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A Stroll In Canareggio And Castello
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Up at 8.10 - an hour later than usual. Again there are new guests at breakfast, or maybe it is because we're late.

5. day. Walks in Canareggio and Castello. The worst restaurant in Venice?

Eric
2005-12-08 19:32:57

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while the other is a bragging bohemian: naked feet in sandals, straw hat, shirt with big flowers and baggy pants. He has a comment for everything and everybody and plays the clown with rose allergy when one of the many flower-sellers tries his luck.

After this stunt the girl asks if we are English, because "you kept a stiff upper lip". It obviously doesn't occur to her that we don't find him funny; however she seems like a nice girl, feeds the dog with peanuts, which it must bite in halves, and tells us that the silent guy is a famous painter and that his wife owns a gallery. Oh my...
The Worst Restaurant In Venice?

We walk to the restaurant we spotted earlier. A table outside is nice; then I can smoke and the weather is very pleasant. Just across is a huge official building - some kind of interior ministry and fire station in one.

Helle orders spaghetti carbonara and grilled sole while I go for vegetable soup and veal cutlet. We both order vegetables of the season as side dish. The compromise wine for sole and veal is a Bardolino rosé.

Three flower sellers try their luck within three minutes. As in Rome they look like Tamils and the flowers here are long-stemmed roses too. I wonder if it is a cartel? Grissini and stale bread arrive with the first course. Helle prefers the carbonara at Al Giardinetto where they prepare it with Parmesan cheese, and my soup is definitely deep frozen fresh from the microwave. It is a stock with tasteless spongy vegetables. A pinch of freeze-dried parsley gives a false shine of freshness. The sole is grilled ok but is tasteless. The veal cutlet is thin and dry and fortunately not bigger than 100 grams. The vegetables of the season are 3 slices of aubergine, 2 small slices of squash and 1 slice of yellow pepper - all grilled and dry.

The only good thing is the wine at 18,2 €. In total we are robbed for some 72 €, and this disaster fully qualifies for the saying that "a Venezia si spende tanto e si mangia male" - in Venice you spend a lot and eat badly. The lady was very wise not to ask if we liked the meal.
Vino Rosso di Cabinet

Osteria Vivaldi is on the corner of Calle del Forno, 50 meters from the hotel - we need to flush! We get a glass of the house white and then a glass of red Valpolicella. The bartender arranges beautiful plates for the diners and it looks appetizing. We wouldn't mind eating here some day although we do not fancy baccala (dried cod) stewed in milk. The bartender's face and body language is like an open book, and at close range we read his annoyance when he needs to write a bill and cannot find the slip with the order. And we read his relief when he finds it in the garbage.

The cask with the house red dries out and the bartender asks us politely to move a bit so he can put a new cask into the sideboard on our side of the counter. Moving the sideboard and manoeuvring the cask requires quite an effort before the wine again runs freely. We finish off with a glass of Nobile di Montepulciano, a wilful wine, and when we get the bill the house white is on the house. Maybe the tired bartender liked my remark that the hidden house red must surely be a "Cabinet".

A shower has passed and a few drops reached the bottom of the alley, but in the distance we see lightning.