Bob's Italy Trip. Part One-Upside Surprises

[robert brown]

Having arrived yesterday at the Terme di Saturnia, a spa-hotel in the south of Tuscany, my wife and I are heading into the home stretch of a two-week trip through Italy that is half for dining and the rest for shopping and sightseeing.. We may be in Etruscan burial grounds territory, but in the face of many copious meals, our appetites still live on.

The purpose here is not to give a stop-by-stop, blow-by-blow account, but rather a practical overview that I hope be useful before much of the information gets out of date. We started out in the picturesque Ligurian town of Camogli, a highly picturesque and charming place, a kind of Portofino for the lesser-heeled. A day later we decamped in Mantova for a night to visit a restaurant nearby that had been a long- unaddressed entry in our restaurant desiderata. Then we spent four days in Venice and one outside of Padova before heading to the less-visited Romagna part of Emilia-Romagna. We wasted a night at a hotel near Cortona that we bailed out of a night early and pushed on to Orvieto to dine at a restaurant between it and Todi that had been on our hit-list for close to 20 years. Ahead of us remains three nights on the Tuscan Coast in Punta Ala, our launching area to revisit the great restaurant Gambero Rosso. This and a dinner tonight at da Caino are the last two big-name restaurants of our trip.

Like every extensive culinary trip ever taken regardless of where it leads, not a lot of stops turned out to be in tune with expectations. In Venice we booked della Marisa well in advance as advised by Edward Behr in his Venice issue of “The Art of Eating” five years ago. He wrote more about this restaurant than any other in Venice, which led to our high expectations. Still, the visit in total exceeded even those. From San Marco, the boat ride is thirty minutes as you pass through the day-tripper stops of the Piazzale Roma garages and train station. When we did dismount at the Tre Archi stop on the Canareggio canal, we saw on the other side an array of parasols alongside the water, one of which had the logo of a commercial ice cream maker. Not knowing if this was della Marisa or a run-of-the-mill café, we crossed the bridge to the other side of the Canareggio. A decorated wood plaque announced the restaurant where a waitress seated us at the far end of the rather long row of those ubiquitous cheap, industrial tables of brushed aluminum and matching chairs. I next told her colleague, an attractive young girl who may have been Marisa’s granddaughter, that we wanted to be where we could observe the life of the restaurant. She obliged us, and we watched. People from the neighborhood passed by, as did a few tourists who asked about a table and were turned away. Most of the clients were regulars and clearly of a humble existance. We struck up a conversation, limited as it was given the language problems, with a gondoliera and his wife. They told us their son also was a gondolier and that Marisa’s son was a colleague in the profession.

Any worries we had of being discriminated against for being non-Venetian were quickly allayed when we saw that every client was having the same meal. To begin, our waitress brought five small plates of appetizers, each except for perfectly-executed polenta (shiny and appropriately rubbery on the outside and soft inside) that were surely made with seafood from the lagoon. These were mussels with breadcrumbs, cheese and herbs; bacala with mayonnaise; arugula, olive oil and red peppers with cold, marinated branzino; and baby octopus in an intensely-flavored tomato sauce. Marisa followed on with a seafood lasagna unlike we have ever tasted. She filled it with branzino, mussels, clams, small shrimps and noodles and covered it with olive oil and a béchamel sauce. A light and delicate fritto misto of squid, shrimp and baby sole that my wife noted was sweet as sugar and light as air, maybe even the equal to the one at da Vittorio, finished the savory part of the meal. Only the dessert of a mascarpone spiked with brandy and rhum was ordinary.

Just before dessert, Marisa, rather plump with short-cropped hair and wearing a cheap green floral dress, came out to talk with our neighbors, the gondoliera and his wife. We joined in as best we could and found out that she is 69 years old and, fortunately, has a daughter who works with her in the kitchen. It was clear to us that she loves her work, doesn’t care about money and probably is the recipient of the best and most desirable seafood in the city. At 35 euros a person with a carafe of serviceable wine included, della Marisa is a gift and just may provide the most dining pleasure in Venice.

