Video: Venice

Venice, Italy

We paid for all of our flights for this trip with points, and Kevin found a better deal to fly home from Venice, Italy rather than Ljubljana. We took a shared van from Ljubljana city center to Marco Polo Airport. It was only supposed to take about 2.5 hours but thanks to traffic and road closures it was more like a four-hour journey. Add in the time taking a vaporetto boat from the airport to the hotel and we were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived. But the decadent luxury of our hotel (also a credit card point benefit) made up for it. The Grand Hotel Palazzo de Dogi is actually nowhere near the the Doge Palace -- it is in the quiet Sestiere Cannaregio district at the northern shore of the island of Venice. The palace was built in the 1600s for the Rizzo-Patarol family and was home to the city's first botanical garden.

It's a beautiful property in a peaceful residential neighborhood. Within a two-minute walk you can get to the Chiesa della Madonna dell'Orto. This is the neighborhood where the painter Tintoretto lived most of his life - the church commissioned several large-scale masterpieces from him and he maintained a strong connection to the Chiesa until his death in 1594. He is buried here in a family tomb.

We loved exploring this beautiful neighborhood. It felt worlds away from the throngs of tourists that swarm around the St. Mark's area.

We loved trying the restaurants in Cannaregio. Our favorite was called Oficina Ormesini and it served something called cicchetti which are light bites to compliment a drink, basically Venetian tapas. It looks simple -- toppings on a slice of bread -- but they used so much creativity to come up with delicious flavor combinations. I would come back to Venice just to eat here again (we ate here twice)!

We also had a memorable meal on the terrace at the Ristorante al Cinema Italia. From our table we could watch the residents below doing their evening stroll (passeggiata).

Why is it called the Ristorante al Cinema Italia? Because next door is a 1915-era Art Nouveau movie theater. Or at least it used to be. The theater inside was decommissioned in the 1990s and has been cleverly repurposed into the grandest grocery store I've ever encountered.

It was easy to get lost or turned around walking around this city, though. Sometimes we crossed a small bridge and wound up in a dead end. The narrow alleyways didn't help -- they often blocked a cellphone signal, making online navigation useless. There are still some places in the world that are best served by paper maps! 

We did manage to make our way on foot to St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) on Monday morning. It was a pleasant half hour walk, and the piazza was not as crowded with people or pigeons as we'd expected. Of course it was before 9am so maybe the big tour groups were still eating breakfast. But where were the massive flocks of pigeons? Well the city put a stop to that in 2008 with a feeding ban and a ban on stalls selling seeds or corn in the area. It makes for a less iconic (but definitely more hygienic!) photo op. 

We booked a guided tour of the Basilica of San Marco which helped us to get a sense of the sheer opulence of this church. The Venetian Republic put its wealth on display when decorating the exterior and interior. Originally the exterior walls were red brick, but as Venice became more prosperous they could afford to recover the brick with sheets of pure marble. Gold-leaf mosaic tiles inside cover more than 8000 square meters of wall space -- a fortune just in the "wallpaper" alone. For the Venetian Republic, the Basilica was more than a church; it was a showcase for the prosperity and power of La Serenissima -- the "most serene republic".

We had self-guided tickets to visit the Palazzo Ducale (Palace of the Duke) but our St. Mark's tour guide invited us to just join the rest of her group who had booked a combo guided tour. This was great because we got so much more out of our palace visit than we would have with just the basic audioguide. Our tour guide, Denise, was born and raised here in Venice; she was an expressive storyteller and brought the history alive for us. 

The first question Denise answered for us was: "what the heck is a Doge, anyway?". The word Doge is often translated as "Duke" but that's not entirely accurate. During the maritime republic, the wealthy merchant families in Venice chose a representative form of government (the republic) but decided they needed a figurehead to stand in place as a head of state. Rather than have a king or an emperor, they chose to elect a leader from amongst themselves. The man (always a man!) had to be independently wealthy, older than 70, and would serve in the role for life. When a Doge died, the office was not hereditary; the families would gather and elect a new Doge. Doing things this way allowed the power to rest with the oligarchs in the Senate and various Councils and limited the power of the Doge and also the power of any one family to seize control of the government. It was a clever system. 

