In Venice You’ll find The ‘Spritz’ of Place

Travelers often search for the ‘spirit of place’ ~ that elusive sense of something -  often intangible - that gives each place its unique identity.

In Venice we found ‘the Spritz of place’ a most tangible (and tasty) bit of identity.

You couldn’t miss it.

The bright orange drink, served in stemmed wine or short stout water glasses, was being consumed it seemed everywhere we went.

Neither the time of day nor the location - sidewalk cafes or standing at the counter of a neighborhood bar – had any bearing on consumption.

So it seemed fitting on our first evening in Venice to do start researching this beautiful beverage.  With a medley of Johnnie Cash’s mournful songs wailing from its speakers, we settled in for sunset-watching along the Guidecca Canal at Al Chioscchetto bar.

The popular spot is a small kiosk from where drinks and sandwiches are served to those sitting at its scattering of waterside tables. It was here we had our first taste of this nectar-like aperitif; the Venetian Spritz; a drink so popular that it has been called “The National Drink of Venice”.

One  Facebook page claims that it ‘not a drink, but a way of life.’ Another says that sipping one at this bar is a great way to  stare in compania, hang out and blend in.  So that’s what we did until Aqcua Alta forced closure of this bar and we enjoyed our daily tradition elsewhere.

One of the favorite parts of our stare in compania at this place, however, was watching Keo, the ‘bar dog’ as he greeted and was adored by patrons and passersby:



But even he had to take a break and enjoy an aperitif:




The ‘spritz of place’ story doesn’t end there though. . .





. . .I’d been researching the drink for this blog post when I came across the mention of a fund-raising project at Guidecca, the women’s prison that was tied to the drink . . .

. . . the screen printing and sale of canvas ‘Spritz bags’. 

In addition to the production of these bags, inmates tend an organic vegetable garden within the prison’s walls and sell their produce, outside the walls, each Thursday on Fondementa della Convertite.  They’ve created a line of toiletries and lotions, some of which use the plants grown in their garden.  They also run a laundry for a local hotel.  Inmates generate income and also develop job skills during their incarceration, all of which sound like a recipe for success  to me.

Speaking of recipes, here are some variations of the drink recipes printed on the back of the bag:



Campari, bitter, or Aperol is the key ingredient in this yummy drink .  The orange one – our favorite -- is made with Aperol and the recipe on the back of its bottles calls for three parts Prosecco,(that bubbly Italian wine) two parts Aperol and a splash of soda. Garnish with slice of orange and a green olive.

If You Go: 

The bar, Al Chioschetto, is on the Zattere in the Dorsoduro. It is popular spot, especially in summer months when live music is featured, but shutters up when bad weather or high water hits.


We found the Guidecca-produced canvas bags (7.10-euro) anda large selection of skin care products at the Aqua Altra Societa Cooperative Sociale store at 2898 Calle Della Scuola, near Campo Santa Margherita in the Dorsoduro. (Across from the entry to the Scuola).

TPThursday: Hauntingly Beautiful Venice

While Halloween’s celebrations in the United States came to an end last night, All Saints Day celebrations begin today in cities around the world.  Venice, where we were last week, is among those places observing this more reserved, somber day of remembering the dead and departed.

With Travel Photo Thursday bridging Halloween and All Saints Day (also known as All Soul’s Day or Day of the Dead, depending on location and varying in date by a day or two) here are some of our hauntingly beautiful memories of our stay:


While Carnivale is the celebration marking end of Lent each year; a time when party-goers will bring these masks to life, there was something about those sight-less eyes peering out of window displays that gave a ghost-like feel to them. . .



The city is filled with statues of heavenly saints.  This one, deformed by time and the elements, gazed with blind eyes on visitors in Venice’s Music Museum.  Or was he still able to keep an eye on the visitors like me who aimed their cameras at his weather-worn being?



This skeleton is a modern art installation at the side of the Grand Canal – his sightless gaze as spooky as the saint’s above.

Ever notice how your imagination comes to life in the dark? As our lone  footsteps echoed on the walkway we thought we heard the voice of an opera singer.  The music seemed to come from someplace above us. . .but from where? It wasn’t recorded, but was it live?

We’d not finished pondering the source of the music when a large rat scurried past me and hurtled into the canal with a corresponding splash – now that one did give me goose pimples!

As we walked along that dark canal route between the restaurant where we ate and our apartment, we came upon another mask shop with these two fellows looking out at us. The song, Music of the Night from the musical, Phantom of the Opera, came to mind:

". . .Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind

In this darkness that you know you cannot fight

The darkness of the music of the night. . .”

