After such lousy touristic food on my first day I got myself to research some good places to eat, so I was able to finally satisfy my craving for good vegetable Lasagna at this lovely vegetarian restaurant called La Zucca. My now official X-husband would have been proud of me and my planning, he was very good at finding us delicious, out of the way interesting places to eat when we traveled abroad. I highly suggest making your way there if you are in Venice. Just lovely!
It just pays to have faith sometimes too…
By the early evening I thought I had really screwed things up. I got on a water taxi to Burano which took forever thinking I should have just stayed on the main island to sit at a cafe and just have a nice long tea and people watch. Not to say that Burano was not nice and beautiful and colorful to visit with all its brightly multicolored houses. I did even sit for a while for a tea by a canal, but in the land of expresso you seem to only get Lipton Tea to drink. and by the time I got back on the water taxi I was dang tired and hungry, which made me make my next mistake in going to a local restaurant way out past the old Jewish Ghetto, which I am sure had nice food, but terrible atmosphere. So I cut short my order after a 1/4 liter of the house red wine and went wandering through the old Jewish Ghetto in search of this other restaurant that an American couple from NY living right around the Guggenheim suggested, which I saw earlier had linguini and clams with ginger, but along the way I got kinda lost and confused and just when I was giving up hope I saw in the corner another restaurant that I was interested in that was quoted as being the best meal that you could possibly have in Venice. It is called La Cannaregio. Dang right, and almost all the early guests were from the US, so I spent the evening talking to my neighbors from my old neighborhood in Oakland, CA. They were touring the canal cities of Europe, Bruge, Amsterdam and Venice, I mentioned that Copenhagen might have been a nice one to include, but they had not thought of that, might have been too cold anyway.
After another glass of red wine, I was a bit drunk and slowly ever so slowly and a little crooked just like the towers of Venice (pictured). I made my way back to my B&B which was in a whole different neighborhood, i was still a bit hungry so I was easily coerced by the young cute guy behind the late night food stand to have a crepe. Speaking French in the street was nice and romantic.
I really think I need a new computer. The touch pad has become too sensitive, moving the curser when I do not want to and when I run my hand over the front I can feel the machinery vibrating. and just now I felt like I gave myself a shock. gotta back up and run!
I actually did find my way back to the gallery I saw, which has a main branch in Germany. The gallerist was not there, but I might try and email her. The assistant working there suggested I came back during the Biennial when she is there, but alas no, not sure I can afford to go to a Venice Biennial until I am invited to exhibit. But I did make my way down there towards the gardens, walking all the way from San Marco around the edge of the water. The gates were closed, so all I could do was look in at the pavilions and hope.
I did make my way to the Cemetery as well, but I found it quite boring with all its stacks and stacks of crematoria tombs and fake flowers. At one point I got lost trying to find the tombs of Ezra Pound and Igor Stravinsky. never found Pound, but I think I saw what kinda looked like a grave for a music composer. The site is its own island, and when I started to feel rather claustrophobic I quickly made my way to the water taxi to get off. The water taxis are great! Pretty amazing how like a subway you can take a local or an express, and have a great cheap tour of the Grand Canal.
On the train now to Florence after a quick last minute tour of the Doge Palace. I was one of the first persons in right when it opened, so I had all those grand rooms all to myself to wander through. What a privilege.
Ciao for now…
Michele Brody