Although it is called a palace, the Palazzo Ducale was more like the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court rolled into one building -- it was the main seat of all the government. Yes, the Doge lived here but the palace's many rooms and offices were also used by the courts, councils and lawmaking bodies. 

The palace was also connected to the Prigioni Nuove (new prisons) next door. For very serious crimes, the accused would come to the palace and be tried by the High Court (the Quarantia or Council of Forty). If found guilty, he or she would walk through a passageway over an enclosed bridge to the prison to serve their sentence. The bridge earned the nickname Ponte dei Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) because there are small latticed windows in the stonework through which the condemned could catch one last glimpse of the free life outside and sigh in resignation as they were led off to the dark prison cells.

In case you were wondering, this is the view of the lagoon from the Bridge of Sighs. Ahhhh!

There's another very famous bridge in Venice - the Rialto Bridge. The Grand Canal runs directly through the heart of Venice and this large channel effectively splits the city into two main islands. Only four bridges span the Grand Canal and the Rialto is the oldest one. In 1181 a floating bridge was built on the site, followed by a wooden one in 1255. Construction on the stone bridge took three years and was completed in 1591. Until 1854 the Rialto Bridge was the only way to get across the Grand Canal on foot; otherwise you had to take a boat.

Boats are still a huge part of daily life in this city -- there are no cars or motorbikes allowed in the historic center, and they would be useless here anyway with all the stairs and bridges. In our short three days here we saw how boats are the foundation of every aspect of municipal service logistics. Porters use specialized stair-friendly handcarts to collect garbage and then it is lifted onto the garbage barge by crane. During emergencies, police boats throw up big wakes zooming down canals with lights on and sirens blaring. Modern motorized boats provide ambulance services, deliver goods, ferry passengers and all the things we generally use cars and trucks for. And gondoliers are really a part of everyday life, too -- there are a handful of gondolas that still do ferry locals across the Grand Canal in spots where there isn't a bridge. Our hotel was right across from a school that offered traditional gondola rowing lessons (I'm assuming for tourists). One night we sat outside and watched as the instructor tried vainly to tell the student how to execute the turn without hitting anything. It was highly entertaining. Gondoliering is truly a skill!

Another Venetian specialty skill is the art of glassblowing. On Tuesday we took the vaporetto to the island of Murano to check out the workshops and watch some of the artisans in action.

We stopped in at the Museo del Vetro (Glass Museum) to understand more about the history of glass in Venice. Glassmaking has been a part of the Venetian economy since the 5th century, but in 1291 the city moved all glassworks to the island of Murano as a fire prevention measure and to preserve the secrets of glassmaking. Glassmakers who worked here were not allowed to leave the island and could not -- under penalty of death -- share their glassmaking techniques with outsiders. This is, in part, how Venice grew so wealthy; they knew how to make high-quality extremely clear glass as well as how to use minerals to give it jewel-toned colors and patterns.

Many of the Murano workshops sell their pieces direct to customers at storefront boutiques that line the canals here, and you can also watch the glass being made in the attached studios. High-end masterworks sell for several thousand dollars. 

Since we were already out and about, we took another vaporetto from Murano to the island of Burano, much further out in the lagoon. This island is known for lacemaking and for painting its houses in a vibrant rainbow of colors. We thought we'd come here and escape the tourist crowds, but we weren't the only ones with that idea -- Burano is an Instagrammer's dream.

We enjoyed walking around and found a canal-side cafe serving lunch (more cicchetti!) and appropriately bright spritzes. The long vaporetto ride back to Venice was standing room only but it was worth it to have seen this captivating village.

Back in Venice, we really had no agenda for our last day. We hopped on a vaporetto to the city center then just walked around soaking up the atmosphere.

