Moments in Venice....

Killing time this morning...waiting to hike to the train station. We don't want to leave Venice, but we know we'll be back asap. 

We love being here, and it was a good visit with a great work/play balance. 

We'll be heading back to Umbria today, and that's not bad.

I've taken loads of pictures, and want to just share some moments. 

I love the details here, as well as the sheer beauty of the canals and buildings. It's hard to put the camera down!

Lovely bars on the windows here.

One of many shops here in Venice that sell wine in "bulk".
BYOB and get it filled! Pretty cheap, too.

Another lovely shrine.

Lots of "nurseries" here in Venice.

This painting in the window of a framer's shop 
caught my eye.

So many interesting door handles!

Green & White.

Canal beauty.

A magnificent home with a cat and a pomegranate tree.

Another stunner.

In a quiet spot.

It's just beautiful. That's all.

I see us here again and again.
 

Hope to get a couple more Venice posts done soon.

A Couple Of Meals in Venice

I know many of you look forward to my blogs about food...I do, too.

I just want to say that you must forgive me for the not so great color...when we eat in restaurants here, there is always a dull yellow glow. The lighting is very low, and leans towards golden, so the food shots look so much less appealing than in real life!

Plus, I'm just using my lil' old phone. Nothing professional.

Ok, got that off my chest...shall we move on?

We are creatures of habit, Mr. J and I. We like the familiar, and rarely get brave and try new places. We love our tried and true! So, here we have two dinners from this week. One a tried and true...one an old fave.

First, Tried & True-

We love, love, love La Bitta in the Dorsoruro sestiere (neighborhood). We have eaten here many times, and it just rings our bells. There is almost always something interesting and vegetarian for us to try. 

We had a starter and a pasta course, and that was just enough.

Our starter was artichoke hearts with a creamy cheese sauce. We've had this here before, and it is just so good. The cheese is northern Italian and very flavorful.

We knew it would be rich, so we shared this dish. 
A perfect start.

They do gnocchi well here, and it was the only veg option, so we both ordered it. On this night, it was served with a winter squash sauce and topped with smoked ricotta. A wonderful combination of sweet and smoky. These were sooooo great!

Little clouds of heavenly tastes!

You must book La Bitta in advance. There are two seatings, 7 & 9pm. No website.

A couple of nights later, we tried a new place! Whaaaat?!?? Yeah, we did. We stopped by this spot after checking out the menu and having a glass of wine at the counter earlier in the day. The menu looked good, so we made a reservation for that evening...

I'm kind of amazed we found our way back, but Johnny is pretty good at navigating. Me, I don't know my left from right. I'm useless.

We did find it... thanks Johnny.

This is osteria "Ai Promessi Sposi", or The Betrothed...

It's a cute spot down a tiny calle (street)

We started with a bag of mixed bread, which we save for soaking up sauces later in the meal. Don't fill up on this before your meal! Don't ask for olive oil to dip it in! This is a no-no...

I'll admit ...this starter on the menu we saw earlier was why I wanted to come here and try it.

This is a ricotta mousse with sun dried tomatoes, capers and basil. It was very good. I liked it more than Johnny...

Again, we both ordered the same pasta. 

Spaghetti with a yellow cherry tomato cream, again topped with smoked ricotta. I don;'t mind...I love this change from parmesan or pecorino. It was good, but the pasta wasn't cooked quite enough. great sauce, though.

A little too "al dente"...

We shouldn't have, but we ordered some side veggies. They were just ok, not great. And one plate to share would have been enough.

I'm glad we tried this place, but we agreed we wouldn't want to go back. Ah, well...

We always order a half litre of house white wine, Johnny sometimes gets a glass of red. We have our routine down.

We're leaving Venice tomorrow, but there is more food to share soon!

Walking and Lunch At Zucca

Once again, Venice calls. 

If you follow this little blog, you know we are in the Venice camp. We love Venice, and come back again and again. 

You can't beat this town for walking, and we have our favorite spots for meals. Nothing changes in our routine, and that's how we like it.

I have to say, it is much warmer than we would expect for October. Loads of people, too...

We are staying in an apartment we've stayed before. We like this part of town...Cannaregio. It's full of families and you feel like you are in a real community. There are lots of young people around in the evenings, and it has been discovered, for sure. But...we like seeing the same faces every morning, and have made some nice connections here.

The view from the apartment...

We've been here a couple of days, staying a few more. We're waking up early and enjoying the town as she wakes up.

On Thursday, we went for lunch at a favorite spot, Osteria La Zucca. It isn't a vegetarian restaurant, but it has many good choices for vegetarians and is known for this.

But first, we had to get there! We walk, and pride ourselves on avoiding the vaporettos (boat taxi), if possible. I like to take photos along the way...

A fab display!

I sure wish I could get inside this old gal and explore...
I just love the Moorish accents.

 

On a corner where two canals meet.

A wonderful square we enjoy sitting in.
Good people watching.

Outstanding street art!

So, we made our way to Zucca...with a reservation. If you want to eat at popular places here in Italy, make a reservation! With social media, everyone knows about all the good spots these days. 

We thought we'd eat outside, but changed our minds and sat at a canal side window inside. Good choice!

As we made our decisions, we were brought a basket of yummy bread...

We enjoyed sipping some house wine as we waited.

Our first courses did not disappoint!

Tagliatelle with a black kale and almond pesto.
I want to recreate this one!

Zucchini and winter squash lasagna.
I will order lasagna every time I see it on a menu.
If it's vegetarian. Always interesting and good!

We had our "contorni", or side dishes, as our second course. We are finding that we just can't eat as much as we used to, and often skip a starter, or share one dish.

We both ordered on this day...We share it all, passing plates back and forth.

These are "carciofi fondi", or artichoke hearts.
These were cooked with oil, garlic and parsley. Yum.

I've never seen this dish on a menu here.
"Frigitelli, or sweet peppers, are like our padrone peppers. Just a bit of heat.
These were pan fried and served with hummus and a drizzle of herbed oil.
I will do this at home!

It was a very nice meal. We'll return, as always...

I will do my best to keep posting! Please stay in touch, and don't forget to explore!

Exploring While Johnny Paints...

I'm often asked "What do you do while Johnny is painting?". 

Fair question...I always have a book or a podcast ready. I like to take walks while he is working, but I also need to document his work, so I can't go too far.

Sometimes I take a little catnap in the car, to be honest. But I do love strolling around, if there's something interesting to see.

Last week, before we left for Venice, Johnny wanted to set up and paint in a nearby borgo. It was a beautiful day and no wind! He's painted here before, so he knew what he wanted to do.

While he was painting, I took a nice walk in and around this small group of old stone buildings...

I believe this was once a church, but has now been converted into a living space.
I just love the colors here. 

I like to look for interesting details. Maybe textural, or color...just something cool to see. 

I love the streetlight here.
The color of the old shutters is really good, too...

Love it.

There are several old, empty buildings here, which always makes me want to explore.

This building has been like this for as long as we have been coming to Umbria.
I really like the stair railing.

The patina on this window detail is everything.

Lovely.

I've walked around this area before, but it's been awhile. I've always wanted to know more about this little group of buildings. I know some are habitable, but others are just falling apart more every year. It's that "beautiful decay" thing...

Yeah, I went inside. Just a bunch of overgrown brambles. Great gate, though!

Old doors are always a nice subject to photograph, and there are a few good ones here, though none with fun color...just great texture. 

The detail around doors can be really good.

Super good detail around this one.

A nice view from up the road a little bit.

Another angle on that first building.

 

As for the painting, it went well!