Everyone should visit Venice in the depths of winter, a time when most visitors stay away and the locals re-emerge from summer’s hibernation to be their normal selves once again.
My first ever gap year visit had been wrong on all counts. It was late August, so the limpid lagoon and fetid canals were at their pungent worst. I was sleeping in a Fiat camper van which I’d parked on a roundabout on the Lido, bussing tables at a nearby Gelateria in the evenings and swimming from the cheap seats on the crowded public beach around to the striped deckchair rentals on the Hotel Excelsior’s private stretch every afternoon. The gilded Venice I had conjured up in my mind from reading Thomas Mann and EM Forster, it was not.
Well over a decade later, when Sabrina and I were planning our own first visit together, I had promised that we would do it in style, staying in a room with a Grand Canal view in the gothic splendour of the Hotel Danieli. Traversing the lagoon from the airport in one of those glamorous mahogany panelled Riva speedboat taxis, we embarked at the hotel’s private landing stage on a freezing cold January afternoon in a rare short-lived miracle of brilliant sunshine. Pretty much from that moment onwards, our stay was shrouded romantically in mist and drizzle.
Somehow the inclemency of the weather just added to the atmosphere of our stay and tempted us to linger in the city’s restaurants and bars, so that mealtimes seemed to merge one into another and we enjoyed the beautiful pastime of deliberately getting lost in the city’s maze.
One particularly filthy day we caught a Vaporetto to the island of Murano to look around the glass blowing workshops and buy a couple of small pieces, before picking up another water bound connection to the neighbouring isle of Burano. The rain stopped and the sun came out for a brief moment just as we were landing, revealing a riot of small houses painted in ‘laffy taffy’ pastels, and the local lace makers setting up their stalls.
Lovely as the island’s lace is, shopping was the very last thing on our minds. We were on the hunt for a tucked away seafood restaurant that had been recommended by our hotel concierge.
I’ve long since forgotten the name of the place, but the gloriously simple seafood spaghetti we enjoyed there is an enduring memory recreated here:
Seafood Spaghetti: Serves Four
2 lbs mixed seafood
1 can of tomatoes in juice
1 tbsp tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lb spaghetti
Parsley for garnish
Heat a large pot of water for the spaghetti and add salt; once the water is boiled add the spaghetti and cook until it is al dente.
Meanwhile, heat a large skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil, adding the seafood and cook it until it turns opaque, then transfer it to a dish along with the juices. In the same pan add a tablespoon of oil, the garlic and the tomato paste. Cook briefly then add the tomatoes, cooking until the juices have reduced by half, then add the wine and bring to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes; turn the heat off and using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Return any liquid from the seafood to the sauce and cook gently for another 5 minutes; add the seafood to the sauce and warm through. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce, toss together making sure to coat all the pasta. Serve sprinkled with parsley and drizzled with olive oil.
So impressive how you vividly described the visit so many years ago. I just cooked something similar a few days ago but not anywhere near romantic! 😆. I can’t wait to try this!
Our autumn weekend involved Bellinis at Harry's Bar, coffee and cake at Florian's Cafe and Titian and Veronese at the Accademia. Around every corner a new adventure....so exciting!