This blog will take you to places you’ve always wanted to see and to some you may only have heard of. Its purpose – to immerse you in extraordinary tastes and colors, smells, sights and experiences, infecting you, or perhaps aggravating, an already serious case of wanderlust.
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Italy – Taking Venice – Mission Accomplished
The Taking Venice manuscript is 12,000 words longer, we’ve identified the main venues where Catarina’s story unfolds, and have imbibed as much of the city’s magic as possible. We squint just a little to block out short-clad tourists, and we’re in the Venice of the early 1500’s. Little has changed since Catarina d’Armano walked these narrow calles and rode the gondolas of the day on the winding canals of La Serenissima. Click on photos to enlarge.
Ca’Molin
We’ve identified Ca’Molin, the palazzo of her wealthy Uncle Uberto and Cousin Donata, freedom-loving Catarina’s Venetian prison.
Santa Maria dei Miracoli
We’ve visited again Venice’s most beautiful church, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, and stood beneath the miraculous painting to which Donata prays for healing. It’s here that Catarina meets the too-gorgeous Maffeo Sanuto for the first time.
Silvia Bollani’s palazzo
We’ve followed winding calles to the palazzo of Silvia Bollani, famous poet and ‘cortigiana honesta’ (respectable courtesan), who takes Catarina under her wing.
Bellini Madonna and Child – Frari
We’ve sought out paintings by Venice’s divine Giovanni Bellini (for whom Tomasso is apprentice), at the Academia Museum and Venice’s churches, including my favorite, and Catarina’s, his Madonna and Child at the Church of the Frari.
We’ve eaten gelato in the piazza where Catarina sketches the church of San Giovanni e Paolo, in the hope that Maffeo will happen by.
San Giovanni e Paolo
Entrance to Arsenale
We’ve scoped out the Arsenale, the navel shipyard where Venice’s workers could turn out a warship a day, and where Tomasso made the sketches that were his downfall.
We’ve viewed elaborate gowns worn by glittering Venetian beauties.
We’ve travelled up the Brenta River to find the d’Armano country estate, gambled away by Catarina’s father.
d’Armano country estate on the Brenta
Interior Basillica di San Marco
Of course we’ve been as awed as Catarina was, gazing up at the hundreds of mosaics that glitter in the domes of the Basilica di San Marco.
IMG_1195So hard to leave. Only the lure of the next adventure eases our departing. Click on the link to see a video of our last views of Venice.
On to MOSCOW!
Italy – Venice – Music, Music, Music
We’ve been adventuring, but are home again and battling the forces of nature threatening to take over the garden. We may have fought to a standoff – so it’s time to get back to Foreign Writes and Venice – Sept-Oct, 2015.
There are so many music options in Venice it’s hard to choose among them. Mostly, you can’t go wrong and the ticket prices are a fraction of those in the U.S.
A particular perk of our location is the five minute walk to La Fenice – Venice’s jewel of an opera house.It’s good to purchase tickets on line in advance as the house is often packed.
Tosca is gripping and beautiful. It would be nice to have a more elaborate set,
though it’s pretty amazing what they can do with a few boards on the stage.
La Traviata is a real disappointment – a contemporary setting. I guess they think that will appeal to a wider audience, but in the process they’ve made Violetta a prostitute, not a courtesan, and dropped in a dance number – male and female – nearly nude except for cowboy hats??? In the process they’ve lost many layers of sympathy for our dying heroine – at least from me.
The orchestral performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for violin, cello and piano is thrilling, especially as our box seats put us so close to the orchestra. How do they do it? 
Such talent still seems magical to me.
Five minutes walk in another direction takes us to the Church of San Vital, deconsecrated, and now home to the Interpreti Veneziani – an absolutely top notch chamber group. Vivaldi is their specialty, though they include other composers. Their cellist, Davide Amedeo is unbelievable. Watch them on youtube. You’re in for a treat!
Of course,we can never resist stopping at one of our favorite gellaterias on our stroll home through quiet squares and lanes emptied of tourists. The best part of the day!
Italy – Venice – What a Hood!
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.
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 
cafe – 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, 
lasagnas, pestos, stuffed and plain pastas, yards of cheeses, tens of varieties of hams. Avoiding serious cooking will not be a problem.
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!
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. 
Tough research, but someone has to do it. And he’s very thorough.
Italy – Venice – Getting to the Magic
Foreign Writes — off to Venice.
