A Week in Treviso/Venice

My third city in Italy, Treviso is very near Venice, about a 30 minute train ride, +/- depending on how many local stops it makes.  I stayed here after reading a New York Times article about using Treviso as a base to visit Venice.  So far, so good!

Treviso is also a city of canals, but of a different sort than that in Venice.  Treviso's canals are the results of diversions of rivers and streams, so the water is fairly fast moving, at least this time of year.  The original purpose was (probably, I'm improvising here) to drive water wheels to perform various sorts of work (grinding flour, running machines, etc.).  It makes for a picturesque city.


My Airbnb is immediately adjacent to one of these canals, and there's a water wheel right outside my window.  The sounds of fast flowing water can be very soothing, even if it is quite loud (closing the windows cuts out almost all of that).  There are other side-effects.  Since the weather has been warmer than usual, highs into the mid-70s F, one could observe that where there's water there are also mosquitoes!  And indeed, after my first couple of nights, and several bites, I found that leaving the windows closed from dusk to dawn helped a lot.

Nonetheless, Treviso has been very pleasant.  I've settled into a routine, especially in the morning.  Un brioche vuota è un caffè doppio.  A croissant without filling (vuota=empty) and a double espresso.  I alternate between two caffès, one has better espresso and the other has better bakery goods (the term brioche includes just about anything baked--croissant/cornetto, muffin, etc.).  Sometimes when I want more than one caffè, I go to both (so decadent!).

There are a number of good restaurants which don't seem to require a reservation, as might be the case in a larger city.  One is just across the canal from my Airbnb.  While the passageway is public, they also put out tables and chairs there, so it's a nice place to sit and have an aperitivo in the early evening, before dinner.

Farmacia Santa Fosca

After settling in a couple days, I decided it was time to visit Venice.  This was last Friday (Oct 25).  Bad decision.  Little did I know that there was a national transportation strike called for that day.  I walked to the train station and the train I wanted arrived on time and deposited me in Venice.  I wanted to visit two places: the Farmacia Santa Fosca and Teatro La Fenice.  That would take me across most of Venice.  I'd seen a pharmacy last time I was in Venice (Sept 2006) that looked like it could be right out of the middle ages: large glass jars with mysterious "things" floating in them, other pottery jars with various herbs, etc.  But I was on my way to my hotel at the time and dragging luggage, so I didn't stop, get the name, or anything else.  Now all these years later, I want to see it again.  So a web search turns up several possibilities, but the pictures of Farmacia Santa Fosca seem closest.  It's also noted as the "oldest" pharmacy in Venice.

Farmacia Santa Fosca

As the most common form of transportation in Venice, I walk from the train station to Santa Fosca.  It isn't quite what I remembered, but then it's been 13 years.  I enter and ask the clerk if she knows of another pharmacy that might fit the description.  She doesn't know, but said that a lot has changed in Venice and in the store over 13 years.  And she has only worked there a few years, so she couldn't say what the shop might have been like.  There were vestiges of an old pharmacy among the more modern elements of the shop.  I took several pictures, carefully cropping them so that the modern parts of the space weren't visible, to try to get the feel I had admired so long ago.

So, I will count the visit to Farmacia Santa Fosca as a partial victory!  Onward to Teatro La Fenice, which is, of course, the opera and ballet house in Venice that has seen many versions of itself, too, starting in 1792.  It has burned down twice (in 1836 and in 1996), and been rebuilt.  The website for La Fenice has a well-documented history of the building and the famous people (singers and public figures) who have been a part of its story.

Teatro La Fenice

I arrive shortly before 5:00pm (yes, I got a late start, but Venice at night has more atmosphere than daytime, a reason or an excuse, you decide! :-).  As with much in Italy, the outside of the building is not very impressive--it's on the inside that things matter.  I discover that I have 8 minutes to buy a ticket to take the self-guided tour, last entry at 5:00pm.  Of course, a second before I could join the queue, several others get in before me.  They are trying to buy tickets for a performance, and after asking if they minded if I cut in so I could take the tour before the deadline, they obliged.  The theater is most impressive.

Teatro La Fenice Lobby and stairs to auditorium

Panorama view of the auditorium of Teatro La Fenice

Ceiling and chandelier in the auditorium Teatro La Fenice

And the end of the week saw another trip into Venice, this time to Murano to see the glass works.  As it happens, Seattle and Venice have this in common: a keen appreciation for the art of glass.  I forgot to bring my Pilchuck t-shirt.  A shame as I think that would have opened some doors that remained closed.  As it was I tried to hunt down a few glass masters in Murano, but failed on all counts. In some parts, they were in Seattle!  In others, they had just returned.  Nonetheless, a visit to Murano is a feast for the eyes of those who appreciate art glass.  In 2006 I bought a chandelier from Gritti, a manufacturer whom, I'm told, has closed their doors.  It is a sorbet confection of multi-colored pastel glass.  Alas, resting in a box in San Jose, CA, awaiting a time when I own another apartment and can hang it as it deserves.

My time in Treviso draws to a close.  I had dinner at my favorite restaurant here, the Odeon Colonna. It has many things to recommend it: firstly it serves a first rate Franciacorta sparkling wine and a deeply savory Valpolicella Ripasso (flavors of orange, cranberry, and pomegranate).  Both of these go very well with the honest and forthright foods from the kitchen.  Lastly it is just across the canal bridge from where I'm staying--I can crawl home if need be :-).  Tonight was a sample: a mixed salad of greens, thinly sliced pear, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, with a light dressing to go with the Franciacorta.  Followed by boar cheeks braised in Valpolicella Ripasso with a light polenta, roasted potatoes and green beans.  Most meals, as this one, end with the city's famous Tiramisu, and perhaps another glass of wine or an amaro or grappa.  Tonight it was another glass of the delicious Valpolicella Ripasso poured from a a magnum.  Buona Notte!  Tomorrow brings travel and another town: Bergamo!