That’s it for Travel Photo Thursday. Head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photos.  We’ll get back to more practical matters in the coming week with posts about a new guest chef on the Celebrity ship, a don’t-miss-this-restaurant in Bologna, and who to call for tours there and give you a ‘spritz’ of place in Venice and a taste of KLM’s Business Class Food and Wine Celebration. . .

Venice: Acqua Alta: Water, Water Everywhere

The obnoxiously loud– not-to-be-ignored-but-totally not-to-be-understood– alarm sounded in the dark early morning hours yesterday bringing us out of a deep sleep into a most confused state.

It sounded again at 6 a.m. today, but today we were expecting it.

Porca Miseria!
(Literally translated: pig’s misery. Slang: anything from “What a shame!” to “Oh, shit!”)

This time we counted the blasts and sound levels just like the residents; today we knew it was announcing: acqua alta, high water or in English, flooding. The number of blasts and levels tell you how bad it will be.

Those picturesque canals in tourist brochures turn ugly and  flood between late October and February each year we’ve learned. Sometimes as often as once a week – we get a double dose this weekend.

To show you what I am talking about, this is the view of the Zattere, the morning we arrived. I took this from a corner cafe where we sat at a sidewalk table sipping coffee:


This is a photo below shows where our table was on Tuesday and the narrow elevated walkways that accommodate two-way pedestrian traffic to and from the water taxis in this case (those able to operate, that is, during the high water):


And this is the view from my corner cafe spot yesterday (taken from the elevated walkway):



(Sorry it’s blurred, I was being jostled by people bouncing the walkway as they eased past me – you are not to stop and take photos, but I wasn’t the only tourist doing so!)

The most popular tourist item yesterday were the stands that materialized it seemed from nowhere selling 40+euro rubber boots:


So we are now debating packing up and leaving as soon as the water recedes today – should it happen again tomorrow we may not make it to the airport for our mid-morning flight.

Porca Miseria!

The Scout has found us a couple of options: either heading to Treviso, a town on higher ground or the Marriott at the airport (not as charming as the Zattere, but on high ground). 

We were assured by the cafe owner last night that we wouldn’t have a problem with acqua alta on Monday because the borsa would be here: that’s the North wind from Siberia. And from the way the leaves are swirling outside the window, I think it arrived early.

Porca Miseria!

Ciao! Ciao! Celebrity ~ Hello Harmony

We said farewell to our floating home, the Celebrity Silhouette, on Tuesday and have set up our Venice ‘home’ in an apartment called Harmony.


We arrived in Venice in the early morning, gliding through the darkness on the Guidecca Canal toward the cruise terminal as quietly as the gondoliers who ply the waters of the nearby Grand Canal. (I was among the die-hard 'arrival fanatics' who were up at 4:30 to view our arrival.)


The ship stayed overnight, so Wednesday afternoon we toasted our old friend from our neighborhood waterside bar as she set sail at sunset to retrace the steps that brought us here.

Our home this week, an apartment rented from the website Vacation Rental By Owner, is in the Zattere; an area away from the concentrated hordes of tourists; a place so down-home that the man at the corner bar knew we wanted our ‘two Americani coffees’ this afternoon when we walked in and we’ve only been there twice since our arrival.


This is ‘our’ street – we enter our building through the second door down from Joel.  We are on the first floor (that means second floor by US terminology). Our apartment isn’t as cute and warm as the one we rented in Bologna; but it is spacious, clean and functional – and a fraction of the price of hotels here.  So we are in ‘harmony’ with our digs. (Yes, pun intended)



The kitchen is both the living area and kitchen as the television is against the right wall in this photo.  The bedroom, bath and second bedroom/den down the hall.


The Zattere is exceeding our expectations; we stroll this section each day to get home.  (BTW, that large ship is a private yacht.)  The only problem is that the days are rushing past far too quickly.  And there’s a lot of city here to explore, so ciao for now. . .I’ve gotta get going!

With Travel, sometimes it’s the small things. . .

. . .that leave the longest memories.

And for the animal lovers we are, the small things are those little four-footed creatures who can capture our hearts or sadly sometimes break our hearts when we visit those places that have no compassion for their homeless dogs and cats.

I am happy to report to all our fellow animal lovers that this trip has been a good one – for us and the furry ones that we’ve encountered. Today, on TP Thursday, I want to share some of those encounters with you:

Let’s start in Catania, Sicily where this bride and groom were virtually ignored by us camera-toting tourists. . .


