Ahh!! Vera Venezia!!
By the time we arrived in Venice, we were starting to feel more like wilted flowers in mid summer than the spring chickens we are. Jet lag plus a packed schedule of almost every waking hour was starting to catch up. Venice was still magical when we came out of the station though. A gondola idled up the Grand Canal opposite us, vaporetti coming and going – ahhhh it is good to be here.
The vaporetto ride was a wake up call in itself. The driver was positively savage with his use of the gear box and each stop on the journey was occasioned not only with near whip lash when he slammed the boat into reverse on the approach to the stop, but side to side whip lash as we career into the boat stop buffers. Not ideal for those feeling tender from jet lag, over eating, long train journeys and lack of sleep and we had to endure about 6 of these before our stop finally appeared.
What I haven’t mentioned is that it is stinking hot here. About 30 degrees C. After meandering aimlessly through a beautiful park, I ran out of any self respect and asked someone in Italian for our street. The vague instructions given were a general direction that did prove fruitful in the end. Finding the apartment was great though. It is just perfect for us (see the picture).
Then, no rest for us though, it was off to Murano, to meet with one of our suppliers. We dressed up in non “touristy” clothes and tried to look as professional as possible and headed for Murano. We didn’t realise that it is a reasonably big place and there are about 4 vaporetto stops. We had no idea which one to get so took the first one and were herded down to watch some glass blowing. The furnace is just what you need on a day like this!!! Finally we tracked down our supplier and find that she is not there and is not intending to be there. Oh well, it was good to find the supplier and see that they do in fact manufacture jewellery. There are many fakes, even in Venice, with look alikes made in China selling for very low prices.
Staggered back onto the vaporetto, went to dinner in zombie like state (Kathy doesn’t even remember this!) and then collapsed into bed.
Venice Day 5 20 May 2009
The tradition commences; firstly a caffé espresso made at home to kick start the day; then a meander down to a local café for a caffé latte and a “cornetto” (pastry filled with creamy chocolate). Ahh…. Now we are ready for the day.
Today is a day for visiting mask suppliers and we head across to Giudecca, one of the islands to find our supplier. We are entranced to see so many masks that are not on the web site and place a large order! Our host takes us out to lunch at her favourite local pasta restaurant and we eat right on the edge of the canal in lovely 30 degree temperatures and have the local cuisine of cuttle fish, calamari (sea food dishes galore). Great experience and lovely to meet the people we deal with over the internet.
The next supplier is on the main island and we find a completely different experience. This is artistic chaos, with masks stacked in shelves leaning at dangerous angles, piles here and there, but lovely people, who were so warm to us. The heat was starting to get to us and I look at the idle air conditioning units longingly. We return home finding that some vaporetto drivers are in fact sane and navigate with a degree of precision and skill that delivers a smooth experience to docking the boat.
The thing we notice about Venice on this trip is that it is full of Italians! This may sound a surprising conclusion, but if you just visit St Marks Square and the main tourist spots, you will come away with the impression that Venice is over-run with tourists of every possible variety. However, we are staying away from the main tourist area and find an abundance of locals who live here. It is so nice.
The highlight of the day is that we decide at the last minute to “eat in” and arrive to find the supermarket just closing, but there is one next door still open. We rush around to find essential supplies, including wine, cheese etc and are at the check out to pay and realise that we don’t have any money on us right now. AHHH!! Kathy explains our dilemma to the proprietor, who suggests we pay tomorrow!!! He looks at our faces with jaws dropping and confirms his offer. Wow!! We are amazed at his trusting of us and walk up the street with our bags of groceries vowing to repay his trust first thing tomorrow. That would never happen in NZ!!
Venice Day 6 21 May 2009
The morning ritual starts today with a difference. EVERYONE in Venice offers a greeting. All through the day you hear “Ciao!” ringing out, often sounding like a cat “meow” from some of the women! It is a lovely aspect of local life and embodies friendship and an atmosphere of comradeship, which is very appealing. Anyway, I like to join in this ritual as well and as we exit our apartment, our neighbours are also leaving and I offer a jovial “Buon giorno” and get a response under breath of “guten morgen”. My instant feeling of offence at this lack of cultural awareness brings to mind that there must be an Italian version of “I think I’m turning Japanese – I really think so”! (hope someone remembers this song!). This was reinforced to me by the fact that the next morning I awoke to the refrain “La prossima fermata e’… Zattere” followed by “The nexta stoppa is … Zattere”. Too many trips on the vaporetti!!
