It’s our last full day here. We spent most of it on Murano, home of the famous Venetian glass factories. I was kinda-sorta in search of the closest thing I could find to the ashtray that Tom Ripley beats Freddie Miles to death with in the latest adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mister Ripley.” (That would be “Ripley,” now playing on Netflix.) A little Googling revealed the prop was real Murano glass (or more likely a dupe fashioned after it), owned by Steven Zaillan, who helmed the Netflix series. But if you’ve ever seen Murano glass, you know that piece is a rarity — heavy, colorless, clear and plain. Murano glass…how to put this delicately? It is one part of the stereotype that Italians have a taste for flashy and gaudy home decor. Most of it is vividly colorful, sparkly and silly, a little too-too much for my taste.
But we were almost back to the vaporetto stop when I saw a piece in a shop window that wasn’t an ashtray, but it was clear and simple. I knew it would be out of my price range, but once in the shop I spotted another piece, this one an ashtray, smaller, clear and with a simple design in a subdued shade of maroon. The owner said it was vintage from the ’80s, or maybe the ’50s. Her father’s design. And more reasonably priced. Small enough that I doubt you could kill anyone with it.
Reader, I whipped out my Amex. I’d show you a photo, but it’s entombed in bubble wrap at the moment. Maybe in a few days.
I like Venice more than I thought I would. The tourists are mostly contained in neighborhoods where we aren’t, and the one we’re in still feels pretty Italian. The kids play in the piazza, kicking soccer balls around. There’s a hardware store there. You hear more Italian than English spoken on the streets near us.
And of course, at night it’s magical:
The water has come up a couple nights we’ve been here, and I can hear passers-by splashing through the flooded sidewalk a few doors down. It’s great.
My feet hurt less than I thought they would, too. I invested in expensive sneakers before we left, but we haven’t had a sub-10K-step day the whole trip. There was recently a story in some newspaper, about Americans who go to Europe, eat like pigs and are shocked to find they didn’t gain any weight, and may have even lost a little. Could it be something different about European food?
Duh. It’s the walking, dummies. But then I remember this Google review, of a pizzeria we found in Florence, and think, you can’t fix this kind of delusion:
Tiny pizza place but excellent pizza. Back home we normally avoid cheese/dairy, wheat, and my husband always avoids nightshades/tomatoes but we’re being more flexible here trying things out as we understand they don’t use roundup or do to food what is done to our food back in the states so that it seems not to cause the digestive issues we’d experience if we ate like this back home. It is also a bit away from the super crazy crowds.
Speaking of Florence, when we were there we passed, several times, incredibly long lines to eat at a particular sandwich place. They had two locations nearly next door to one another, and both had hour-long waits, standing in line, to get a takeaway-only sandwich. It was so successful that other nearby places were copying their menu, and they had long lines, too. I considered trying it out, but life is too short to wait an hour in line for a sandwich. Then, on our last day, I was taking a photo of some 1930s typography on the wall of the train station, and whaddaya know?
THAT’S THE PLACE. All’Antico Vinato! With only four people in line! We figured now was our chance. And we split one — they’re huge:
It was an excellent sandwich, but the secret is obviously the bread, a type of focaccia split laterally, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Worth an hour in line? Nah. But for five minutes in line? Absolutely. I note the chain is expanding to the U.S. If you live in New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles, you’re in luck.
Now we’re headed to our last dinner here. I’ve half a mind to try the black spaghetti they serve around here, colored with squid ink from the cuttlefish. It weirds me out, but I want to be adventurous, even as pomodoro and basilico is my favorite.
We’ll see. Safe travels to us, and back later this week.
EDIT: I ordered it, I ate it, and I liked it. Mission accomplished.
brian stouder said on May 5, 2024 at 2:36 pm
Magnifico!! Looks like y’all are doin’ this traveling/experiencing thing exactly right. Here’s seconding your motion for continued safe travels
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Deborah said on May 5, 2024 at 2:58 pm
OMG that sandwich looks scrumptious. I’ve had the black spaghetti, actually it was linguini and it just tasted like pasta normally tastes, good pasta that is.
I love walking in Europe, we didn’t walk as much in Japan for some reason.
Has anyone been watching Reindeer Baby on Netflix? I’ve only seen 3 of the 7 episodes so far but I’m hooked.
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Ann said on May 5, 2024 at 11:26 pm
Thanks for taking us along on this sweet trip. Everything I read about Venice tourism makes it sound like a hell-hole, but everyone I know who visits it loves it.
