June 12th, 2010

We landed safely in Venice and took a water taxi to the Hotel Metropole.  No cars are permitted in this ancient city, and the canals are busy with taxis and tours, fishermen and gondoliers.  The taxi docked at the hotel and we were met by our bags inside the foyer.  We decided to check into our rooms and meet in the bar for a cocktail to settle into our new surroundings (and time zone).  The rooms were decadently suited with windows that opened to the artist stands lining the canal.
 
Aperol Spritzes in the hotel bar really marked the beginning of Venice.  An Aperol Spritze, for those of you looking for a perfect summer cocktail, is two parts Aperol, three parts Prosecco, and a spritz of seltzer water garnished with an orange wedge.  Prosecco is a light, fruit-forward sparkling wine of Italy. Prosecco by Borgo SanLeo and LaMarca are perfectly suited for this drink.  Your neighborhood Twin Liquors carries all of the necessary ingredients to make this crisp and refreshing beverage.

 

A water taxi drops us off at the Rialto Bridge and we make our way down cobbled streets towards a small restaurant that our Hotelier has recommended.  The World Cup match can be heard from the piazza just around the way where people are drinking birra and sipping on Prosecco.  We venture down one intimate street and then another, passing a small bistro with tables for two lining one side of the street, and arrive at our destination.
 
La Trattoria della Madonna offers a simple menu largely consisting of fresh seafood dishes.  Some of the day’s catches of crab, squid and sea bass can be seen displayed on lit shelves as you enter the ristorante. Vases of gardenias splash color from every corner of the white-tiled room we are escorted to and Picassoesque prints and paintings of Venetian waterways adorn the walls.  We opt for the house white – a Friuli that is crisp and dry (perfect for the fried calamari, fresh seafood platter, and vegetables that we’ve ordered).
 
Meals in Italy are ordered in courses, typically for the table to share.  This allows everyone to get a little taste of each dish without filling up completely before the next course arrives.  The first course is generally your Antipasto, or appetizer.  Antipasti can be anything from thinly sliced meats and cheeses to marinated green and black olives to mixed platters of seafood and vegetables.  Next comes the Primi course. Oftentimes this will be pasta or some sort of salad like the insalata mista.  The Secondi course is essentially the main event, although everything up to this point has probably been absolutely amazing. This will be the meat dish and the largest portion of the meal, but it doesn’t end there! Along with the Secondi comes the Contorni, or side dishes, and these can range from polenta to cannellini beans to some form of potatoes. And if you’ve still got room, check out the Dolci, or dessert menu, for some Italian classics like tiramisu or gelatto.

We chose a Rosato and a Valpolicella for our next wines.  The Rosato is a perfect little rosé that was a great palate cleanser as we sampled artichoke, peas, carrots, zucchini, snail, small shrimp and fresh calamari.  The fruit forward Valpolicella wrapped around the fish that we selected for our Secondi.  The fish on the daily menu was called a Scorfino, translated by our server as Scorpion fish.  They are very difficult to find and are only fished three times each year, and are apparently very difficult to bring in due to their speed.  Suffice it to say, we owe the fisherman who reeled ours in a “thank you” because it was perfect.  Our server deboned the fish at the table and we dined.  A little bit of sea salt and lemon over the sea bass and Scorfino was absolutley wonderful, made better by good wine and great conversation.  We had no trouble cleaning off the myriad plates that cluttered the table and made our way back towards the waterfront.  An oboe sang sweetly into the Venitian night from the Rialto Bridge and people gathered to take pictures of the gondolas and storefronts reflecting their lights into the inky waters of the canal.

