Category Archives: Vita Venexiàn

Mi stago ben…

Orsoni is firm: Santa Margherita Shuts Down with the Midnight Marangona

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This sprawling campo with numerous late-night locales creates an ideal environment for students and other can meet and hang out. The only problem is — given that stone and water surfaces carry and amplify even the most subdued conversation — anyone within earshot can’t get a lick of sleep.

What’s a mayor to do? Guest contributor and journalist Gioia Tiozzo of 100x100venezia.it reports.

Venice, August 10 – It’s decided, at least for now. In Campo Santa Margherita and San Pantalon, bars, restaurants, pizzerias and gelaterie will lower their saracinesche [rolling metal storefront gates] and send everyone a casa. It’s a bold — if risky — new move to find a solution to managing the nightlight in the only campo In Venice where masses of youth congregate every evening [especially in summer]. The order will remain in force for the next two months, then reevaluated. Mayor Orsoni has left for the holidays, and the merchants, who certainly will not stand silent and watch, are left holding the bag. 

The issues at stake are not insignificant. 29 enterprises — as many types of activities are affected by the order — will be left to deal with a substantial loss of revenue and possible redundancy. If kitchens have to close at 11pm, some cooks and servers could also be left at home.

Certainly the mayor had to do something. According to the findings of ARPAV, the noise level in Campo Santa Margherita at that hour is equal to that of an industrial area. It’s easy to understand the [ongoing] irritation of [the campo’s] residents, who need to sleep at a reasonable hour. Hence the drastic decision.

“That’s the way you kill a town” say business owners, who yesterday morning gathered at Ca ‘Farsetti to get the May0r’s attention. They want more dialogue and a discussion board to seek an alternative solution together.

The problem, in fact, according to operators, it is not up to the opening night of the premises, rather the lack of control over activity such as shouting, bongo playing, etc. They would have never come up with such a drastic solution; a better one would be to wet the floor at night (as is done in other Italian cities), thus discouraging groups from sitting on the wet ground chattering away into the wee hours.

Joy Tiozzo

Read Italian? See the original post here.

Who sat on my peaches?

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“Snuffbox” peaches: make the Bellini cocktail’s perfect puree…

…or eat them one by one (warning: have plenty of napkins handy).

These white tabacchiere (named for their snuffbox shape) dell’Etna, also known as saturnine peaches begin to show up at markets here mid-to-late July. They’re cultivated in Sicily, at various locations that circle the Etna volcano, where the climate and the soil are perfectly adapted to their needs: warm and dry, with well-drained soil. According to Slow Food, they’ve only been around since WWII, when estate agricultural laws changed to permit perennial cultivation (as opposed to only annual), which would fortunately include peach trees.

While the snuffbox name might not be an appetizing association, these are some of the sweetest and juiciest to be had, and due to their soft pulp make an excellent choice for the puree required to whip up the famous Bellini on a summer’s eve.

Recipe from Harry’s Bar:

Made with Prosecco instead of Champagne, it is nevertheless widely regarded as the best Champagne cocktail in the world.

When making a Bellini, everything (the glasses, Prosecco and white peach puree) should be as cold as possible.

The general rule is to use one part white peach puree to three parts Prosecco. Use fresh frozen white peach puree when you can, but when making your own puree, never use a food processor because it aerates the fruit. (Maurice Graham Henry often uses a cheese shredder, shredding the peaches and using a strainer to collect the maximum amount of juice.) Add a bit of sugar or some simple syrup if the puree is too tart or a tad sour.

And absolutely never use yellow peaches.

In recent times, Bellini recipes have begun to include a touch of raspberry juice — evidently the white peach color isn’t lively enough. Some use a two-to-one ratio of puree to Prosecco; Mario Batali uses goes one-to-one in Simple Italian Cooking, and has adapted the recipe for other fresh fruit, including pomegranate. Now that would be a color the maestro Bellini (after whom the cocktail was named) might have found truly appealing!

In order not to diminish the peaches’ sweetness, a dry Prosecco is probably preferable to a brut. I love the idea of using a cheese shredder for the puree — but I keep consuming the peaches by themselves so that I don’t have enough left over for the cocktail. Markets are open again on Tuesday, I’ll give it another try then…

 

When does a visit become an assault?

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Translated from an article by Marco Petricca in La Nuova Venezia:

At 9am, the onslaught begins. 33,000 day cruisers begin to disembark in groups of a thousand at a pop, from 7 massive ships and 2 ferries. It’s a surge that continues uninterrupted until 5pm, when these floating cities start to sail away.

There’s not a moment’s pause in this Venetian August: thousands of vacationers head for the People Mover to transfer to Piazzale Roma, although the tram was overwhelmed yesterday with endless lines and inconvenience. The tram runs every three minutes, each car jammed full of passengers dragging suitcases and rolling bags. Those meeting them on their return drag buggies, shopping bags and water bottles.

Before 10am, the line at the People Mover station to Piazzale Roma already spans the distance between the exit of the port and the tram ticketing machine [about 1/2 mi]. Those who get fed up decide to cross the roundabout in front of the port entrance and walk instead, keeping an eye out for trucks and vans that whiz into and out of the port and dodging the snake of cars before as they arrive to undergo VTP security checks.

