Aqua Alte...



We finally ran into the high water here in Venice. We had to use the walkways and everything. They don't feel very secure and it's such a dance when people with umbrellas pass, but it's a Venetian rite of passage.

I woke up early in the morning and decided to go out for a dawn stroll. I hopped on the vaporetto and went across to the Giudecca. They're rehabbing a huge old mill into a luxury hotel, but when I surveyed it, it's very much still a job site. They were hosing something out into the canal. (I don't want to imagine the pollution...) I walked right to the western edge of the island, which was... well... kind of muddy and damp. But on the way back, I saw people queued up for a supermarket and then an innovative way to deliver goods to a water-locked place.

Speaking of the Guidecca, we ate there last night as well. We'd tried to go to the ritzy Harry's Dolci, but it was closed for the winter. (This happened to us two years ago as well.) So we did the same thing as 2004 and went to the next available place and had a wonderful--much cheaper--meal. We ate at Trattoria Pizzeria Do Mori. We'd met a Venetian girl searching for her lost earring and she suggested the seafood there. Just as we parted, she shouted (in English) "I found it!" We cheered. It seemed like such a triumph. Back to Do Mori. We got served a huge puffed up bread like an empty calzone and it was delicious. I think their pizza is probably aces. But my first was spectacular, a crab gnocchi. It was possibly the best gnocchi I've ever had. And--this is a small detail, I know--the pepper grinder was perfect, with a real rough grind just the way we like it. I also had the cuttlefish cooked in its ink and Ira had the ravioli with radicchio and ricotta, both dishes tasted terrific. Friendly service completed a charming meal.

When I got back Ira was awake and ready, so we headed off to Peggy's place. For such a small museum, it has so about 5 or 10 (depending on taste) masterworks. What makes that painting really work is the ground, a black-and-white tile pattern simply drawn as a perspective, like you see in many a Renaissance painting. It puts a time period to it, especially since it's the wrong one.

Lunch today crossed the boundary into pure delight. We had just a short walk over the bridge to Al Gondolieri, recommended by the red Michelin. We had tartufo bianco for the first time this season and it was so rich and savory I want to eat there again. I had my truffles over a polenta nestled in a light cheese sauce. Ira had his as a main course over tagliatelli. Our wine was a David Sterza Valpolicella, which was light enough to wander over our divergent orders, as I had tender pork for my main dish. It was a cold morning, and that meal warmed us up for the whole day.

We spent the afternoon in contemplation of culture. No, we didn't go back to the hotel room to watch topless housewives on Italian TV. We went to the Scuola Grande San Rocco where Ira was impressed by the wood sculptures by Francesco Pianta il Giovane. They were fantastically detailed. One reference cited it as "fanatically." OK, this has to stop, I've got to get to dinner.

Can you guess what the following picture is?



It's a paving tile from the sculpture garden at the Peggy Guggenheim museum. Looks like art, no?