Our relentless schedule continues today with a visit to another supplier we are highly suspicious of. His goods usually arrive at our place reeking of smoke, so we are expecting a heavy smoker. We seem to be always on the vaporetti and this time we get on one with our destination to meet Roberto, but while we are sitting there, we realise that there are like 20 stops and a lot of time; in fact, so much time that we are likely to miss our appointment with Roberto, who has agreed to meet us in Venice, before we travel with him by bus to his mask laboratory. Thank goodness for an Italian cell phone number that we purchased effortlessly the day before (just need to produce your passport). We ring Roberto and detect slight irritation. He only speaks Italian and is waiting for us at the bus station in over 30 degree heat.
We greet Roberto apologetically after over an hour on the vaporetto (you just don’t realise how big Venice is). He is lovely, which is great, as the night before Kathy was wondering if he was an axe murderer as he specified exact times for our meeting via text. Maybe we were going to be kidnapped?? But no, Roberto was just lovely and our being late meant we missed a direct bus and had to make a connection. He and Kathy had much lively conversation in Italian while I understood snippets. The temperature continued to rise as well and now is consistently over 30 degrees every day. We finally arrive at Roberto’s offices and find a surprising neat and tidy operation and his lovely wife. We spent a great time with them and really sensed a friendship more than just a business relationship. This strikes a resonating chord of what Dream of Italy is all about and we left feeling very warmed and satisfied. This was so different to the smoky den we expected to find. He was SO kind to us and escorted us back to a bus. Then back to Venice to get on a train to head back in a similar direction to our next supplier. This was a very different experience with these people very professional business people, with much more of a package available to people like us who wish to visit them. Va bene, as they say here.
We arrive back at the apartment pretty exhausted after a pretty hectic day and decide to eat out locally at one of the restaurants in the street just down from our apartment. We have yet to find a really “good” restaurant and we have high hopes for this one. There are lots of locals there. The highlight of the evening turns out to be the proprietor who sings. He sets up his little PA and begins to sing in rich baritone voice local songs, to which the locals all join in. At certain points, they all stand up and shout in unison. It was far more memorable than the food and the highlight of the evening. We were very tired, so had to wrench ourselves away from his voice echoing around the ancient street to return to bed “stanchi”.
Venice Day 7 22 May 2009
This morning we find a great place for breakfast and have now decoded the local code for a great “caffe latte” (double smudged milk please).
Today is officially a “day off” after some pretty hectic business days. I decide to mooch at home and leave Kathy to do her “market” experience. She takes off to the Venice Markets and has a wonderful time finding products and invaluable contacts.
Venice Day 8 22 May 2009
Today it is back to Murano to check out some more suppliers. We are continually surprised by the most promising leads turning to nothing and some small back room operations are just what we are looking for. Every where we go there is evidence of how the Chinese are taking over and Chinese replicas of Murano products are everywhere, even in Venice and you need to be very careful. There are some amazing works of art in glass here, but at prices we can’t entertain. However, we end up buying some stock to take home and get some excellent contacts for the future. Mission accomplished.
That evening we decide to go out for a meal and we find a real Italian back-street “Trattoria”. No tourists here. We book a table. Upon our return to take up our booking, the place is buzzing with locals. A milieu of dogs, smoke and loud conversations fill the air. All tables are taken! Booking a table is a novelty that they don’t really know how to handle here! We soak up the observation of raw Italian culture in backstreet Venice and I am so glad I did not bring my camera.
While our table is being freed up, we order a Campari Spritzer, to really fit in here. We saw some old guys order one for breakfast the other day!! I must say this paint stripper taste has grown on me and I have come to quite like it. For dinner we order local fare, which is basic Italian pasta and nothing terribly special, but it is nice. For the wine we note “Tocai” on the wine list and having just seen the film on the plane “Dean Spanley” we sample this and start barking (no, just kidding)…
However, I do decide to start a photographic series called “Dogs of Venice” or “Cani di Venezia”. I have some good material already. Depending on what happens I may expand this to “Cani d’Italia”.
As evening falls, what I thought was someone taking flash photos turns out to be lightning. It grows more and more and the thunder comes. We ask for the bill sensing impending rain. There is no response much and after large drops start to fall we press inside to the chaos happening in the kitchen and bar. Lots of people, a dog also nearly getting trodden on and a frazzled barmaid who finally puts a bill on the counter under a saucer. I take a chance, grab it and yes, it is ours. We could so have walked off into the night, but this is a family restaurant and trust seems to be the value here. Nice.
We walk home amongst large, but dispersed rain drops and are glad to get to our apartment before the heavens open. We find out the next morning, they never did. Great last night in Venice.