. . .because we were so taken with this charming little member of the wedding party (who WAS watching the bride and groom):



Then there was the stroll through Bari, Italy’s old town when we happened upon this fellow asleep outside one of the traditional bars (where you can have coffee, sweets, alcoholic drinks or just hang out with the locals). And he could have cared less about the number of tourists aiming camera’s at him:


Valletta, Malta wins hands down for the care given its ‘street cats’.  They have free rain-proofed and cushioned  public housing in the city park:



And signs in Arabic and English advise people to only feed them at the ‘feeding stations’ – these are two story structures that offer both food and drink. There was one well fed but camera-shy cat behind the structure just waiting to eat a bit more  as soon as I left:



This fellow was sunning himself against the exterior walls of Dubrovnik, Croatia’s Old City – totally oblivious to the attention being given him by those of those of us who felt the need to capture his bath on film:


Just down the road, we spotted a mom and her adolescent children – all were well cared for and despite her camera-shyness, I had to include her photo. (Those of you who remember our still-loved-and-missed “Thai Guy” will understand why she captured my heart):


This trip has given me hope that animal welfare has caught on world-wide.  If not, at least the efforts are expanding.

That’s it for this Travel Photo Thursday.  Head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more travel photos from around the world.

A Silhouette Snapshot ~ Kotor, Montenegro

This Celebrity cruise has – as I mentioned earlier – been a near mind-boggling routing filled with ports of call so interesting that we return to the ship with our senses  numbed from the experiences on ashore.

Our day in Kotor, Montenegro was one of those days that will end up in the  ‘near perfect’ file even though it was one of the most demanding (that’s a teaser for a future report about climbing a mountain. . .).

As we were sailing back toward the Adriatic Sea and putting the memories of the day away, we were sipping some well-earned wine and watching the day fade into evening. . .



 
I should note here, that with the exception of two days – our stop in Napoli and Corfu when the skies dumped rain for a portion of each day– we have had sunny days and temperatures in the high 70’s. . .not bad for nearly the end of October!

Where has this month gone?  We left home the first of October and now are beginning the preparations for the end of the cruise and phase three of our adventure, ‘living’ in Venice to begin.  We have plenty of cruise tales and tips for you, so stay tuned. . .

TP Thursday: A cruise kaleidoscope

Here we are in Bari, Italy nearly midway through the Celebrity cruise that is taking us from Rome to Venice and into autumn in Europe. We’ve had a  kaleidoscope of experiences since setting sail; so many that I couldn’t think of a single topic on which to focus this Travel Photo Thursday. Sometimes travel is like that - it jumbles the mind.

So think of this post as a kaleidoscope of our last week:

Napoli:  Birth place of Sophia Loren and pizza!

Catania, Sicily: The Duomo was just one of the many historic sites we visited on this day when we logged 11 miles on the pedometer. Actually, 10 or 11 miles a day is becoming the norm for this trip.

Valletta, Malta:  Watching the sun rise over this ancient city was magic, simply, pure magic. So much so, that we've vowed to return and spend much more than a single day here.

Whew!  A day at sea to rest our senses before heading to Corfu, Greece and up the Adriatic for the last half of the cruise.










 I saved one of our favorite photos to end today’s post:

After all, we know that Italy is at the center of the fashion world, right? This fellow was in a Napoli store window – I couldn’t resist closing this post with him.




Ciao for now!  It’s Travel Photo Thursday so head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more travel photos. 

And a note of thanks to those of you who responded so positively to the last post:  Thank you so much for reposting on your FB pages, your tweets , Google + and all the other nice accolades.  They were most appreciated. And it is great to have so many new blogosphere friends.

WAWeekend: A Spa-cation in Washington

This year I finally explored the wonders of ‘the spa’. The ancient rituals associated with healing baths and spa treatments have been around since the time of the Romans, but since I am not one to jump on any bandwagon too quickly, it took me awhile to venture into this unknown somewhat self-indulgent and definitely pampered world.

I wrote about my experience in an article that appeared in The Seattle Times, Sunday, Oct. 14th  - the day Joel and I were exploring Malta.  But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I was able to see the article within hours of its publication.   Just click the link to access it.

Among the places you’ll read about are:

Alderbrook Inn, the luxury lodge on the shores of Washington State’s Hood Canal.

 Salish Lodge (that tiny speck on the left top of this photo – which is actually a  four-story building that overlooks Washington’s Snoqualmie Falls.

I am not telling you any of the inside story here, you must read the article for those.

Because so many of you knew I was researching this article I wanted to answer a question several have asked about whether my expenses were paid by the publication.  They were not.  And freelance writers for the Seattle T imes are not allowed to accept freebies or discounts not available to the general public, so all the experiences and stays I wrote about were done on my own dime.
(And well worth the price, I might add!)

How about you?  When you travel is a visit to ‘the spa’ a must on your To Do List?