On Wednesday May 22, we took a late morning train seven and a half hours south to Venice through the Alps and along the Arno River. We'd been go-go-go for almost a week so it was nice to relax and see the scenery before plunging into the excitement of Venice. Our ultimate plan for the day was to check in at the Hotel Principe and then to explore some of Cannaregio and find a good dinner, but before then we had to travel over 300 miles through farmland and then Innsbruck and the mountains, the broad Brenner Pass, and south through the Tyrol into Veneto before reaching the Santa Lucia train station on the Grand Canal in Venice.
Going through the pass there was a long stretch where the railroad and the road were parallel and close. We could see long lines of trucks and fewer cars backed up waiting to get through customs at the border crossing from Austria into Italy, but we just rolled merrily along in comfort.
We took a big van-taxi to the train station and bought some pretzels for the ride. Our train left promptly at 10:56, to arrive at the Santa Lucia station in Venice at 18:25, with a break of about 45 minutes for changing trains in Innsbruck. The ride was uneventful and the scenery was great, and more varied than I had expected.
The train had a cafe car with some local foods that I had not seen thus far in Austria, so I got to sample Sudtiroler Bauernmuas aus maisgries, mit preiselbeersauce (South Tyrolean farmer's porridge made from corn semolina, with cranberry sauce) on the train. This was pitched as a traditional country breakfast of Southern Austria, and it was pretty tasty for train food.
We arrived on time at Sta. Lucia and hired a porter to bring our luggage to the Hotel Principe. Owen and Brigitte took a vaporetto (water-bus) down the Grand Canal to Accademia near their hotel in San Marco. This was our second stay at the Hotel Principe, because we so much enjoyed our first stay two years earlier. Our room had a little balcony with this view. It's just a block from the train station and the big vaporetto stop there, and they have their own pier on the Grand Canal in case you want to save time with a water taxi. They have a nice breakfast, but their restaurant is only for events, not for regular dining. Fortunately they referred us to a place where we had an incredible dinner! More on that below, but first I want to pass on some useful information for visiting Venice.
The biggest difference in my opinion, in purely practical terms, between Venice and American cities is the absence of cars and trucks and anything that resembles an urban street. It's a maze of narrow twisty alleys and straight narrow canals, with the Grand Canal bisecting the main part of the city in a big backwards "S". The cheapest way around is the vaporetto system of water buses that go up and down the Grand Canal and to the other islands in the lagoon on a regular basis. A vaporetto 75-minute ticket is €9.50 euros for unlimited travel during that period, starting at the validation time. You can also get a 1-day pass (€25), 2-day pass (€35), or 3-day pass (€40), and there's a monthly pass as well.
The vaporetto stops are easy to find. They're big white-and-yellow boxy structures on floating piers that jut into the canal. You can buy tickets at a kiosk. #1 is the local boat along the Grand Canal from Piazzale Roma (the stop beside the parking garages, cruise ship shuttles, and the bus terminal from the mainland, just before the Santa Lucia train station stop) to San Zaccaria (at the famous Piazza San Marco). The #2 is an express for the #1 route, and it extends to San Giorgio Maggiore, Giudecca, and the San Basilio cruise pier. We bought 3-day passes for simplicity, and we got a lot of use out of them.
As the vaporetto lumbers along the canal, it zig-zags from one side to the other. There are only a few bridges cross the Grand Canal so this is a convenient way to get across. There's another way to get across the Grand Canal, not as well-known to tourists, but sometimes more convenient. The traghetti (singular is traghetto) are single-purpose gondolas that cross the canal directly from fixed stations on either side.
The traghetti are an acquired taste. These skinny little boats slice across the canal while all other traffic is going along the canal in one direction or the other, so it is constantly crossing the wakes of larger boats and getting jostled by speeding water taxis and emergency vehicles. I'm glad I tried it once, but next time I may take the vaporetto and walk a little further.
The five of us had reassembled for some exploring and dinner. We had an incredible (and expensive) dinner at the nearby Trattoria Vittoria on the recommendation of the hotel front desk. It's just a few blocks from the hotel in a little shopping area of the Cannaregio neighborhood.
I ordered two local wines: a bottle of red Monte dei Ragni Valpolicella Ripasso and a white Venetian Orto di Venezia. For openers, we ordered the classic Venetian Grancevola (another name for my favorite Granseola, a salad of fresh spider crab served in its shell), Baccala Mantecato (a savory fluffy puree of salt cod and olive oil), the Insalata Caprese, and their vegan bio-specialty Orto Verdure (vegetables from an "orto" organic farm-island in the lagoon). All of these were perfectly fresh and beautifully prepared. The waiter was simultaneously friendly, informative, attentive, and efficient. He appreciated our interest in his local and traditional offerings and he took great pride in explaining many subtleties.
As we headed into the main courses, it became clear that the five of us merry diners would need more wine. I added a Gemola Vignalta Colli Euganei red from the nearby Euganean Hills, which we would be exploring in a few days.
For a main dish, I had the Orata (sea bream) special and got a plate of seasonal Moleche e Zotoli (very seasonal soft-shell crabs) to share. Owen and Melissa got the Melanzane Parmigiana (eggplant parmigiana), Lorna got a special-order fresh grilled salmon, and Brigitte got the Mediterranean-style fish. Everything was perfectly prepared, and I was especially happy to catch the soft-shell crab while it was still in season!
For desserts, Brigitte finished with the tiramisu, Owen had creme brulee, Lorna had a nice tangerine tart. Melissa and I couldn't eat anything more, so we sampled a few different excellent Capovilla grappas and then shared a pony of the uva (grape) grappa. You can see in the photo that these are carefully documented! These brilliant fruity clear spirits reminded me of the Austrian schnaps, but they were different too. Of course I have no idea if I will ever find them again... many of these hyperlocal products are not made in exportable quantities, and so never get out of Italy or Europe. I guess I will just have to plan another trip to Venice!
At the end of the dinner, I got an amazing surprise! I had been searching for the granseola shells for over ten years, since I first read the recipe in an cookbook of regional Italian specialties. Two years earlier, Owen and I had been scouring the Mercato di Rialto for the crabs, and he saw some at the far end of the market. We made haste to get there, and just steps before we arrived, a local restaurateur stepped in front of us and bought the lot! On this evening, before we even entered the restaurant, I asked if they were serving my favorite appetizer, and we talked about it during dinner. When we finished dinner, they gave me three shells!
It was a wonderful dinner and a great locavore welcome to Venice, La Serenissima. We retired to our hotels ready to rest up for a busy day of exploring on the morrow.