Venice, Italy – On Monday, June 12 we started out at 11 am from our apartment in Lido, to travel by vaporetto (water taxi) to the Naval Museum at the Arsenale stop. But the gentleman who greeted us at the door there told us that the Museum would be closed until September. (The world-renown Biennale Art Festival encompasses the grounds of the Arsenale and will run through November, 2017, so of course, this makes absolutely no sense at all to have this major museum site closed during such an important world-class festival, but, ” when in Rome…”. He was nice enough to direct us around the corner to the Ship Pavilion Museum which we didn’t even realise was an option.
The Arsenale was built in the 12th century as the Venetian Republic’s shipyard. A crew could build a vessel in one day. Visiting dignitaries of the day could easily become quite intimidated by this assembly-line-style defense system.
We enjoyed this museum immensely, and after the brief tour, we sat outside at the park nearby and ate our packed lunch. We filled our water bottles from the pubic fountain located there.
We had such a good time at this little museum and as it was still early in the day, we thought we would take the vaporetto up the Grand Canal to the Natural History Museum.
Unfortunately, after we’d gotten off at the St. Stae stop and taken the back alleys to finally arrive at the Turkish Embassy (which now houses the Natural History Museum) we learned from a sign posted there that the Museum is closed on Mondays. C’est la vie.
We thought it would be a simple matter to continue walking through the back streets up to the next vaporetto stop (the museum was positioned almost exactly in between two stops) but due to a lack of signs for the closest stop, we overshot our mark and came up at the Ferrovia Train Station. This was only about a ten-minute walk from the Museum so it was not terribly out of the way. And of course, we’d already had a wealth of experience with the vaporetto stop at the train station so it was quite easy to walk over the bridge at Ferrovia and then to find the correct dock and boat line back to Lido.
I knew that Jim was now quite familiar travelling this route solo, so I got off at the San Marco Zaccaria stop to explore the shops; Jim continued on to Lido (successfully!). By luck, I found the tiny antique shop I’d visited every time since my first trip to Venice 6 years ago. And again by luck I just happened to be wearing a small sterling silver Venezia pendant I’d bought in this very same store during that very first visit. I indicated the pendant to the store owner and she was glad to see that I had returned. I purchased 6 perfect, small, round, red beads that looked just like ripe heirloom tomatoes. I left the store by the same street I’d travelled to get there.
Via Filippo-Giacomo – in order to pick up the vaporetto for the return trip to Lido and stepped into a Murano glass shop on the walk back. A friendly young man greeted me and noticed that I was admiring the glass miniatures. He mentioned the store’s other branch just a few doors up and offered to walk me there since he was going in that direction anyway and so was I. During this brief walk, he asked me if this was my first time in Venice and I said “no, quattro or cinque – 4th or 5th time, I’ve lost track”. And he said “welcome back” So nice. Then I asked if he lived in Venice and he said “no in Murano”. I told him we’d planned to go to Murano this week. And he said not to go on Friday as there would be a water bus strike that day. This was a monumentally important tidbit of information for anyone in Venice who might be planning an excursion for Friday. And there’s no other way to travel here except by boat. He said the boats would operate for the workers but then would strike for the remainder of the day. (sometimes these strikes occur as announced and then again, sometimes they don’t.)
I continued on to the vaporetto to Lido. Jim and I squeezed in a quick dip in the Adriatic just before sunset, and ate dinner “in” – chicken and broccoli purchased from the local grocery store and prepared in the apartment’s kitchen. The landlord has promised to send a technician out tomorrow to see why we can’t get the English-speaking TV channel. We must hear news of Trump from home!
Tuesday is “mercatino” (street market) day in Lido. I was out of the apartment by 8:15 a.m., on the bus at 8:30 a.m. and walking into the mercatino before 8: 40 a.m. I stayed for a bit over an hour and found a beautiful fragrant basil plant for 2.50 euros, 8 beautiful round ripe tomatoes for my Top Tomato recipe along with one huge red pepper for a total cost for tomatoes and peppers of 3.50 and 1/2 lb of bufala mozzarella cheese for 4 euros. All were purchased at bargain prices. In the early afternoon, the landlord came from his home in Padua to meet us at our apartment with a technician to see what was wrong with our TV as we’ve been unable to access any English-speaking channels since our arrival. After 2 hours, the TV box was pronounced defective and it was replaced. Jim is now in 7th heaven as we are able to get all the (Trump) news from home.
Our friend Patrizia joined us for dinner “in” that night. The vegetarian menu included Top Tomatoes with Italian-style (colours: red white and green reflecting the colours of the Italian flag) steamed broccoli, steamed green beans, wine, and for dessert limoncello and fabulous gelato that Patrizia brought with her from the vendor just down the street on the Gran Viale. Patrizia gave us a running translation of a fascinating Italian TV station documentary about Venice – and described her recipe for home-made vinegar.
Patrizia’s Vinegar “Mother”
By; Patrizia Mel
To start the vinegar “mother”: save some leftover wine in a glass or ceramic jar or bottle. Add new wine (it can be leftover wine) occasionally. Pour off some of the mixture to use as vinegar to mix with other ingredients for salad dressing from time to time, leaving the “mother” behind to be added to over and over again. She has promised to bring a small bottle of the “mother” for me to pack for the flight home to the USA.