 
June 13th, 2010

Breakfast at Hotel Metropole is served in a private courtyard lined with a tall hedge bearing white flowers in bloom.  Pear trees spire their way up in crooked lines and beyond the walls of the garden, Venice’s stone and stucco walls rise up against the clouds.  Honeyed bananas with hazelnuts and stewed pears with cinammon sticks are but a couple of dishes worth mentioning, but perhaps more than the food, I feel that the service is worth noting.  This must be the land where hospitality was concieved, and if not, this is certainly where it was honed to a razor’s edge on the whetting stone.  Ivy spindles around wrought iron trellaces and centuries old crucifixes subtly erupt from the leafy nest and as I take a drink of fresh pineapple juice and have some Montasio and Dolomitti cheeses, hard boiled egg, prunes with fresh mint, and black coffee.  I cannot help but feel the charm of the old world all around me.  This meal would have been perfect with a Mimosa or Bellini using Gloria Ferrer Brut as the buscuity backbone.  There is no question as to why Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, and Sigmund Freud stayed in this hotel, and having been built in 1300, I imagine many more names of note spent a night or two in this waterfront spot next door to the oratory where Antonio Vivaldi taught music and composed many of his best works.
 
From Venezia we travel by train to Verona. A bottle of Rodana and some thinly sliced San Danielle with Asiago and gorgonzola cheeses make the ride by rail through the countryside like something out of an old film.  Cars can be seen for the first time since our arrival on the highway running parallel to the tracks.  However, it is quickly apparent by the swarm of Vespas and scooters which is the preferred mode of transportation on the roads.  We were met at the station by a driver from Masi and made our way past the endless sea of orchards and vineyards (an abundance of Prosecco and Corvina grapes) into the Valpolicella region to the Serego Alighieri Estate.
 
The Serego Alighieri Estate is nothing if not a perfect picture of Italian romanticism.  A narrow drive lined with 100 ft. Cypress trees that pull double duty as sentinels fortifying the landscape and windbreaks for the vines.  This is where Dante Alighieri came following his temporary exile from Florence by the Medicis in the mid 14th century, and even now is the home of Count Alighieri – a 26th generation descendant of the poet himself.  The farmhouse in which we stay has been remodeled into apartments with rustic charm unsurpassed by anything we have so far encountered.  Potted lemon trees in the private gardens, figs and cypress trees at every turn, Oleander in bloom overlooking the terraced hillside where Rondinella and Corvina grapevines line up in perfect rows.  At the end of each vine one can find roses planted, and while this is yet another subtle form of beautification, traditionally the flowers also served an important purpose.  Roses are a finicky flower, visibly turning for the worse if there is a problem with mold, mildew or pests.  Roses in the vineyard are much like the canary in the coal mine in that the farmers could tell if something is wrong in the vineyard through the roses before there is irreversable damage done to the vines.  This is now done more out of tradition than necessity, but these little nuances add to the love affair between man and wine, and manage to tell a bit of the history behind the progress of vinification.
 
Our stroll around the estate takes us to the stone courtyard where trellaced vines grow along cobbled walls and wooden shutters.  A Molinara vine planted in 1873, and serving as the single vine that was not affected by philoxera on the estate, wraps its way along its own trellis.  It is here that VinItaly is held, and though this space lies empty today, each year it is filled with amazing Italian wines, winemakers, estate representatives and is, overall, one of the wine events of the year.  Our path winds through a dense forest of deep greens and stone statuettes staring off into the ages.
 
Back in the Piazza Herbe we arrive at the highly recommended Café Fillipinni. We open up the meal with Pieropan Soave for a light white to compliment the salad and seafood, and then move into a 1998 Osar; a nearly perfect example of Italian wine of the Veneto using a nearly extinct varietal that Masi has worked diligently to bring back into play.  The 1998 was a blend of Oseleta (80%) and Corvina(20%), but the newest vintages are 100% Oseleta to give the full expression of this deep grape.  It has bewildering concentration and color, and while it is fantastic right now, the tannin content will allow this wine to age.  24 months in the barriques soften the tannins of this highly acidic wine leaving a long lasting structure. T his wine is meant to be enjoyed with roasted meats, game, and spicy cheeses.  Wine enthusiasts will be avid fans of this in the states, and Texas especially with the multitude of barbecue and game to choose from.  Tuna, scallops on the half-shell, bistecca, lamb chops…everything adding to a perfect meal as the cold front pushes the humidity of the day out of the square.  In the morning, we will tour the Serego Alighieri winery and then take an in-depth tour of Masi.

 

Stay Tuned until Next Week for Part 2 of 4