Kevin came to Venice on a solo trip in 1996; I stayed one night here (!!!) on a whirlwind Europe trip with my friend Jamie in the summer of 1999. A lot has changed in the decades since those trips, and with all the news reports about Venice being "overrun by tourists" I wasn't sure what to expect this time. But our three days here were romantic and delightful, we found ways to avoid most of the crowds, and I am so glad to have returned and spent a little more time enjoying the sights of this magnificent city!

Video: Slovenia

 

Bovec and the Soča Valley

To get to Bovec from Kranjska Gora we had two options: 1. Drive the Vrsič Pass, or 2. Take a less congested and easier-to-drive route through Italy called the Passo del Predil. When we'd taken the bus up the Vrsič Pass earlier in the week, we witnessed a broken-down RV causing havoc and bringing the uphill drivers behind him to a standstill with no safe way to pass. No, thanks! We decided to take the Predil Pass. Besides, there were some intriguing stops we could make in Italy along the way, like the Abschnitt Saisera Park in Val Saisera dedicated to preserving battlefield remnants of the Great War.

This open-air museum includes what is left of the Vordere Saisera (literally "Saisera Front") defenseworks built by Austro-Hungarian troops to defend against Italian attacks in this valley. There are several paths leading past trenches, guard posts, and even to a restored tunnel/barracks. An enormous boulder served as the stronghold for the defense line and had gunner posts as well as a wooden barracks behind. 

A tunnel goes all the way through the boulder and has two offshoot side tunnels for machine gun nests. When I was in school I have to say that we didn't really learn as much about World War I as we did about World War II. The circumstances and reasons surrounding WWI were a lot less straightforward and I think for young students it seems to be in the far distant past. But coming to this part of the world, where the front lines and trenches were dug and young men fought hunger, weather, and each other really brings the history much closer into focus for me. I was very glad we stopped here and spent several hours exploring the park and the history.

Tarvisio, Italy is the largest town nearby. When we drove through it on our way to Val Saisera, we could tell something was happening, as we saw a bunch of people walking around in lederhosen and other alpine-themed costumes. So on our way back towards Bovec we parked and walked around. Turns out the entire town was celebrating the annual Alpenfest. The town square was full of food stalls and had quite a festival atmosphere.

The main street had been closed to cars for a traditional craft fair. This was one of the nicest ones we've seen. Most times there are a lot of ticky-tacky souvenir booths, but these were true crafts made by local artisans -- clothing, felted dolls, leather handbags, wooden toys, clocks, jewelry and hats. It made me wish I'd brought a bigger suitcase.

After a wonderful and scenic drive back over the border into Slovenia, we arrived in Bovec. This town is known as being the adventure sport capital of Slovenia. Every afternoon from our balcony we could see the multi-colored parachutes of the skydivers being dropped off at the nearby airfield.

Skydiving was not in the cards for us. Nor was canyoneering or paragliding. But rafting the Soča River did sound fun, so we signed on for a Sunday morning run with a local company called Sport Mix. (Their photographer took the next two photos.)

We had an excellent guide from Chile named Guillermo. He has been guiding on the Soča for seven years and prior to that had been a serious backcountry river guide in Chile, so he knew how to read the rapids and keep us safe. The guides also did a great job of making it fun, too!

On the van ride to the river, our guide had pointed out a few good swimming hole spots so that afternoon we stopped in at one to dip our toes in, literally. The water was freezing without a wetsuit, so dipping a toe was about as far as we got.

On Monday we did a hike along the Great Soča Gorge. It doesn't have quite as much infrastructure as the Vintgar gorge so there wasn't an easy-access wooden walkway. We had to do quite a bit of forest walking (and some backtracking) to get to the prettiest viewpoints.

The water is such a vibrant blue-green due to the ultra-fine karst rock flour that is suspended in the water. These tiny limestone particles catch the sunlight and reflect the blue and green colors. The clarity of the water adds to the effect. I'm not sure photographs can even do it justice.

There used to be a cable car in Bovec that would take you to the top of one of the ski resorts here in the Summer season for views and hiking. Unfortunately the Kanin Cable Car was out of service this year (with no anticipated re-opening date). But luckily we knew there was a similar ski area with hiking trails just back across the border in Italy. So on Tuesday we drove back over the Predil Pass to Sella Nevea and took the "Canin" cable car (Italian spelling, of course!) up to the other side of those same mountains.

