food meets art in venice & bologna
DESCRIPTION
A magical weekend in Venezia & Bologna. Food. Art. Wine. MusicTRANSCRIPT
A Weekend in Venezia & Bologna
Food Meets Art
A weekend adventure that transports and recharges. Bright cones of ground spices seduce with their colors and their aroma. A mosaic pa>ern on the floor is actually an intricate arrangement of rice, beans and peas. A bowl of black seppia ink pasta coats our lips and teeth, turning us into dayCme ghouls. Meals that are more than memories...a moment of pleasure on the lips, a liDime on our hips! Welcome to Venice and Bolgona, exoCc plantets of fantasy, light, art, water, fruity white wines, friends and the search for surprise and delight. ADer a few years of staying close to home, we’ve decided we need to get out more oDen, so when our dear friend, the amazing sculptress, Petah Coyne said she would be in Venice for the Biennale, we thought it might be Cme to go to Venice. And sweetening this stew of enCcement, we would also be able to meet up with the engaging Dana Presco>, Director of Civitella Ranieri FoundaCon. Coincidentally our photographer friend Ilva Bere>a invited us to a food and art themed gallery opening on the same weekend in Bologna. But wait, there’s even more! Another friend, Sco> Givot, was traveling down from Oslo and would also be in Bologna. Now you understand why we had no choice but to jump on the train. It’s very rare when the stars line up exactly so.
The Universe of Italy Follow along for a moment and think of Italy as a enCre universe. At 4:45 am we woke up in our home planet of Umbria. We took a series of trains that transported us in a generically pleasant way to our desCnaCon. We read, checked our iPhones, and passed the Cme unCl we arrived at the Venice train staCon which looks just like any other urban Italian train staCon. But as you walk out of the train staCon you are magically transported to planet Venice! There are canals crammed with water taxis and gondole, sidewalks filled with tourists, news stands over loaded with gaudy painted masks and your eyes literally cannot drink in the sights fast enough. Following our direcCons, we cross five bridges on the way to our li>le hideaway hotel, the Locanda ai SanC Apostoli, where we drop our bags in the Cny but charming room and immediately scurry off to meet Petah. We needed to catch a vapore>o (think of it as a subway system on water) and head to the Giardini where the Biennale is in full swing.
Tra;oria alla Rampa As soon as we meet Petah and her deligh]ul friend, Julie the landscape arCst, our immediate goal was lunch. Can I menCon once more that we were up at 4:45am which is sooo not my normal wake up hour, and by now we were full blown starving. Julie had the name and direcCons to a lovely place for lunch and of course, and it looked charming, but it was also ‘completo’ or fully booked. Off we wandered, dejected and hungry, when Jeff and I both spied the unassuming restaurant front that beckoned us to “EAT HERE”. (He’ll tell you he spied Tra>oria alla Rampa first, but I say it was instantaneous...we spied it at the same Cme from opposite sides of the street.) It was a crammed to the gills lunch joint that specialized in about 2 things and one of them was spaghee nero, or spaghee made with black seppia ink. Think spaghee that tastes of the sea, a bit tangy and salty, only it looks an jet black pile of oily worms. For the uniniCated it takes courage to take the first bite. ADer that, it leads to general hilarity as everyone at the table looks like they’ve applied vampire make up. Very undignified and delicious.
The Arsenale We spent the rest of the aDernoon wandering the Arsenale pavilions. SomeCmes it seemed as though we were merely observing the arCst’s journey, like the Bahamian arCst who went to the ArCc and discovered color deprivaCon. Others Cmes, we were literally swept into the creaCve moment as a huge inverted tree canClevered and slowly swept the floor, or we were entranced by the “Guge” blocks with their wacky Chinese translaCons of everyday English. Or we were happily mysCfied why geeng a hair cut in a tree would be considered art. Our next stop was an art opening called “Glasstress”, which was a page out of Tom Wolfe’s “Back to Blood” only set in Venice instead of Miami. BeauCful people posed with drinks in hand, media types with enormous cameras in one hand, wolfed food down with the other. Entertaining, but 10 minutes was enough. ParCcularly when we couldn’t even find the glass art we had come to see unCl we were on the path leading out of the villa where we met up with dapper Nate, another friend of Petah’s and headed out for dinner.
Finding Dinner We had plans to meet Dana at a restaurant that we were told was good and had the advantage of being easy to find. Which is true. Once you find your way to the very edge of planet Venice, where the lagoon meets the sea, and there isn’t another vapore>o or tourist in sight, you will easily find Ai Tres Archi. Which is why we were extremely late, and why I apologize again to Dana who we kept waiCng, although it seemed as if Dana made friends with everyone in the place while she was waiCng. Over a lively conversaCon about art and the surprising connecCons we had to each other, we were treated to a plate of inky black seppia, this Cme beauCfully accented with a golden pond of yellow polenta. This was followed by a seafood anCpasto that contained tastes of all the seafood Venice has to offer from Cny shrimp to tradiConal VeneCan baccala mantecato (think dried codfish smothered in sour cream...something I think you need to be born eaCng or you’ll never acquire a taste for it). We made it as far as the riso>o with zucchini and the gnocchi before throwing in the towel and declaring we were finished and it was Cme to go home.
