VENICE DAY 2 -- 9/16/06

Unfortunately, our second day here in Venice began with some very sad and upsetting news from home. Liz's beloved family dog, Simon, passed away early in the morning. Simon was 11 years old. We had heard late the night before that he had suddenly become very sick and he was taken to the vet. (This is the real reason neither of us could eat our dinners last night) Simon died of an unknown cause the next morning. Anyone who knows us and knows Liz's family understands how profound a loss this is. We all loved Simon and we will always miss him.

One last thing I will say about this is that Liz has handled it really well. Yes, there have been a lot of tears but she insisted that we enjoy our last day in Italy, and we certainly have. We walked miles and miles all over Venice today and Liz kept her head up the whole time and I think that's amazing.

Anyway, let's get back to our final entry for BinWorld Italy.

We headed to the Jewish Ghetto first. On the way we stopped at the fish market which is 700 years old. (See pictures below) After that we heard the sounds of people singing and clapping coming from a nearby ristorante. It was a famous Kosher restaurant called Gam Gam. We began recording from outside but as soon as one man saw us he came running out. I thought he was going to be angry but insead he invited us to celebrate the last Shabbas before the new year with them. He gave us kiddush cups and we drank wine. You can hear our conversation in the recording. You can also hear my unbelievably lame attempt at the blessing. I'm a bit of a mumbler when it comes to hebrew.

Here is the only shot we got of the guy outside the restaurant. He was holding a very young child while he was talking to us.

The ghetto turned out to be the most beautiful section of Venice that we had seen so far. We had a very nice lunch alongside a canal. Here is a recording a guitarist we call Hornlips. He was playing for us at the restaurant. He plays guitar and makes a really good trumpet sound with his mouth. You can also hear the waiter put our plate of risotto down in front of us towards the end of the recording. Yum.

After lunch, we walked around that area some more and found it to be the most peaceful area of Venice. Here is a recording of the general ambience from a really nice spot on a bridge. It may seem like I am just very relaxed in these pictures but really I am just trying to digest the risotto.

Our next find was a fantastic accordian player. This guy really is a master. Skills. Crazy skills.

It started to rain pretty hard around 6 o'clock but we kept walking. Here is a short recording of the six PM bells from the waterfront.

We finished our final night in Italy with what probably was our best meal at Vini di Gigio which Liz will describe to you in detail. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel but stopped in a little cafe/bar along the way. Everyone was drunkenly singing songs and playing piano. It was a nice way to say good night to Venice. Here is a snippet from that recording.

We had a lunch at a restaurant with a great sidewalk cafe along one of the canals. We started with an eggplant involtini--a thin slice of eggplant wrapped around a mixture of ricotta cheese and toasted pine nuts. The eggplant was served on top of a tomato puree that really brightened the flavor of the already very tasty dish. We also had a caprese salad (I just can't get enough mozzarella and tomato!), with thick slices of buffalo mozzarella and chunks of cherry tomatoes drizzeled with a powerful pesto sauce. Matt and I then shared ristotto with scallops and peas (pictured above). This dish was amazing, thick and creamy, flavored with fish stock and packed with pieces of scallop, scallop roe and fresh peas.

Our last dinner in Italy was certainly a memorable one. Vini da Gigio was a friendly, welcoming restaurant located on the corner of a beautiful little side street (pictured above). Our first dish was a mixed appetizer of "Venetian seafood specialities". The dish was incredible--an assortment of six types of seafood, including tiny shrimp served on creamy grits (yes, grits!), a fried croquette of pureed salt cod, bay scallops, sea scallops in balsamic vinegar and grilled sardine with pickled onions. Even Matt, not a big seafood eater, was taken with this dish.

For our pasta, Matt had gnocchi with shrimp scampi and pesto. Tender little pillows of potato dumplings, with moist, succulent pieces of shrimp. I had spaghetti with cuttlefish ink, a truly stunning pasta dish. It arrived, black with the squid ink, with big pieces of cuttlefish that melted in your mouth. It was amazing, though after every bite I took Matt said my lips were completely covered in the thick black creamy sauce. It must have been disturbing to see.

The main courses were also fantastic. Matt had slices of filet served on top of baby arugula with a pink peppercorn sauce. I had duck that was cooked twice--first roasted in the oven, then cooked stove top in broth and vegetables. This was some of the best duck either of us had ever tasted and I cleaned the entire half duck with no problem. Dessert was a Venetian speciality--Tiramisu, served chilled in a martini glass. After a glass of grappa and a cup of espresso, and we were completely full and very happy.

And that concludes our eating tour of Italy. I hope you have enjoyed dining with us!

Remember to Send us an email! Let us know what you thought of our BinBlog and stay in touch. We hope to expand the site at some point to complete a Binaural world tour! See you next time.

Matt and Liz

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VENICE DAY 1 -- 9/15/06

We got to Venice in the early afternoon. We took a water-bus to the Rialto Bridge and began searching for our hotel. It turned out to be very close to the bridge, in a small courtyard off of a tiny little alleyway. It's a cute hotel. We dropped our stuff off and headed out for San Marco. The first recording we took in Venice was of the general ambience along this walk to San Marco Square. You can hear the famous bells in the background.

Once we arrived at San Marco of course it was packed. Mainly with pigeons. It was really disgusting actually. The square doesn't look that good, it's really filthy and it's flooded and it stinks. There are tens of thousands of pigeons everywhere and if you try to walk through them they just jump on your head and shoulders and peck at you thinking that you are trying to feed them. Here is a recording from inside the crowd of pigeons at San Marco.

Once we made it past the pigeons, we took our next recording at the waterfront. Here is a quick sample of one of the most famous waterfronts in the world.

Later in the evening we went back to San Marco to see how different it would be at night. It was much more pleasant. The pigeons were gone and there were bands playing on all sides of the square. Here is a taste.

(You have to wonder who would leave this baby stroller like that)

We had a relatively light eating day after leaving Bologna. I think Bologna may have gotten the best of our stomachs. In the morning, we went to the market and picked up food for the train--salami, buffalo mozzarella cheese, marinated artichokes, olives, an heirloom tomato and some ciabatta rolls. Once on the train, I set to work crafting two masterful sandwiches from these excellent ingredients. And man, these were some good sandwiches.

Lunch pretty much kept us full the entire day, and even into dinner. We went to a lovely, small restaurant called Alle Testiere which served fish exclusively. Matt started with a plate of razor clams, bathed in a fragrant and very garlicy and delicious scampi sauce. The clams were tender and slightly chewy, and the shells were paper thin--so thin that they would often shatter as Matt was tryng to pry the meat out of the shell. I had bay scallops, served in the shell with a balsamic vingear sauce and wilted arugula. The scallops were sweet little morsels, balanced well by the acidity of the balsamic vinegar and the bitter arugula.

For our main course, Matt and I had the same dish: Spaghetti with clams and a buttery garlic sauce, much like the sauce served with Matt's razor clams. The spaghetti was thick and al dente, coated in butter and full of flavor. The clams were so tiny the meat inside was about the size of my pinky nail, and they were delicious.

And that was all we could handle--not even dessert! I promise, we'll do better on our second day in Venice.