But we didn't stop there. From the cable car we could also get on the Prevala funicular which took us to some truly breathtaking scenery. Honestly, I feel like taking the "easy" way just gave me more time to enjoy the views while hiking at the top. Otherwise we would have spent hours hiking up to that point and by then I would've been too tired to appreciate epic scenery like this!

We also managed to catch a glimpse of the mythical zlatorog. Okay, well maybe not a zlatorog but definitely an ibex!

After a truly enjoyable hike, we stopped in at the Rifugio Celso Gilberti (which I mentioned in the food post) and had a truly enjoyable lunch. Funny how a lunchtime hike in Italy has been one of the highlights of our trip to Slovenia!

Wednesday was a busy day. We started super early to get to the entrance to the Mangart Road before the parking filled up. The Mangart Saddle is one of the must-sees in this area but the road has five tunnels and is very narrow -- it barely accommodates two cars to pass each other. Parking is extremely limited and they actually have a "car count" as you go in. Only 90 vehicles are allowed on the Mangart Road at a time. If you arrive after the 90th car well, you'll just have to wait at the bottom of the road until someone comes all the way back down. 

Luckily we were early enough to go right through the gate after paying our 10 euro eco fee. We nabbed one of the last "real" spots in the parking lot, too. Everyone else sort of just parked as best they could along the road. The road used to be a scenic loop that you could drive right up to the saddle and back around. But unfortunately a recent rockslide has closed the last kilometer of the road to cars, so we had to park and walk up the rest of the way. With only 90 cars' worth of people, it was very easy to get away from the crowds. At times it seemed like it was only us and the sheep.

The ledges at the top could give Seceda Ridge in the Dolomites a run for its money. Mount Mangart is the fourth tallest summit in Slovenia at 2679 meters/8790 feet. You can get to the top but would need to be experienced and prepared for the demanding via ferrata route. 

Obviously, I wasn't up to anything like that kind of hiking! But we still were able to hike up onto the saddle to see some incredible views of the Koritnica Valley and all the way to the Fusine Lakes (that we'd biked to while we were in Kranjska Gora (they are behind me to the right in this photo).

It was windy and quite chilly at the top, so after we had our fill of views and sheep we drove back down and stopped at Fort Kluže. There has been a defensive fortress on this spot since the 1400s, and for centuries depending on which empire was in charge of this territory it defended Italy from the Turks coming from the east, or defended Austria from Venice in the west. In the 1790s it suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of Napoleon's advancing army. He burned the fortress to the ground. It was rebuilt and was eventually used as a defensive position against Italy in WWI during the battles on the Isonzo (or Soča) Front. Today it is a museum.

We continued our field trip to learn more about WWI history by driving to the town of Kobarid. This town, also known as Caporetto in Italian, was the site of a terrible battle in 1917 where Italy suffered a major defeat and was forced to retreat. Ernest Hemingway wrote about the battle in A Farewell to Arms. Kobarid town has an excellent WWI Historical Museum that thoroughly documents the horrors of the war from both sides and underscores the tragic consequences to the local people who were living along the Isonzo Front. We learned a lot here.

For our last two days in Bovec, we had some pretty rainy weather. It reminded me of the monsoon storms back home, just a huge downpour with loud thunder and the sky opening up. Just before the deluge came through we did manage a quick visit to Virje Waterfall on Thursday. Since it was just up the road from our apartment, we got there early and had this fairytale crystal pool all to ourselves for a few minutes before other visitors started arriving. A great way to end our stay in Bovec!

Slovenian Food and Drink

Having no real prior knowledge of Slovenian food, we have both been impressed with the variety and flavors of many of the dishes, snacks, and beverages we've been trying while we've been here. Since most of these foods were new to us, I thought I would do a full post just describing some of the items we have tried so far.