Piccolo to PalaAal The next morning, we strolled around drinking in the sights, watching Venice wake up, unCl it was Cme for our train to Bologna. ADer another scenic vapore>o ride, we stepped back into the generic train staCon and didn’t step out again unCl we smacked into the hustle and bustle that is planet Bologna. This inter-‐planetary travel is magic, perhaps it could be become humdrum, but if you pay a>enCon, it will always be magical. ADer experiencing shin smacking quaint in Venice, we were now staying in the artsy meets fartsy stainless steel palace Una Hotel. Once again, we dumped our bags and headed out to meet friends. Over cocktails with Sco>, Lars and the highly entertaining Hanna, we talked about our mutual love of Bologna and all things food, art, and wine. And before we knew what happened, it was Cme to go to Ilva’s art opening. Lars took command of my iPhone and skillfully led the way through the maze of streets. (Are you geeng the feeling this art thing is exhausCng?? If not, you haven’t been paying a>enCon.)
EatArt
The EatArt opening at Spazio San Giorgio felt exactly like being in a downtown NYC gallery, except the gallery is also filled with children. Art in Italy is something you experience from the moment you are born...its not an elecCve class you first encounter in university ...it is your heritage. We discussed the art, or at least tried to over the roar of conversaCon, unCl it was Cme for dinner when we went our separate ways
Al Papagallo With no set plan, we wound up at the most old school of Bolognese restaurants “Al Papagallo”. Entering the restaurant is stepping back in Cme to polished interiors, large tables, menus for women without prices, hushed but friendly service and food you wished your mama had served you growing up. We dined on tortellini floaCng in a delicate capon broth, where the li>le circles of pasta remind you of Venus’s navel, (because beauCful tortellini always make you think of Venus and her belly bu>on, right?), silky green lasagne that was a siren’s alluring call to clog your arteries with savory richness, an absurdly huge slab of deep fried breaded ribs topped with prosciu>o and cheese because ribs on their own couldn’t possibly be rich enough, served with an addicCve giganCc porCon of deep fried zucchini. Thank god this is a bygone era....who can eat like this and survive?? We called a taxi to take us home. Something we never do, but we’d hit the art/food wall and just needed to go to bed.
Wander & Wonder. Don’t look at a map unAl you need to go home. ForCfied by a good night’s sleep, we headed back onto the streets of Bologna enjoying the sidewalk performers, fancy shops, and music that make up this marvelous city. We sCll had one more meal to go, the all important Sunday lunch. Steady on! I know you are sCll full from last night, but this is Bologna, and when in Bologna you must eat! Jeff remembered a restaurant that had once turned us away because they were completo, and if there is one thing a determined gourmand will NOT do, it’s forget a meal that didn’t happen. He needed to go back there, and although he didn’t remember the name of the restaurant, his gourmand antennae knew exactly where it is located. A li>le sign on an arch, led us down a Cny alley, that led us to Tra>oria Gianni and the perfect Sunday lunch. Tasty anCpasto, followed by a shared lasagne because you’ve never really tasted lasagne unCl you eat it in Bologna and then you must eat it again and again. Completely sated, we promised the owners we would see them “alla prossima’, or ‘the next Cme’ we are in Bologna and that is a promise we intend to keep.
No Place Like Home Thank god it was Cme to leave Bologna. This city is a food mecca and one should never stay too long in a place where you run the risk of daily lasagne as that would surely lead to an early, but happy grave. We rolled back onto the interplanetary train to Arezzo and home. And of course, as soon as we arrived back in Umbria, the rains started once again. What are the God’s plans this year? To turn all of Umbria into a giganCc inland Italian sea? It certainly seems that way. But the gods who make rain, also have the power to produce rainbows. And they produced a most spectacular double rainbow that we followed all the way home. Viva the universe that is Italia!
Places to Eat in Venice
Tra>oria Alla Rampa SESTIERE CASTELLO. 1135, N 30122 VENEZIA, VENETO. Telefono: +39-‐(041)-‐5285365 h>p://bit.ly/11r3Tg
Ai 3 Archi Pizzaria & Ristorante Cannaregio, 552/553 – Tel & Fax 041.716.438 – Email: [email protected]
Secret Hideaway Hotel in Venice • LOCANDA AI SANTI APOSTOLI -‐
Venezia -‐ Cannaregio 4391/A -‐ Strada Nuova, Campo S. Apostoli
• Tel: +39 041 0996916 | fax: +39 041-‐8946006 | cell.: +39 331 2934564 | e-‐mail: [email protected]
• Rooms 8 & 9 overlook the canal • Nice sieng room • Go out for morning coffee • Right near the Ca’ D’Oro
vapore>o stop
Places to Eat in Bologna
Address: Piazza della Mercanzia, 3, 40125 Bologna Phone: 051 232807 h>p://www.alpappagallo.it/
Address: Via Clavature, 18, 40124 Bologna Phone: 051 229434
Top 5 Restaurants in Bologna: Bologna Magazine
Artsy Hotel in Bologna
Hotel Una, Bologna Address: Viale Pietro Pietramellara, 41, 40121 Bologna Phone:051 60801 Spring for a suite if you can…jacuzzi, massage chair, fabulous ameniCes, very soothing