An Afternoon On Burano

  "Down time" is really important when traveling. Johnny and I tend to "go...go...go", sometimes for hours on end, while here in Venice. There's just so much we want to see...especially with the biennale going on all over town.

  A favorite day of relaxation for us starts with the forty minute boat ride out to Burano and Torcello, two islands out in the lagoon surrounding Venice. We have a favorite little spot on the canal for lunch. It's in the area known as Mazzorbo.

 We love this spot because of it's patio, and general laid back attitude. 

Trattoria  Maddelena

  The menu is light on vegetarian options, but that's ok. They make the best "sugo pomodoro", tomato sauce....from their own just picked tomatoes. The garden is right out back. This time we were served gnocchi with said sauce....and some grilled veg, a bit of wine...

The simple pleasure of gnocchi with red sauce. Done very well here....

Wood grilled veg.

A semi-light lunch.

The most relaxing view from our canal side table. Swans.......just an extra bonus.

  We were in the mood for a sweet treat....what better than home made tiramisu and an espresso?

  Well, the crostata di mele(apples)was pretty damn good, too....

Johnny couldn't help himself, I guess. The last of the tiramisu makes a fine self portrait.
On a few levels, I'm thinking.....

  Lunch done, we head to the inner canals of Burano...I had walked all over the island last trip, while Johnny painted along the canal, but he had never really seen the back streets. 

  Like Venice and Murano, there is an area here on Burano that is packed with visitors eating and buying stuff. Once you weave through the crowds, you will find yourself in another world.

  Don't be put off by the "touristy" area. We are tourists, of course, but it's so easy to walk a few extra minutes to find the less traveled spots.

  Burano is known for it's brightly colored houses. This year it seemed almost everyone had just painted their homes. It was so electric!

  Plus, just a perfect day to be strolling around....

I loved this color combo.

Typical canal in Burano. The wooden bridges show up here and there.

Only certain colors are permitted. I wonder if they care which go next to which?
It's all good.

An inner open area surrounded by colorful homes.

You get a good idea of the perimeter of each family's home.

  Johnny kept saying it's like living inside of a painting. 

  A most valid statement, for sure....

All the hanging laundry, blowing in the gentlest breeze...just an added plus.

  A seriously nice way to walk off our lunch, we both enjoyed the time spent trying to "just get lost".

  I had to get one of the requisite "reflections in the water" shots.....classic!

Just a handful of people walking back in this part of town. Nice.

  We both loved the aged paint on this yellow house. It was a beautiful contrast to all the freshly made up houses along the way. Plus, it reminded me of one of Johnny's paintings.....

An old beauty. I'll take it.

  So here we are, strolling along, hand in hand, minding our own business...feeling full, happy and a little dozey...perhaps even dopey.....

 WHEN.......

Cue the music....AND....cut.
End of a perfect day.

Lunch In Venice: Pane Vino e San Daniele

  Having been here now in Venice a week or so, I feel like it's time to share a little yumminess. 

  And what a place to share..

  Pane Vino e San Daniele is a wonderful spot to spend a leisurely couple of hours enjoying the best of Venice. 

  The menu is super vegetarian friendly, and this location offers a fabulous outdoor dining space on a very quiet piazza. 

  Big plus....it's about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment. Sweet.

  I recommend making a reservation. We stopped by in the morning, around 10, and made a 1pm reservation for  outdoors...I'm glad we did, as it was busy, even on a Thursday....

  The gentleman who waited on us did not speak English(always a good sign, in my opinion....), but I had no problem getting across our culinary wishes...

  I should mention that they are famous for their Prosciutto Crudo San Daniele... a pork product that is very special. Not our cup of tea, of course....but something some of you out there would appreciate...

  For the two of us, it was an easy choice....

  To start, we shared a wonderful buratta cheese with roasted cherry tomatoes and mixed baby greens. Superb....

This was served with a local olive oil to drizzle as we pleased....and, oh, we pleased.....

Heavenly.....

What was left after we were finished....

  There were a few good veg choices for our main dish, and we decided on two different plates.
  Johnny had me order for him, and I did... but I knew what I wanted since earlier in the morning when we first made our reservation.

  "Fregola" is a pasta from the southern areas of Italy. It's sort of like couscous, but roasted, I think, and kind of rustic. I have wanted to try it for some time, and this was the time...
  Here it is served with zucchini and finished with lavander oil...a really surprising combo. I would eat this again, gladly. So good. The texture was great, too.....

Fregola, my new friend!

  Johnny opted for "pasta fagioli", a classic Italian dish.. pasta and beans in a soup, almost. Also really good....