Priorities! First up I should talk about the big beer (pivo) culture here in Slovenia. While grape cultivation began here in pre-Roman times, commercial beer brewing got its start much later in the mid-1800s. There are two brands that dominate the market here, Union and Laško. Laško seemed a little more omnipresent and has a nice pale lager that I liked. Kevin preferred the temno (dark) version. The icon on the bottles is the mythical zlatorog, a white-coated alpine ibex with golden horns.

Legend has it that a hunter shot the zlatorog in order to win the heart of a beautiful girl. The drops of blood from the beast blossomed into magical roses, which the zlatorog ate to instantly heal himself. The ibex then went on a rampage, killed the hunter, stomped on the rest of the roses so no one else could pick them, ran away and was never seen again. Except on the labels of the best beer in the country. Next up, we have something "sweet" -- gibanica!

Prekmurska gibanica is a layer pastry with poppy seed, walnut, apple, and raisin fillings. It also has a kind of soft cottage cheese layer that makes it more tangy than other desserts. I put "sweet" in quotes because after spending several weeks here and trying many desserts, we came to the consensus that there generally isn't a lot of sugar in the pastries. They are often more bready and savory than what we consider dessert here in the US. Most of the time we would order dessert and then be a bit disappointed. We kept trying, though! The bled cake was alright, actually.

I think I described it in a previous post as "a puff pastry base with a layer of vanilla cream custard, followed by a layer of whip cream, then it's topped by more pastry and powdered sugar." While it is rich and creamy, it isn't as sweet as it looks and definitely the egg flavors come through in the custard. It is very popular though, and we saw it everywhere even far away from Lake Bled. We got a little bit closer to sweetness with potica.

This is actually something we had tried in America - Kevin's mom is a fan and had us try some. The signature trick of potica is that it has to be rolled up in many layers -- they roll out a heavy yeast dough that is spread with a walnut and honey filling (or other nut-based filling). Then they roll it all up as tight as possible and bake it so that you get a beautiful swirly pattern in each slice. The Slovenian version that we tried was a lot less sweet than the American version, and honestly a little too much walnut flavor for me. We started to realize that Slovenian grandmas really liked the swirly trick, since we saw it repeated in other popular dishes, like štruklji.

Štruklji are a type of dumpling that are a bit more versatile and can be savory or sweet. The dumpling dough is rolled thin, filling is added, and everything is rolled up into a brick-like shape. Then it is steamed, boiled, or baked and served in slices, often with a sauce accompaniment. Probably the most common type is sirovi štruklji which just means "cheese dumpling" -- they use a type of mild cream cheese for the filling. In Ljubljana we found a restaurant that had dozens of types of štruklji on offer - both savory and sweet. Portions were generous, and it made for a heavy meal. We learned to order one portion and share it. Speaking of heavy versus light meals, I should mention the sausages.

Nearly every restaurant we went to had some form of sausage platter. We ordered Kranjska klobasa (Carnolian sausage) several times. It's so special here in Slovenia that it is considered almost a national symbol of the country. The sausages use simple seasonings and high-quality pork and bacon for the filling. It almost always was served as two sausages accompanied by sauerkraut or tasty potatoes and was an easy choice whenever we wanted something that was filling but not necessarily too heavy. I found that it paired well with a Radler Isotonic.

I've used that photo in a previous post describing the excellent charcuterie and žlikrofi dumplings we had in Matkov Kot. But I failed to describe the beverage I was drinking. It's a Union Radler Isotonic. I first saw it on the non-alcoholic section of the drinks menu and was intrigued because I saw so many other people drinking it. I'd never heard the term "radler" but it turns out its a type of shandy that mixes beer and citrus juice or soda to make a low-alcohol drink. Union makes a completely alcohol-free version that tastes like fizzy lemon soda with a fraction of the sugar. It was still sweeter than most of the desserts we tried, though. Sign me up!

I know I already mentioned how Slovenia is the beekeeping leading country in the world per capita. Maybe the reason so many of the desserts are slightly less sweet is because they use honey instead of cane sugar? I don't know for sure. I do know that the apiculture museum in Radovljica specifically had a display of the lectarski gingerbread cookies, which are more honey-flavored than ginger-flavored.

