Sunday dawned grey and dreary, just as predicted. Alan didn’t even walk down our street to see the Venice marathon. Alan was determined to spend the day cooking, which he has grown to love doing. After throwing a load of wash in the machine, he ran out to the grocery to get a few things he had forgotten. In the afternoon, he started prepping his porcini and tomatoes, and I started working on the vegetables we were going to roast. We had gotten two gorgeous pork chops when we went to the Rialto last week, so he made Marcella Hazan’s pork chops with dried porcini and tomatoes. It was so good! Along with roasted eggplant, zucchini, scallions, and peppers, we had a feast.

Monday was one of the most beautiful days we have seen in Venice. We had to leave the apartment so that it could get its weekly cleaning, so we walked over to Campo Santa Margarita and sat on a bench people, dog, and pigeon watching. Then we walked down the Zattere, went into the Gesuarti church which we had never been able to catch open, and then to the Accademia.

We came back for lunch, and after a rest, went across the Accademia Bridge to the Palazzo Pisani where we met Nan for a concert. The building is used as the Conservatory of Music and the concert was performed by five young (high school age) musicians from the Trinity Music Academy in Britain. It was a great way to spend an hour and a half, listening to these talented young people performing Rossini, Chopin, Debussy, Faure, Gluck, Gurney, and Piazzolla. The three of us then went over to Estro for an outstanding meal. We started by sharing a sea bream carpaccio, and an assortment of three meats-steak tartare, wild chicken, and tongue. Then Alan had the amberjack, Nan had an amazing pork chop dish, and I had stuffed, grilled squid. We finished with a semifreddo of cream, chestnuts, and dark chocolate. We also managed to have a few glasses of wine along the way!

 

Today is another beautiful day, so after lunch, I think we will be heading out, maybe to walk around on Burano. Tonight we are meeting our friend Monica for cichetti (Venetian tapas) and wine. More later.