[CyN]

Hi Robert.

Your report on Dalla Marisa sounds great.But the 30 minute ride on the vaporetto cattle-car doesnt sound overly inviting. Or am I exaggering the discomfort involved?Did you look into the water taxi situation? I know they're expensive, but how much could it be?

What happened when you went to Trattoria Laguna?

[tsquare]

But the 30 minute ride on the vaporetto cattle-car doesnt sound  overly inviting.

←

I used a 24 hour pass last October to go out to the islands for a day trip and on return, got off here (Tre Archi, I believe) and walked through this end of Venice back to San Marco. (Too bad I didn't know I was so close to this gem!) It was wonderful. I also use the pass to take a night tour of the Grand Canal, comfortably seated the whole way. And finally, the following morning used the end of it to go out the other direction to the last stop before crossing to the Lido. Walked back via the Biennale site and more back streets and neighborhoods. It's a great way to travel, at least off season!

[docsconz]

I too read about della Marisa in the Art of Eating before my trip to Venice in 'O3, but I did not get around to getting there. Too bad. If I had I might have left Venice with a higher opinion of its food.

[robert brown]

I have been having web access problems; hence no posts. I am in Corsica using a French keyboard which slows me up.

Cy, the boat ride is nice, especially after dinner. Water taxis run about 60 euros. I will get into Trattoria Laguna later. It was not very good.

[Bux]

I'm wondering how nice it will be to spend a half hour after dinner on a vaporatto in early October. Nevertheless, I've marked this address. Perhaps in October lunch might be a better option. It looks as if we'll be in Italy in early October starting in Venice. How's the weather then? It sounds as if Alle Testiere is where I most want to go. Robert makes a good argument for dalla Marisa next. We'll have three nights in Venice and then leave by car. A bit under two weeks later we'll return to NY from Rome.

[plragde]

From the front windows of the apartment in which we stayed on our 2004 trip, we could look down and to the right and onto the tables of dalla Marisa. This was an inconvenient location for sightseeing, but a good one for eating, as many of the newer and more exciting restaurants in Venice are in Cannaregio. (Bux: I would also recommend Anice Stellato, a bit to the east of dalla Marisa.) The notes I have from my meal at dalla Marisa (in my post in the pinned Venice restaurant thread) sound identical to Robert's meal, except that we were served baccala mantecato, a specialty of the region, in which the cod is pounded with milk, olive oil, and garlic, but no eggs are used. Perhaps that is what you had, Robert? It is white and stiff, and looks like it has mayonnaise in it.

The Osterie d'Italie entry for dalla Marisa spends much of its time on the meat dishes, which are legendary, apparently. But when I reserved (first thing in the morning, in person, same day), I was told the meal would be "pesce", which was fine by me. They're also open for lunch, so you can combine it with an exploration of Cannaregio.

[robert brown]

Piragde, I am sure you are right. Bux, just make sure your hotel books you a table as soon as possible. Edward Behr wrote that he had meat at della Marisa because it was a Monday when he dined there.. Now, however, the restaurant is closed on Mondays. If they serve meat, I would love to know when. I neglected to ask.

[tsquare]

I'm wondering how nice it will be to spend a half hour after dinner on a vaporatto in early October. Nevertheless, I've marked this address. Perhaps in October lunch might be a better option. It looks as if we'll be in Italy in early October starting in Venice. How's the weather then?

←

Last year, I was in Venice October 19-22. It was like a Turner painting, with a low sky, but no rain. The weather was great for walking all day. I had a thin fleece jacket and Gortex jacket (fashionable? No.) A week before, mosquito season. A week after, flooding began. I hit it just right, though a clear sky would have made my pictures a bit nicer. One dinner outside was chilly, but doable. The boat ride was great - I rode the entire Grand Canal loop late in the night.