La Serenissima

La serenissima...

Is, as you may know, how Venice (Venezia) likes to call itself. This weekend, Fra and I went to visit her friend, Ilaria, and her partner, Edoardo (otherwise known as Mr Salzano - see http://www.eddyburg.com/), who live slap bang in the middle of Venice. Anyway, also there were Alejandra and Alfonso, who are Mexican. Alejandra works, like Fra, for Stephen Levrant. Ilaria used to work for Stephen Levrant, and still occasionally does.

We didn't, however, spend much time in Venice itself, preferring to visit its outer edges. This was nothing to do with the state of Venice itself (surprisingly, when you're with a Venetian, adopted or native, it's very easy to avoid the tourists), but more to do with the fact that if you don't move fast enough through it's winding alleyways, it eats you...

So, on Saturday we went to the islands of Burano and Torcello. This, below, is Burano.

Colourful, isn't it? And this is the same place but when viewed from a distance (on a convenient campanile...)



The campanile in question was on the island of Torcello, which, according to history, was an early competitor to Venice, being the seat of a bishopric in the seventh century, would you believe.

This is a view of the cathedral and campanile of Torcello, and, if you would pay careful attention, you'll notice that the shutters on the window are actually stone...

After wondering around the outlying islands of the Venetian lagoon, Francesca offered to show A&A just what she'd learnt from her year studying hard in Venice, and promptly led us off down twisting alleyways to the nearest convenient osteria. For those who may be uninitiated, Venice is famous for much more than just gondoliers, tourism and sexual licence (well, that's why people went there in the 18th century according to my current reading...). The traditional toast of Venetians is a 'spritz', which is a cocktail of campari, white wine and soda. This particular beverage is usually taken with a polpette (a fried meatball - very happily for my belly, I have discovered that Italians have a profound and embracing love for fried food...) Francesca gleefully took us to a number of such hostelries before we retired in good order for our evening meal...

Which was a very pleasant dinner (with excellent wine - Custoza) back at the home of Eddy and Ilaria involving delicious stuffed peppers, melons, beans and aubergines. This feast of health and delight was followed by a presentation regarding the plans for the alleged 'protection' of the Venetian lagoon. You should see Eddyburg for more information, but suffice it to say that people who have, at best, a misguided view of a beneficial scheme to preserve an individual piece of human endeavour are likely to profit hugely from it. Surprising, hmm?

Anyway, I will leave you with a mathematical truth:

Waiting for this:

plus this...

equals this: