is often compounded by Sunday closing running over to include Monday morning. Especially in smaller towns or less solely-tourist places, nothing much opens until sometime in the late afternoon on a Monday, and galleries and museums don't open at all. So our Monday excursions operate on a limited menu, so to speak.

The road up the hill from the bridge.

In the case of Bassano del Grappa, there was an appealing little grappa bar situated in the eastern entranceway of the bridge. It was open when we first arrived, but less than two hours since breakfast felt still a little early to begin sampling hard liquor. Our mistake. Of course by the time we had wandered over the bridge, walked down to the river edge, explored the town on the other side a while, and wandered back, the bar was closed for the afternoon. Our next challenge then was finding somewhere open and willing to serve us lunch.

A grappa distillery.

In the river below the southern side of the bridge there was a hover of huge trout, sunning themselves in the current. Actually we have no idea if they were just in that one spot, but there they were, and they looked delicious. So we wandered around, up and down (exciting!), looking for somewhere to feed us lovely river trout. But our options )as I said) were limited, most places being Monday/afternoon closed. Eventually we found a little trattoria with an appealing menu perched outside. It was impossible to see in through the lace curtains and it wasn't until our ears tuned in to the sound of cutlery clinking on china that we were sure it was open for lunch. They didn't have trout, but they did have bigoli with duck ragu, large salami with polenta, and pappardelle with venison ragu.

A baccala (salt cod) shop. 

After lunch we wandered up as high as we could, past the big old palazzo (now museums, closed on Mondays), old town walls, a castle, and the like. But we didn't find another such appealing bar. There was a big fancy deli back in the direction of the railway station, but they just sold the same grappa we can buy at our local supermarket for a fraction the price, which is what we did on out way home. A nice moscato variety with a lovely raisiny finish.

The picturesque view of trees and hills and cliffs, but without a recent rain to clear the air, we couldn't see the mountains.  

So a little disappointing to visit the home of grappa and not return with any incredible liquor finds, but it was a fun Monday excursion all the same.


On Tuesday night we ate what was probably our most delicious Venice meal, at Osteria la Zucca. But I completely forgot to take any photos, so we'll have to go back. Their house speciality is a pumpkin flan with mature ricotta - oh my god delicious!

As we have only a little more than a month left in Venice, we've started cramming in the museum and church visits. This morning we set off to see Museo Fortuny before I had to be at work, but after a day and a bit of almost continuous drizzle there is now too much water in Venice and nowhere for it to go. Meaning that today was the first day of acqua alta this season. Pretty exciting, but we couldn't get to the museum. We got really close, but there were no duckboards there yet and we were without gumboots. Tomorrow we will try again, with gummies.

Finn walking with the crowds on the duckboards in San Marco square.
Photo courtesy of C&C.

Tonight is C&C's last night with us, we'll probably make it a pizza night. From here they're off to our hot tubs in Bled, lucky things.

26 October 2011