Foreign Writes apologizes  for the long gap in posts.   The cause – another adventure –  just ended.  Now, back to September 2015 and Venice.  Click on photos to enlarge.

Well, it’s working.  Settling into La Serenissima and our daily routine, immersed in its sounds and smells and sights, is providing the juice for my daily afternoon writing bouts on our terrace.  Our neighborhood turns out to have more features that we expected.

IMG_1073 Our local cafe – connected to a cinema – is just around the corner.  We go there for our morning cappuccino and cornetto.  After showing up for three days, our barista tells us she’ll  charge us Italian prices from now on.  Instant locals!

 

 

We have one of Venice’s few supermarkets just a few doors past our IMG_1157cafe – and it is fabulous.  We can hardly believe our eyes as we stroll its aisles and come upon its deli counter – the whole width of the store.  Prepared Italian specialties of all sorts – great antipastos of every variety, IMG_1158lasagnas, pestos, stuffed and plain pastas, yards of cheeses, tens of varieties of hams.  Avoiding serious cooking will not be a problem.

 

 

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A five minute walk away is the Rialto Bridge, and across the bridge is the Venice fish market – there since the middle ages.  These days there are also plenty of veg/fruit vendors and shops selling poultry and meat.  It’s great to mix with Venetian’s shopping for dinner.  I can’t resist the monk fish – a variety I’ve never encountered in the U.S.  It deserves its reputation as the poor man’s lobster with its’s large flakes and succulent flesh.  We buy two and cook them that night – just sauté in butter and add lemon juice.  As good as I remember!

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And, of course, there’s our local gelateria – just the right distance for an after dinner stroll and open until 11 p.m. Mark scouts story locations while I write in the afternoon.  He also scouts gelaterias – and pasticerias, and cafes. IMG_1055 Tough research, but someone has to do it.  And he’s very thorough.

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