Restaurants - Rome, Florence, Venice

we were just a few days in each town and so i shall put down the names of only noteworthy restaurants. 

ROME
Santopadre

• Via Collina 18, Rome, Italy

- discovered by mistake! Amazing Italian food, run by a family. Sometimes service is a tad slow as aged grandpa also shows up to serve. Make sure you book before hand. good selection of vegeterian cuisine and tiramisu was superior.

FLORENCE
PROCACCI . via della tourbuoni. Florence.
DO NOT MISS. its open only for lunch and serves the most amazing truffle sandwiches and some other great sandwiches too. pick up jams, jellies et al from there.

OBIKA 

via della rourbuoni. +390552773526   obika.it
Its a mozarella bar. Try the cream cheese mozarella, its already melted and further melts into your mouth and makes way into your soul. large portions so order accordingly.

THE FUSION BAR

+3905527266987  vicolo Del oro . Book in advance. Great italian cuisine. Tad expensive.
Mozarella icecream with strawberries.. MUST HAVE

VENICE
Bistrot de VEnise. Calle Dei Fabbri. San Marco. +390415236651 
Michellin star rated. The highlight of the otherwise disgusting city. The spaghetti arabiatta was hands down winner. Never had onelike that ever!

Hotel Bauer palladio 

Hands down winner of tiramisu

I could not put my fingers, or rather my feelings in place, on why I hated Venice so much. From the minute I set foot... First I thought it was the wild lashing water and sea sickness made me wary. But I realised that it's Venice, which makes my shoulder and neck stiff, my feet weary and my mouth dry. And it's not only me.. Madhur n kids went for a gondola ride, and they were told that almost the entire populaion of Venice, stays in far off islands, and it has gone down from onelakh seventy thousand to just fifty thousand, within 10 years.
Venice has a feeling of helplessness, and staleness to it. I just cannot find better words to describe it. It's a feeling of loneliness, despair and Hollowness. It's full of tourists, thronging with them. San marco the central Venice, where everybody rushes to, has a air of temporariness, leaning towards shallow and desperate.
I really thought I would kiss the floors of Heathrow airport, the minute I would have landed into London.
Well I did not, but was sure glad to set foot in a city which is crowded, loud, but home!

A day in Venice

While the cats were away, this mouse played. While they roasted in the hot sun and- shudder of shudders- took a boat ride to Murano, Appu sat under a shady tree in a lush garden and sipped a cool bottle of water and read a book and took a long massage and ate a hearty meal and had a beer and took a nap. Ha!!
I like Venice, when I am not traveling from one San to another piazza. Ie - San marco , San Paulo, Piazza Roma et al and blah blah. My mil is pretty sorted. One look at the roads of San Marco, [where we had the most amazing spaghetti pomodoro ]( hands down winner) and she said "it looks like Benaeres. Same roads, same stuck to each other houses, spit in one, reaches the other...The cows, bulls, and filth is missing". Now that's calling a spade a spade. But let's not wash off the name totally. It IS a romantic city. Only I find it disgusting because the waters make me want to offer them my last meal.
I love the water. I can look at it for hours. But when I see a a boat bopping and madly cartwheeling, in vicious, bumpy water, my senses take leave, my knees feel weak and my eyes roll up, my heart falls into the pits of my stomach, problem being my stomach does not exist anymore, it's where my mouth should be!
Venice Is said to be drowning slowly, pathetic millimetre by pathetic millimetre. When I look at the gondola oarsmen and all those near drowned buildings, I wonder where all the inhabitants will go. In land they will be - ahem! 'fish out of water'!!
The concierge showed me the- 2 feet from the ground, Mark on the main door, of the property. Now this propert faces the canal. U get of from the vaporetti and walk into the hotel, wihtin a mere 3 footsteps. The smallest footsteps. And from October to March, the water from the canal rises and touches the nearest Walls, which yes! Happen to be houses, cafes, and this hotel. They have a small gate which they put in place to keep this dirty smelly water out (Venice stinks, by the way) and they give people boots which go up to ur naval ( joking , but definitely up to the end of your legs) to reach to vaporetti. And like in Mumbai our kids get off from school because of heavy monsoons,these people get off from work, school, and daily life when the canal rises up to kiss the city of Venice

They need a Siddhi Vinayak to protect their city. Then maybe it won't drown totally.

Venice taxis

Obviously Venice taxis are Vaporetti. Water taxi, where all my breath vaporises. Leaves me with a fine sheen of sweat. And glassy eyed. I am a very sea sick Venice tourist. So Venice is also ticked off and seen there done that kinda thing.
Our hotel is in very serene surroundings. In an ex monastry, where the monks made wine. ( I tell u - I like this religion. It allows nudism, wine making monks and a sewing school run by nuns with the view of the grand canal.) after that it was taken over by a Coventry of nuns who ran a sewing school. It boasts of a garden which is the centre of tranquility specially after a rolling water ride. But we are in the peaceful side of Venice, and all the hubba hubba is on the opposite side. So we had to go. Else I would sit here sipping proseco, reading a book- to hell with the sights and scenes, basilicas and piazzas.
So after a " stomach in my mouth" kinda water rides, I have decided to let the inlaws, husband and children take off to Murano islands and shop for glass pieces. Me! I shall reap the benefits of the spa, sip some beer, take a walk and a nap, and soak in some of the wine,left in the air by these pure god fearing monks, in this heaven blessed by their former goodly presence.
Salute!

