A New Year in Venice January 2018
Dear All,
Jill making a delicious ragu. Era and Michael relaxing in the background.
Another photo from the apartment.
A great little hidden - very out of the way restaurant. Venetian specialties.
David Wild enjoying his appetizers.
December 28, we are scheduled to visit David’s place of work (a high-end fashion designer) in Cavarzere, a little over an hour outside of Venice. We went to the train station, only to find that there were no trains running that day to Carvarzere - some type of track repair. So on a very misty day we travelled across the bridge to Mestre and rented a car. Don drove the little roads to Carvarzere and back.
Passed this impromptu and rather motley shrine on the way to the shop. David told us it sprang up when someone saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in a cloud of dust, or something like that.
Most people were taking the day off at Geoffrey B. Small, but Diana, Geoffrey's wife and one of the owners, is there to show us around; Geoffrey and some workers showed up later.
Geoffrey told me over lunch he relocated to this area in major part because of the gorgeous fabrics available here. The fabrics used in his clothes are certainly yummy.
And speaking of yummy, a very good meal at a local restaurant, where we were served course after course.
This is the antipasti course, and we all had a secondo course.
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Back in Venice to a Vivaldi concert. Very well-attended, totally booked. Later also went to a sort of opera greatest hits, also fully booked. Some absolutely beautiful voices and live musical accompaniment.
More shots from our apartment window.
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We puzzled over whether the mountains in the background are the Dolomites or the Appennines, finally deciding that they must be the Dolomites.
The next day I had scheduled a tour with Nicoletta Cosentino, a young licensed guide with an extensive art history background,
One of many amazing ceilings in Venice; this one in San Pantalon. The Martyrdom and Apotheosis of St Pantalon was painted on canvas by Gian Antonio Fumiani between 1680 and 1704, when he tragically fell to his death from the scaffolding. I read this in Wikipedia, not from Nicoletta. There is some controversy about whether this is how he actually died.
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Outside the Frari (the Franciscan church in Venice)
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Filled with treasures; it is amazing that Giovanni Bellini painted this only 100 years after the flat Byzantine style was in vogue
The gorgeous Assumption of the Virgin by Titian. This was the painting which made his name; according to our guide he was a fabulous painter who had not been recognized and spent his time working on other artists’ works. His talent was finally recognized by members of the Pesaro family who hired him for some major works in the Frari.
Not ornate, but still quite beautiful ceiling in the Frari.
Our guide, Nicoletta, looking about 15 in this photo, with her mesmerized tour group. She was highly accomplished, knowledgeable and a mother of two, so definitely older than she looks.
We finished up the tour with a visit to a custom shoemaker. A charming woman, she makes her shoes to fit the customer’s feet, bunions and all.
A room in the beautiful Ca’Rezzonico, almost next door to us.
Venice abolished or attempted to abolish slavery very early; In 960 Doge Pietro IV Candiano issued an edict doing away with slavery, although it seemed to take hundreds of years to really enforce. Still, as most of us know, this is far earlier than most cities or nations.
Giandomenico Tiepolo, who I find I love much more than his father, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Quite a few Giandomenico Tiepolos upstairs in the Ca Rezzonico. Above is The New World.
Mary, Era and Bob
We were invited to Bob and Ewa Morgan's for dinner with Bob's brother Tom, Tom's wife, Mary, and Mary's brother, Jonathan. Very jolly and Ewa cooked some delicious rabbit which had been raised by a friend of hers. Bob is a painter in Venice and also photographer of the lovely photos in the Peter Koch publication of Watermark by Joseph Brodsky. Magnolia printed the photos as etchings (photogravures) which appeared in the book in a rather unique way; printed front and back on opposite sides of the page, with the back image being slightly altered to show the passage of time.
Ewa Gorniak Morgan, who has recently published her own book on Venice, using many of Bob's paintings and photos, and also Jonathan's. She is now looking for a US publisher.
Happy and More Positive New Year, Everyone! And we wish us all the Best of Luck in 2018!
Love,
Era and Don
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