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Brandon said on May 6, 2024 at 1:53 am
Madonna concludes her Celebration world tour with a free concert on the Copacabana, drawing 1,600,000 attendees.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/05/free-madonna-concert-draws-crowd-of-16m-to-brazils-copacabana-beach
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Jeff Gill said on May 6, 2024 at 7:21 am
That pasta makes for a minor plot point in Richard Russo’s novella “Nate in Venice” also found as “Voices” in his story collection “Trajectory.” If you want a trip to Venice on the cheap!
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Dorothy said on May 6, 2024 at 9:21 am
I’m getting braver in my old age to try new things and I’d like to think if I were in Italy, I’d try the black spaghetti, too. However maybe not. The sandwich though is definitely something I’d love!
Deborah we watched Baby Reindeer and found it extremely disturbing. Knowing it was based on a real life experience of the actor playing the lead was not helping to enhance the storyline. I’m sure he took some dramatic liberties and hopefully he did not experience everything in real life that Donny did in the series. But it was creepy nonetheless.
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Icarus said on May 6, 2024 at 9:33 am
On one of our visits to Chicago for Thanksgiving, we stayed in the West Loop. At a place called Black Barrel Tavern, I tried the Black Fetticini, and it was amazing. They did not skimp on the shrimp!
In other news, I sold my 2008 Honda Element. I was tired of putting money into it and got a good deal from CarMax. Even though it was in both our names and we have a minivan also in both our names, and a CRV we are about to buy from our in-laws, the Element always felt like my car.
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Heather said on May 6, 2024 at 10:12 am
I’m glad you liked Venice! I agree, those less touristy sestieri can be magical and I always suggest that people hang out there rather than around the Piazza di San Marco.
Anyway, jealous of your travels! We’re headed to Milwaukee in a couple weeks for a weekend. Not quite Italy, but I can’t go away for long since I have a nursing mama and a couple of kittens as fosters.
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susan said on May 6, 2024 at 1:33 pm
Mexican cuisine uses octopus/squid ink in some of its dishes, especially in the Veracruz region. Most tasty!
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tajalli said on May 6, 2024 at 2:37 pm
Thanks for the exciting vicarious travels, pics, and the resultant foodie conversations. I would definitely go for the squid pasta. The tableware is also lovely. Have a safe trip home.
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alex said on May 7, 2024 at 7:53 am
Haven’t seen squid ink pasta since I’ve been living in Fort Wayne, but it used to be pretty commonplace in Chicago eateries and I remember buying it at the old Treasure Island grocery. As I recall, there’s no appreciable difference in flavor; it’s all about the look.
I wasn’t even going to bother voting in the primary this year, but then I looked at the bios of the Dem candidates, who are few in number (and who don’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell) and some of them are quite impressive, exactly the sort of intelligent and constructive people I’d like to see in office. So I’m going to go vote my conscience. Besides, I just read this morning that Indiana has the second lowest voter turnout of any state.
Politico has a piece running today that’s all about Indiana and the drastic change in tone of our political advertising from congenial to Trump ugly: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/07/indiana-governors-race-national-politics-00156179
Here’s some scuttlebutt I found interesting:
By January of this year, both [Eric] Doden and state Commerce Secretary Brad Chambers, the two more socially moderate candidates in the race, were plotting ways to muscle the other out of the field. Doden’s parents, wealthy from a turn in the steel business, dumped millions into his bid. But his campaign went dark over the holidays, leaving Chambers’ camp weighing whether to write Doden’s father a memo offering him a “seat at the table” in a Chambers administration in exchange for his son dropping out of the race, according to two people familiar with the plans and granted anonymity to discuss the campaign’s strategy in the closing days of the primary. But that never materialized.
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Jeff Gill said on May 7, 2024 at 8:59 am
Today, Indiana, it ends… for a while. And we can all stop thinking about Eric Doden.
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nancy said on May 7, 2024 at 9:58 am
Alex, that Politico story is being repeated all over the country. I’m amazed by the sheer acrimony between party members, even MAGAts, who are aping their god-king down to the last detail. Just awful people, given free rein to be as awful as they can.
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FDChief said on May 7, 2024 at 10:30 am
That is the most vile part of the vile politics of MAGA; what utter scum the people are, and how that matters not a whit to the other scum.
There’s a wonderful bit in Bolt’s play about Thomas More. In it More, a walking dead man because of his former associate’s perjury, asks to see the chain of office his accuser is wearing.
