40th Anniversary Trip Day 14 – The BIG DAY

40^th Anniversary Trip Day 14 – The BIG DAY

Today’s our anniversary, and it dawns (and will stay) rainy, but that won’t stop us.  The usual hearty breakfast including you-know-what-by-now is followed by relaxation time in the room.  There’s been snow on the hills in the mainland.  I get some photos through the window, as well as photos around the hotel.

The hotel spa has ben closed for months due to flooding when the water was high.  It will open the day we leave (go figure!).  However, they’re offering a treatment in one of the rooms and we decide to start our celebration with this.  We get a skin treatment (body and face) with wonderfully soothing oils, followed by a massage.  Vicky goes first and looks relaxed afterwards.  I soon find out why!  A great start to the day.

We decide to take the hotel shuttle boat to St. Mark’s Square.  Unfortunately, it’s low tide, plus it’s quite windy over the lagoon so we have to step down into a rocking boat.  Vicky’s vertigo can’t handle this, so we have to use Plan B.  Fortunately we allowed plenty of time.  Nevertheless, by the time we’ve walked over to the vaporetto dock, changed boats at the railroad station and arrived at the San Marco landing it’s only about 20 minutes before the opera starts.

Glad we checked out the location on Friday, we hurry through the narrow streets in the rain.  Of course nobody else is in a hurry so I hope I’m polite.  We arrive at the Gran Teatro La Fenice (Venice’s opera house, named for the phoenix after it burned down early in its life.  It had another major fire in 1996, living up to its name, and was completely redone to the original design).  Since we’re attending an opera (Puccini’s Turandot) I didn’t bring the camera, but you have to see this place.  Check out their website:

www.teatrolafenice.it

We splurge on a box, in the first tier.  The more central boxes are prohibitively expensive so I chose one on the side. We have no problem seeing the stage and we’re close enough to see the expressions on the characters and the orchestra.  Plus there’s a place to hang our wet jackets and umbrellas.  We’ve just settled in when the lights dim.  Vicky and I love opera and we know this one well, but it comes with surtitles in Italian and English.  The English ones are on the right and our box is on the left, so we don’t even have to stretch to see them.

We’ve seen international opera stars in London, New York and Buenos Aires as well as in our annual visit to Santa Fe.  This time there are no names I recognize but everything – singing, music, sets (minimal but very effective), costuming and direction - is superb.  It’s in modern dress (hardly realistic in ancient China!) but through amazing use of color it really works.  Everybody except the princess and the 3 court officials (bright red!) is in black, changing to white for the “happy ending”.

Later, over dinner, we discuss the production and also the plot, and come to the conclusion the “hero” (Prince Calaf) and “heroine” (Princess Turandot) deserve each other.  She has presided over the execution of dozens of suitors who couldn’t answer her 3 riddles and when Calaf does answer them she gets all whiny and won’t marry him, which was the reason for the riddles in the first place.  Calaf gives her an “out”.  If she can find out his name (he’s just “the stranger” to her) by dawn he’ll go to the executioner’s block.

This sets up a night when nobody’s allowed to sleep (cue “Nessun Dorma”, one of the most thrilling tenor arias in the whole opera repertoire).  Calaf stands by and watches his father’s maid Liu (who’s in love with him because he once smiled at her) tortured to death because she won’t reveal his name.  (What a rat he is!)  He then tells the princess his name but she marries him anyway. 

Nobody goes to operas because of the plot, but this one is acted out so well that you can share the emotions of the characters, especially poor Liu.  It’s by far the best production of Turandot we’ve ever seen, and the wonderful theater makes it even more special.  We take a little time after the show to look around the building and the gift shop, especially since we have plenty of time before dinner.

The rain has stopped although it’s still cloudy for our leisurely stroll to the Bistrot de Venise.  I found the restaurant online as a great place for a romantic dinner.  When we mentioned it to Ivan the concierge, he applauded the choice and promised to call his friend there and get us a romantic ta.vble in one of the smaller rooms – and he certainly did!

We’re welcomed warmly, given a delightful corner table and we’re no sooner settled than the maitre’d comes over with a magnificent rose for Vicky!  The décor is rich, with deep red trim and paintings, mostly of food, on the walls.  Their website www.bistrotdevenise.com, has a photo the room. It’s the one with marble torso of a woman on the back wall, and our table is the one on the left of the lady.     They specialize in traditional (back to the 14^th Century) Venetian recipes and after perusing the extensive menu we both settle on the “Menu degustazione”.  (Sounds much more exotic than “set menu”, doesn’t it?

It’s supposed to be 4 courses but it’s actually 6 because it starts with a complimentary “amuse bouche”.  I don’t make notes and now we can’t remember what it was but I do remember we both loved it!  I also see just about everybody else taking photos of the meals, but my English upbringing makes me feel that’s not appropriate!

For the first course we both pass on an intriguing sounding “Slow cooked egg with asparagus, leeks a d marjoram”, settling instead on melt in the mouth scallops cooked with fennel and accompanied with baked cardoons (a vegetable in the artichoke family, but very tender here), agretti (a tart herb that is apparently very rare, but contrasted well with the fennel) and colorful and crispy tapioca flavored with turmeric…..and this amazing combination of textures and flavors, described (as was every course) in detail by the waiter, was just the start!

After a nice break so we can discuss the opera and enjoy the atmosphere, it’s time for the pasta course.  Since neither of us raves about fish, we pass on the spaghetti with cuttlefish, but the alternative couldn’t be better – home cooked ravioli stuffed with veal, covered with Bechamel sauce and gratineed with Parmesan cheese. Again, Italian Parmesan bears little resemblance to the powdered stuff you buy in the US – its robust flavor comes through in tin slices and blends perfectly with the veal.

For the “secondi” or main course, we both choose duck – for Vicky a no-brainer as it’s one of her favorite meats, but in my case it’s a better alternative to the fish.  I needn’t worry, this 16^th Century recipe pairs tender, non-greasy duck breast with a chutney made of apple and red onions, and “Sauce Peverada”, made with chicken livers, salami, anchovies and sausage meat.  Again, it’s to die for!

Another break and it’s time for dessert.  My first mistake.  I choose tiramisu.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s their own recipe and as good as any I had in Italy.  But Vicky takes the other alternative - an orange crème brulee.  Anywhere else this would have been my choice, and when Vicky gives me a taste, I know I should have chosen it too.  Oh well, even the “wrong” choice in this restaurant is still delicious.

This completes the tasting menu but we stay for coffee, which is served with chocolate truffles as  decadent as everything else on the menu.  One of the best meals I can remember anywhere, and a perfect ending to a perfect day.  The rain has even stopped when we head back to the hotel!