13-17 April 2024

We left the hustle and bustle of Milano for the hustle and bustle of a different sort in Venezia.

After Waze directed us to the wrong parking garage in Venice, we finally snaked through a small but confusing tangle of streets to the enormous Tronchetto parking structure.

On our trip to Venice eighteen months ago, we glided from Tronchetto to the Piazzale Roma on the people mover. Then we trudged over Calatrava’s bridge with our luggage to the train station. In front of the train station, the main water bus line had mysteriously stopped and the crowd was piling up so we decided to walk over a series of small bridges to our San Polo apartment. A lot of schlepping. With Bonnie’s recently smashed elbow.

This time we took the vaporetto (water bus) from Tronchetto directly to a stop near our Dorsoduro apartment where the landlord met us. Minimal schlepping involved!

Lodging

We were met at the Zattere vaporetto stop (across from the Giudecca) by Alessandro who walked us to the apartment. He gave us an extensive tour of the apartment and garden and then walked us around the neighborhood to point out the best cafes, restaurants, the mini mart, and other key spots. He and his sister own several rentals in Venice and elsewhere in Italy. He showed us another apartment he recently renovated, that faces directly onto the Grand Canal. Not bad.

Bonnie looks for a different experience each time we visit Venice, so she finds apartments in different sestieres (the six neighborhoods of Venice). This time she chose Dorsoduro. Bonnie usually looks for a neighborhood with maximum Italian families, but this time she succumbed to the neighborhood that has long been popular with English-speaking tourists interested in art galleries. We found the neighborhood to be a mix of Italians, European tourists, and Americans. We loved it. In fact, Bonnie likes Venice more every time we come.

Dorsoduro is easy to navigate. It has wider streets. It has plenty of good restaurants with traditional Venetian food. It is close to major vaporetto stops. It is away from the major hordes of tourists. And we still ran into local Venetians. In fact, in the early morning and evening hours we saw many Italians walking their dogs, and in the morning the corner cafe is mostly filled with Italians. Our apartment was very close to the Gallerie dell‘Accademia and the Accademia bridge. Dorsoduro means hard back; it was named because it is on slightly higher, more stable land than the other islands that make up Venice.

Shopping

This is not wandering. We’ll get to that later. After quickly unpacking, we headed to our favorite shop for scarves. This is our third time (once per trip). The proprietor “remembered” us from eighteen months ago. And, yes, we both bought scarves.

Now We Wander

Robert often wondered who bought the little knickknacks that proliferate in the shop windows of Venice. On this trip he overheard two ten-year-old girls pointing to a colored glass piece and cooing Che carina! (How sweet!) They train kids early to appreciate shiny objects.

Anniversary Drinks and Dinner—Twenty-Eight Years!

Colazione

Bar da Gino was about fifty meters from our apartment, and they had WiFi! The $16 cost for a cornetto and two lattes for breakfast is about twice the price as in Milan. Very good service and nice staff. Robert spent a few hours there each morning working on the blog. He might do a sketch or two also.

Day Two

Simple strolling on day two with a bit of purpose. On our last eight-day trip to Venice we packed in so many highlights that this time we felt relaxed about just wandering. Bonnie targeted some jewelry shops that feature pieces in glass and made a few merchants happy. We also stopped into a few churches. Around the Rialto the crowds were large and intense even this early in the season, with Americans talking at high volumes. French and German visitors are also common. Merchants should be in good humor because summer vacationers are barely a month away.

Santa Maria del Rosario

Near our apartment, recommended by Riccardo Marchesin.

Strolling with Purpose

Pranzo—We found Antico Locanda Montin for lunch by chance while walking along the small canals of the Dorsoduro on Sunday. Although their sign said full, they found a table for us in the delightful garden among many Italians as well as tourists. The menu was full of Venetian fish classics that Robert loves. One of our best meals so far. Robert had bigoli in salsa (his mom’s favorite), a type of pasta with a fish sauce. CHRIS: They made theirs with anchovies, onions, olive oil, and vinegar—all finely blended—with a dash of parsley. Pretty good.

We tried to reserve a table for the following night but they were fully booked for a week because the Biennale officially starts next weekend. This is the preview week for journalists and art critics, as well as artists and dealers, who seem to know the best places to eat.

A Few More Shops for Bonnie

Dinner—Bonnie made reservations at La Calcina, the same place on the water where we had dinner with her friend Meredith eighteen months ago. Our reservations were early—6:45 PM—good timing because it got chilly. Italians eat at 8:30 or 9 pm. The early dinner allowed us to stroll afterward, after retrieving our coats at the apartment. During the meal we enjoyed watching the steady stream of water traffic on the Giudecca Canal.

Day Three

Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Completed in the late 1400s, this is the largest church in Venice. Our previous apartment was nearby. Beyond the many sculpted tombs it is known for Titan’s Assumption of the Virgin (1515-1518) that rises behind the main altar.

We visited the Frari in 2022 and were disconcerted. We were discouraged by the massive but mostly unarticulated space, the red brick walls, the two-story wooden choir structure disrupting the middle of the space, and the obstructed view of Titan’s painting. But the church is so prominently mentioned in art coverage of Venice that we decided to try again.

Better this time. In San Francisco, Bonnie had watched a ninety-minute zoom lecture focusing on the Titian painting. And the church now has a video on the history of this work and the recent renovation. On our last visit we knew we were seeing a projection (brilliant) of the painting, but we had no idea that the restoration was happening about ten feet behind the projection. Because Venetian painters are known especially for color, restorations are especially revealing.

Basilica Domenicana SS. Giovanni e Paolo (San Zanipolo)

A minor basilica completed in 1430, well-known as the burial site of twenty-five doges as well as two of the Bellini painters. Kids use the church facade aggressively for soccer goals.

La Cena

Day Three

Gallerie dell’Accademia

The Biennale officially opens in a few days, and there is a definite uptick each day in expensively dressed foreigners hanging out in front of the Accademia. The five-month-long, citywide art extravaganza, held every two years, attracts a massive worldwide audience. Many of Bonnie’s friends go. Today was a preview of a DeKooning show at the Accademia organized by Gary Garrels of San Francisco.

On our last trip we were slightly overwhelmed and confused by the art in the Accademia. We knew the names of painters like Titian and Bellini but couldn’t sort out chronology or style. So Bonnie prepared by taking two zoom courses on Venetian art before this trip. She brought her notes, read them to Robert, and supplemented with Google. We were ready. Robert became a whiz at guessing dates before reading labels. We were again amazed at the paintings of enormous crowd scenes meant to cover entire walls of large meeting halls.

An unexpected delight inside the three connected museum buildings was noticing the interventions of two architects. Palladio worked briefly on one building, and one hallway is completely recognizable as his. In 1945, when paintings had been removed from the museum to protect them from war damage, the administrators called the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa to advise on improvements. His small dark metal touches on displays, doorways, and walkways are unobtrusive but clearly identifiable. To us it felt like recognizing an old friend.

Tips on Gelato

Bonnie’s refresher on selecting the best gelato. If the gelato is brightly colored, in big puffy mounds, sitting in the sun, keep walking. It came from a factory, possibly in another country like Romania. Look for simpler colors and unusual flavors like lemon rosemary or creme brûlé. These will be made fresh in-house every day or two. Ideally, the temperature-sensitive gelato is covered by round, stainless steel lids. In San Francisco, GIO gelato on Union Street does it perfectly. Thank you, Jaime, for taking Bonnie there.

Last Dinner in Venice (For this trip)

Day Four—Partiamo

Next Stop—I Cugini Marchesin!—Oderzo