Definitely in the minority are those who take the sidewalk to reach Piazzale Roma. But still there are plenty and form long, single file lines along the side of the road, halting road traffic at crosswalks.

They all make their way to Piazzale Roma, hampered by barriers and contruction work, but eventually finding themselves at the foot of Calatrava bridge. At this point they accelerate their pace: smiling faces; smiling, smiling.

The mass of tourists [ignores alternate routes and] follows itself, bound intently for the center [and Piazza San Marco], so much so that the expansive riva in front of Saint Lucia station is already thronging with people.

At 11.30, lines begin to form in reverse: at Piazzale Roma and below the entrance of the tram. There’s plenty of People Mover staff available, giving directions and attempting to regulate the line. One of the three tram railway ticketing machines is broken and the line continues to grow; increasing the chaos are commuters and those who come this way because the Tronchetto bus isn’t running due to the construction in Piazzale Roma. Those arriving don’t add much to the problem, though; it’s mostly due to the large number of those who are heading in the opposite direction.

They merge with the other tourists who, numbering at least in the hundreds, come rushing out of Saint Lucia train station, heading straight for the cruise ships, via the People Mover.

At noon, the line is so long that it blocks the cars leaving the Garage San Marco, complicating the traffic trying to get into the port and the municipal garage. The trouble spreads over the entire traffiic chain: the information points, bars, tobacco shop, the kiosk of the hotels, all overwhelmed by the crowds.

• top photo courtesy Venice in Peril

Cook like a Ve-ne-tian: Settemari’s “The Venetian Fork”

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“Se i voga come che i magna i riva sempre primi.” If they rowed like they ate, they’d always come in first.

This phrase is off the back cover of the hot-off-the-San Marco Press’s “Forchette Veneziane, A Venetian Cookbook” compiled and produced by members of the Settemari (Seven Seas) rowing club and cultural association. This club has the voga (Venetian rowing) at its heart, but always has a plethora of cultural initiatives in the works, from theatre productions, to Burano lace courses, to the Venetian of the Year award that they created over 30 years ago.

The latest is a charming cookbook, a compilation of recipes from Settemari members, both Venice-born and long-time local foresti da chissà dove, foreigners from who knows where.

This authentic collection, rather than choosing to be in one language or another, is in both (or  more precisely, all three): English on the left side, Italian (or Venetian) on the right. Works perfectly whether you’re attempting to learn one or the other (or the other) of them — or resigned to only one.

The recipes, instead of trying to be necessarily representative or dogmatically Venetian, are instead what people cook nowadays, and have for decades, for themselves and to share — which in Settemari’s case, is quite often. Did you know duck was a big part of Venetian cuisine? (You would if you thought about it for a bit, given that they’ve been quacking about the lagoon since before there was a Venice.) Try the Anatra Ripiena, a Redentore option when duck is a must-serve. Of course capesante, but Antonella M has included “Scallops with Cardoons,” adapted from a meal she ate at “a prestigious restaurant in Torcello” some time back. There’s Cus-cus di Barena, which requires neither cooking nor much space (read: boat). Pasta e fagioli yes, but for a hundred people (post regatta), with the advice that “the colder it is outside, the more people like it.” You find classics like the perfect Risi e Bisi (rice and peas), and others, that to be true to the recipe you may have to move here: “Artichokes and Friend Chicken” call for “60 castraure (first pruned) artichokes from Mazzorbo…

The Venetian Fork is €10, and you can purchase it here in almost any bookstore around town; it’s available now at the San Marco Press UK online sh0p (for US shipping as well), and seems to be available for international shipping from Amazon.co.uk. Shipping from Amazon.com will likely commence once they’re stocked.

Forchette Veneziane – Le ricette “casalinghe” della Settemari
A Venetian Cookbook – Recipes from the “Settemari” Club

San Marco Press
128 pages
ISBN: 978-0956782618

 

A Rower’s Redentore

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It’s a whole different Redentore at water level, in the area designated for row boats only, just in front of the exclusive (and expensive) private party along the fondamenta at the Punta della Dogana.

The moon was full and the weather ideal — more like May than July. Music from decadent disco barges each completing to have its entertainment reign supreme wafted across the water, while we picnicked on a combination of traditional and contemporary dishes in boats decorated with frasche fresche (fresh branches) and multicolored lanterns that grew brighter as the sky darkened. About dessert time, kayakers began to appear like floating firecracking-seeking fireflies, their headlamps flashing as they bobbed about among the mass of anchored craft. Gondole threaded their way among boats of all sizes seeking the ideal spot from which to view the upcoming pyrotechnics (though it’s hard to find a bad one).

These photos are hardly tack-sharp, a difficult thing to attain from atop one floating vessel shooting more of the same — but you’ll get the idea. It was truly a spectacular display (with plenty of red, white and green this year, to commemorate Italy’s 150th anniversary) from sequences of more subtle pah-pah-pah-pah-pop cannon shots that seem to race along the canal’s edge, to a canopies of explosions that seemed to span the entire night sky, campanile to campanile, riva to riva. It went something like this…

Venice Redentore 2011 – Images by Nan McElroy

And for a truly spectacular video perspective, see

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