Tiny pasta with beans....yum.

  The "contorni", or veg side dishes, were equally fantastic....

  I had a caponata, and Johnny went with zucchini with mint. Outstanding on both accounts!!!

My caponata....eggplant, peppers, onion, zucchini, pine nuts & raisins. Oh, man, this was soooo good...

Johnny's zucchini with mint. A dish I hope to replicate back home. Simple, yet........not.

  They did not offer a house wine, so we went for a chardonnay from Friuli. I know that this northern region of Italy has great white wines....so we enjoyed.

Ummm....no dinner tonight, I'm thinking....

Yep.

 Since we had come this far, why not indulge in a sweet treat?
 We shared this tasty semi-freddo, with a couple of espressos... Oh, yeah....

Cafe semi-freddo, with a cinnamon-lavander caramel and toasted walnuts.
MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

  While finishing our fab lunch, Johnny dreamed of things to be..........

  Hey, it could happen........we dream, we work hard, we dream some more... and who knows?

  In the mean time, we look forward to our next meal at:

First Looks, Venice 2013

  OK....I know I'm being completely spoiled here, but what can I say? It's Biennale time again in Venice, and we've had a good year. Soooooo....off to Venice for a bit. 

  Must see more ART. Nuff said.

  I will be hard pressed to complete many posts while here, as we are up and out at the crack-o-dawn, and home at the crack-o-midnight, but I'll do my best, and then do more posts when I get back home.

  For a start, I am just doing some shots of Venice as we love her, and I'll concentrate on more Biennale related things later. 

  This year we splurged and took a water taxi into town from the airport. It was a treat, and a good one....

  

Totally jet- lagged, but what a way to arrive. Especially at sunset....

First views coming into Venice proper.

The VERY Grand canal.

Johnny finally realizing he's back in Venice.

  We loved our water taxi ride into town, and then we were greeted by the wonderful Jambo, our contact person for the place we are staying. Jambo gave us the rundown on our apartment, and then we were ready to hit the cobblestones and start our adventure.

  We had just enough time to get out and about to enjoy the "Golden Hour".

Sun setting on the Doge's Palace.

 

 We had a guest arriving the morning after we landed, so first thing we did was some basic shopping...coffee, milk, wine, cheese...crunchies...you get the picture..then out for a little bite.

 We couldn't resist heading to our favorite cicchetti bar, Bacaro da Fiore.... Imagine tapas, but Italian style. A glass of wine, some fantastic small plates of goodies, a walk back home and we were both out like a couple of lights. 

  Big time sleep.

We go back to this place every time we are in Venice, usually more than once. It's classic.

  Next day we met our guest and spent some fantastic time seeing good art, eating good food and drinking good wine, and having many good conversations. Between all this we enjoyed the apartment's patio on a side canal and just had a great time being hosts. It was a splendid couple of days.

  We all enjoyed going to the main Biannale area, but Johnny and I want to go back to see more and take it all in again. More to come on that. 

  For those who don't know..the Venice Biannale is a major world class contemporary art exhibition featuring everything from painting to video to installation and even performance art. Very cool, very inspiring. Artists featured are from all around the globe.

 
In between all the art, food, and wine.....

Beautiful views....

Great neighborhood scenes...

Captivating moments......

More captivating moments, mixed with silliness...

  A taste of the scope of the art to see... this being a space in the Arsenale area of the Biennale:

I love this area because of these massive rooms with the original brick pillars.
What a great place to exhibit art...

  Of course there's the food...we have been stopping here and there for the cicchetti, which are small plates of this and that. We found a place near our apartment that has mostly crostini, which is crunchy slices of bread with various toppings. I love ths place because you can take your plate of yummies out to the canal and enjoy with a glass of wine. 

  How very civilized.

We have crostini with radicchio, walnuts and gorgonzola..cherry tomatoes, zucchini and taleggio,

artichoke puree with gorgonzola and some kind of yummy cheese with a fig jam. We'll be back. 

  

The apartment is sweet, with an outdoor space that looks onto a nice little canal that gondolas cruise by on. A perfect home to come to after hours of walking and walking and walking. My feet hurt! But it's all good.

Walking to the apartment in the Dorsoduro area of Venice.

This the canal we are on.....the apartment is there on the corner with the white sign...

Kickin' back on the patio.
Ummm...need I say more?

  I'm listening to boats cruising by right now, voices of the locals as they "drive" home on these fluid "streets"....it's heaven, and I feel ultimately grateful to be here again.
  I'm looking forward to sharing lots more art and food in upcoming blog posts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do....Until next time...and feeling so damn lucky...... Ciao from Venezia!