But on to more savory items. This is langoš a kind of fry bread that comes from the part of Slovenia that shares a border with Hungary. The flattened dough is fried in a vat of oil and topped with various toppings. This one had a ricotta-type soft cheese, basil, lots of garlic, and some confit tomatoes. It was the best thing we ate at the odprta kuhna open kitchen market in Ljubljana.

I know I mentioned the savory pork žlikrofi that we had at the odprta kuhna. Here's a close up. We saw this item on many menus - the dumplings are usually filled with something savory and sometimes topped with crunchy pork cracklins. Occasionally we saw a description with a sweeter filling, like pear. Both versions are heavy and filling. 

Speaking of cracklins, at one of the huts Kevin ordered a dish called ajdovi žganci. This is a buckwheat porridge that is made very simply with just buckwheat, water, and salt (the plate on the lower right below). I know those look like walnuts on top, but it was actually pork cracklins. I'll be honest, it was worth ordering...once. The buckwheat is very bland but at least it is a heart-healthy whole grain, however any health benefit is completely canceled out by the fatty pork skin on top. It was worth a try, but we were pretty glad that we'd also ordered mushroom soup and some delicious wild blueberry pie. 

Overall I discovered that mushroom soup was almost always a safe bet if I wanted something that was reasonably healthy and tasted good. Mushrooms are a huge part of Slovenian culture and mushroom foraging (gobarjenje) is a strong tradition. You are legally limited to forage no more than 2 kilograms of wild mushrooms per day. That's like 4.5 pounds of mushrooms per person per day, so no wonder we saw mushroom soup on so many menus!

Stews, soups, and goulashes (golaž in Slovenian) were a staple on restaurant menus. This venison goulash had a savory blueberry sauce. Sounds like a crazy combo, but somehow it worked!

To wash it all down, we tried various kinds of Slovenian wine. I mentioned above that Slovenians have been practicing viticulture since before Roman times. In fact, the world's oldest living productive grapevine is here in Slovenia (although we didn't see it because we didn't go to the town of Maribor). Our favorites were the reds from the Brda region on the western border with Italy, but we also enjoyed tasting the sparkling wines (called penine) from the eastern Posavje wine region.

Grape juice isn't the only thing that gets fermented here. We also saw kieslo mljeko (literally "sour milk") on the menu at many rustic huts. We hesitated but finally broke down and gave it a try once. I was expecting something like Greek yogurt or Icelandic skyr but no -- it really did just have a curdled milk flavor. Truth in advertising, I guess. I was glad we only ordered one bowl to share.

Now I come to a dish that merits an "honorable mention" -- čevapčiči. It's not technically Slovenian but really originally from Bosnia. These are grilled mincemeat sausages with no casing. The sausages are served alongside ajvar (a roasted red pepper relish), chopped onion, and warm flatbread called lepinja. In Bosnia čevapčiči are made with 100% beef, but in Slovenia and Serbia a mixture of beef and pork is used. They are really delicious and I liken the dish to a deconstructed hamburger. The dish to the left of the sausages is a burek - another Bosnian dish that is kind of a spiral bun stuffed with meat (or cheese, potatoes, or spinach). We ordered bureks and čevapčiči several times and were never disappointed.  

And I can't end this post without mentioning an excellent lunch we had at the Rifugio Celso Gilberti in Sella Nevea, Italy (just over the border from Slovenia). Kevin ordered a blueberry tagliatelle and I had a savory pear ravioli dish. Both dishes were perfectly prepared - savory fresh pasta with a touch of sweetness from the fruit. 

Those were our mains, not desserts. But the dessert list was just as inventive. I played it safe and ordered an apple strudel but Kevin went all-in and ordered the hay-flavored panna cotta. Yes, you read that right -- hay, as in "hay is for horses" not "hey -- are you sure you want to order that?". But honestly it was delicious and we would make a beeline for this rifugio if we're ever anywhere near here again. Nobody cooks like the Italians, that's for sure, and this was a very memorable meal!