Three weeks in La Serenissima, justified, if a visit to Venice ever demanded a reason, by my need to do on-site research, soak up the atmosphere of this immortal city, and find inspiration for my current project — a Young Adult novel, working title Taking Venice. Set in the early 1500’s, it chronicles the coming of age of a young woman, orphaned by the plague, and brought to Venice by her wealthy uncle to be companion to her partially crippled cousin. Initially disgusted by the extravagence and glitz of the world’s richest city, Catarina d’Armano is gradually seduced by the city’s glamour and by her cousin’s paid-for fiance. Catarina will struggle to find out who she really is.
After much internet research, we’ve booked an Air B&B apartment that looks promising. Endless hours of travel with a stop in Amsterdam, and we arrive at the Marco Polo International Airport on a late September morning. Despite the time of year, it is hot and humid and we’re moist by the time we leave the terminal for the “5 minute’ walk to the boat that will take us into the city. Pulling our maximum-weight bags, we trudge for what seems like miles to the tragetto stop — we are more than moist by now. Eventually the boat arrives and a crowd is clamoring to get aboard — all with luggage at least equal to ours. We climb down into the passenger cabin, wedged between equally humid travelers. Only one of the windows actually lowers, and the temperature rises.
We set off for the city at a snail’s pace, fighting the wakes of private motor taxis that zoom by, their passengers looking smug and breeze-cooled, doubting the wisdom of our economy transportation choice. But when our boat enters the Grand Canal, our griping ceases. It is just as improbable as always — a fairy tale dream you couldn’t make up. Our host, Andrea, is waiting, as promised, at the Rialto Bridge stop. Frail though he appears, he has no trouble hoisting one of our over-stuffed bags up and over the canal bridges as we follow him toward 
Campo Manin and then into Calle Santo Paternian, so narrow I can nearly touch the walls on either side with outstretched arms.
He opens a door and we heave our bags up three flights of steep stairs to our Venice home. The combined kitchen/dining area and the living room are a bit more rustic than I imagined from the pictures. We climb another flight of stairs to the bedroom, bathroom — and the terrace.
It takes my breath away, and reminds me of why we chose this apartment. This is where I will spend my afternoons writing, while looking over the red-tiled roofs of Venice, listening to the city’s bell towers chime the hours. This is where we will have our 
afternoon wine while munching addictive taralli. This is where we will dine by candle light, listening to Vivaldi recordings on my lap top.
Yes!
Peru – Last Lunches in Lima
Click on photos to enlarge.
We’re back in the big city after our Amazon adventure, with a couple of days until our flight to the US – only a couple of 
days to sample a few of the restaurants on our must-eat-at list. There is also the issue of the pesos burning a hole in Emma’s pocket, so we head to the Indian Market. We’re not prepared for its vastness, with aisle upon aisle of souvenirs. Where to look first? How to choose? How to bargain? Emma takes her time and assembles a perfect selection of gifts – including a miniature blow gun which is bound to impress her brothers.
With shopping out of the way, we can focus on food. We’ve already eaten
at one of Gaston Acurio’s restaurants, the fabulous Casa Moreyra. We find our way to Madam Tusan, his dramatic chifa (Chinese/Peruvian fusion) outpost. We are not disappointed.
We’ve been saving another of his restaurants – La Mar – for our last 
lunch. We’re curious. We’ve walked by it several times and noted security guards outside the plain grey cement walls opening patrons’ limos. Inside, the restaurant is informal and anything but plain – turquoise, orange, exotic flowers and a bamboo ceiling letting in light and air. (It almost never rains in Lima.) Big blackboards list the days dishes in colored chalk. Our waiter brings us a pail of potato chips in many colors and a selection of yummy dips while we try to choose.
Mark orders tuna ceviche.
Emma and I share a ‘boatload’ of causas – little rolls of various potato purees topped with a variety of seafoods – the deep fried shrimp are amazing.
Mark opts for shrimp in a velvety/spicy sauce
Emma can’t resist seafood pasta
But I am the real winner – with tender stuffed and broiled squid
Bartenders stay busy behind a counter covered in seafood – Acurio trucks go up and down the Pacific coast several times a week to pick up the catch from their customized supply chain of artisanal fisherman – identified on the signs by each fish. Most of the fish are totally foreign to us. It’s an amazing display. So sad we won’t have a chance to sample more of them!
And our last dinner in Lima? We’ve been saving that night for Rafael’s – Raphael Osterling’s delightful 
Italian/Peruvian fusion restaurant.
Fusion – What a great idea! Chinese, indigenous, French, Italian, Spanish, Jewish, Japanese = MARVELOUS!
Thank you. Lima!