We are floating in Venice

We have had some amazing food. All names and reviews will follow once I land in Bombay. We have all had a major overdose of art and culture. We entered the Vatican museums. Booked well in advance via good old Internet. I am afraid it is now ticked off our agenda. We entered and it's like one of those places which make u exit a show through the soveniour shops. You are te,pted to stop and buy all manner of silly pens and notebooks showing the cast. And you are so enamoured you want to take ur favourite character back home forever. Any case, the Vatican is like a huge huge passage. One has to go through all; and all is very very many,rooms. This was the first museum kids saw in Rome. And they got a full class in Biology - chapter -reproductive parts of our body. The paintings and the great Popes great collection went on and on and on. We got out super fast and now I was hoping the kids do not develop a sudden love for culture and art because the museum - Uffizi in Florence was supposed to be the world's largest.
It was crowded and once more Internet had rescued us from thronging crowds, using small electronic Chinese made, fans on a fairly sweet summer day. These Europeans need a dose of India.
We had to climb 300 steps to reach the galleries. And agsin faced with another lesson in biology - the remarkable reproductive parts of godly bodies. It's funny. Enormous naked men and women in the corridors and Jesus in all stages of his life, inside the rooms. Through sick and sin I say! The first few pictures of the various gods and myths and Jesus in all his crisis was beautiful. After 6 pf them we zoomed through the rooms. After all how many expressions of the three wise men, and mother Mary in agony can one see.
Another agenda ticked off.
Art buffs we are not.
And I think I speak for all four of us, only a death threat will drag us into another museum and art gallery.
We shall see the outside structures and ticks it off our things to do ka list!

And off to Florence

A small quick blog..... Since it was so windy and all we could do was time and again wet our feet in the water, hoping the sea had got warmer since 3 minutes back,we booked an early table for dinner and drive down to Bolgheri. It's the producer for world renowned vino, and it's just 10 minutes drive from Li. ( hehehe !) btw Li is the district of Livorno which is huge. Our town is Marina de something or the other.
I am not a wine drinker, but the red wine was outstanding. Hint of sweetness and just dry enough to touch the air. It did not do nasty things to my throat, the way dry red wine normally does.
The town itself was charming. We happened on a wedding, the church being in the entrance of the town centre. The small shops, selling local wine and produce. The restaurant was outstanding. Food amazing and the tiramisu passed the quarterfinals in the hunt!

When in Rome.....

When in Rome, do as the Roman's! And that's what we did. We had loads of ice-cream..walked on the roads, saw all the monuments, genuflected in basilicas, Drank water from the fountains, ate amazing pizza, but we are still on a "outstanding tiramisu" hunt. Other than a fantastic family run restaurant in Rome, we have not had good tiramisu and even surprisingly for that matter,soft melting buffalo mozzarella. Winner's name will Be updated!
We are now in the Tuscany coast. Till we left we did no know where we were going. Nope! Its not the adventurous spirit. Not at all! Thing is, while I was looking up the Tuscanny coast, I could not make out head or tail, rather coast or vineyard. So I decided to go book in a rather absurd way. I started hunting for good hotels, bang on the sea side,trying to stay away from busy touristy resorts. We found a nice place, booked it, and me having my memory, promptly forgot the name of the coast and town. Now we had a Li in the end of our address. What and where, pray is Li? So finally to madhur,s exasperation we had to call the resort in Li and feed all the pertinent details in our navi unit.
And arrive we did. Much to kanak's disgust.... To windy Coastal winds. We stepped into the sea for a feeler. Jaysus! It was the water of frozen, just melted Canadian seas! The faaaaat man, manning the beach towel stand, kept saying Si, Si, to our every question of will it be warm? Is it going to be cold tomorrow? Will the wind go down? Will the wind stay this way? After a non stop "Si" session we realised we have to play dumb charades. So Kanak acted like she was frozen. Tanay like he wants to get warm. Me like I want to swim with Tanay who is warm. Madhur like he Does NOT want to swim with Kanak.
AAAAh. Finally it dawned on fat Italian man, that will the weather be warm enough to swim in tomorrow. "Si", he said. "Si, Si".

We boarded the flight to Heathrow, London, with sleepy red eyes and waiting to pull up the covers and knock off. Instead all our dreams for dreams were knocked off! In arrived a couple, with a 1 something year old baby. Madhur and me looked at each other in alarm, both thingking "thats it!! baby doom!" and sure enough this child stared her tenor wail and it lasted the entire flight! Through the night! Now its not the baby's fault but definately the parents'! I mean come on, I too have a niece and nephew who travelled at the same age. And my nephew is a fire ball of energy. We are all sure his mother feeds him rocket fuel for breakfast! (nazar na lage THU THU") Even he was behaved in a flight longer than this! Atleast his parents saw to it! 
These parents should have sedated that kid. And had they not wanted to they should have taken mercy and sedated all of us! And yes, I did in a very off hand way give the parents a piece of my mind! 
Rome is beautiful. We caught the less daunting sights, leaving the Colosseum and Vatican for non jetlagged days! And a word of advice to anybody sight seeing in Rome.. Dont pooh pooh the Trevi fountain as just another fountain. The first glimpse strikes you dumb! One is supposed to stand next to the fountain, with you back to it and make a wish and flip a coin backwards into the fountain. We sat on the steps of the fountain, mesmerised and unable to get up and leave. 
The roar of the water, the sudden chill one feels in that area, even on a hot day, the sheer magnifesence. So far the Lure of Italy lives up to its name! Even the smallest Pole with a small Virgin Mary is Mamma Mia!!


--
Aparna Somani
Life needs a frosting! Eat more desserts!