Thursday 6 May 2010

Then what?

So, where do all the Gondolas go at night? Well, they go to the Gondola Parking Lot:




There's a small dog-leg in this canal, which allows a number of gondolas to be parked there safely overnight.


We didn't go on a gondola ride this time, but probably my all-time favourite photograph came from our visit in 2006, when we went round the back-streets of Venice with Guido (and he didn't sing, but he did tell us that there is a gondolieri for every bridge in Venice, so that's about 400 guys (but no women, apparently).




What else?  We went to Torcello, an almost empty island with two restaurants and a magnificent church, with 12th Century mosaics, and signs of the original roman flooring clearly visible for those with eyes to see.


No photos allowed inside, however, but you can see them here, a bit. 


On separate days we went to what Mr Golightly caustically refers to "Lace World" and "Glass World", where we had two fabulous lunches, the Burano lunch was in a scruffy looking diner with no outside tables, no tout and no multi-lingual menus.  The only clue that the food might be OK was a hand-written sign saying "Lasagne Al Forno", which literally means "to the furnace", but actually means "cooked in the oven", or, made here.  And it was, because when I asked her "fatto in casa?", she gave me a look and said "Si, certo!!".  It was about the best lasagne I've ever eaten, with a slice of proscuitto between two of the pasta layers - fabulous.  


About half way through, a woman came in with an empty plate, had a quick chat to the restaurant owner and popped back to her shop next door.  Talking to her later when I was stocking up on lace-trimmed hankies for gifts, she told us that all the locals eat there, and that it's the best food on the island, but the tourists don't go there because it looks a bit shabby.  And it was fabulous, as was the artisanal gelato we had near the boat stop - three magnificent flavours, including dark chocolate, which I smeared all over my face and didn't realise until we'd walked all the way home from the Vaporetto.


How old is this?




The Murano lunch was equally fabulous, at a restaurant we'd read about in a book called "Chow Venice" called Busa Alla Torre, where they had a fabulous Menu Turistica, for about E15.00 - I had spaghetti with clams, and a fabulous whole sea bass, which I was quite happy to fillet myself (I was well brung up, y'know...)





Mr G had a fabulous smelling bucatini with smokey pancetta, and then something that escapes me, but he assures me it too was fabulous, then I made a complete pig of myself with a piece of their homemade strawberry tart, which was fantastic, all custardy and crumbly... yum.  We walked it all off, later, by trying to find souvenirs that didn't appear in every single shop we looked at.  That was hard work, let me tell you.


Then we got the boat back to Venice and had a long nap.