“Sir Richard has been appointed Attorney General for Wales.” he is informed.
More (as played by the wonderful Paul Schofield) replies gently; “It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world…” and he pauses before adding “…but, for Wales?”
These people are selling all our souls for the worst people in the whole world.
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Deborah said on May 7, 2024 at 11:55 am
I have an appointment I have to keep and I need to shower and get going but I’m glued to the NYT updates about the Trump trial in Manhattan as Stormy Daniels is on the stand. Are any of you following this? How could you not? It’s mesmerizing. It will be interesting when it gets to the cross exam. Wow. This whole trial has been so tawdry, how can this not be damning for Trump?
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Dexter Friend said on May 7, 2024 at 12:15 pm
I used to love calamari until in North Carolina I got a plate of spoiled squid. I became very ill for a day. Now not even the ink for me. The best calamari I had was at a place Alex mentioned years ago, The Goose Island Brewing Company.
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Jeff Gill said on May 7, 2024 at 12:47 pm
“What could possibly go wrong?”
~ Stormy Daniels’s publicist in 2006 (and why I don’t have a publicist)
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FDChief said on May 7, 2024 at 1:21 pm
Deborah: because 1) his cult doesn’t care, and 2) the normies aren’t interested other than seeing it as just another performance of The Trump Freak Show.
That damn near 40% of the public votes for The Freak is proof that We the People are damn near incapable of self-government. Nobody remotely like this guy should have got more than a handful of votes, but the GOP is a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
So it won’t move the needle. Not one bit.
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alex said on May 7, 2024 at 1:23 pm
Oh, Stormy… Much as I love a salacious story, I’m sorry but this one is grossing me out.
Well, we went out and voted and there was hardly anyone at my polling place.
We’re getting walloped by storms this afternoon, putting the brakes on our spring gardening projects. We have a stump we need to burn in order to build a patio and the rain is not helping.
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Julie Robinson said on May 7, 2024 at 2:54 pm
Just read a bit of Stormy’s testimony, and I’m with Alex on not wallowing. I was at my volunteer gig all morning anyway. Now the pool is interesting me more than the trial.
Icarus, we have a CR-V that’s almost 10 years old and still feels new to me. Hubby and daughter want to go electric and my counter is always that we don’t need a new vehicle. We have a perfectly adequate vehicle already. I’m a real killjoy.
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basset said on May 7, 2024 at 3:08 pm
Looking at a Northern Lights trip this fall… so far agents have pointed us to Iceland, Finland and Norway, which seem to be about as far and expensive as Alaska and northern Canada. Any ideas or guidance?
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Suzanne said on May 7, 2024 at 3:25 pm
I voted early a few days ago. I voted Dem and there were some great people on the ballot. The woman running for governor is excellent.
I simply don’t grasp how people in Indiana, where the GOP has been in power for years, and with a super majority in the past 10 years at least, still sit quietly and listen to them blather on that they are going to make Indiana into a damn heaven on earth if given the chance and always vote them back in power. The GOP has been given many chances and the state is still down at the bottom of so many metrics it’s sad.
Definition of insanity personified.
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Brandon said on May 7, 2024 at 5:21 pm
Who’s following the Kendrick-Drake feud?
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David C said on May 7, 2024 at 5:33 pm
No guidance on places, but this year we’re at or near solar max. It’s going to be a great year for northern lights. If is was choosing a place to go, I’d choose Finland. As one of the most introverted countries in the world, I’d be with my people.
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Deborah said on May 7, 2024 at 6:44 pm
Me too David C, I’d choose Finland. I’ve not been there in the winter though, but it’s beautiful in the summer. I follow a Finnish guy on Instagram who posts amazing videos of the northern lights. I tried to comment something here earlier about Finland’s northern lights earlier but the internet wouldn’t let me for some reason.
Regarding the Stormy testimony today, it’s obvious that she’s a huge narcissist too so it’s quite a clash between her and Trump.
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susan said on May 7, 2024 at 7:06 pm
Basset— I’d go to Finland or Iceland, maybe Norway, just to get away from Americans. They wear me down.
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Brandon said on May 8, 2024 at 1:56 am
The New Ho King restaurant: what to order.
One clear winner from the ongoing battle between Drake and Kendrick Lamar? New Ho King, the downtown Chinatown restaurant that was name checked by both rappers in their diss tracks.
“I be at New Ho King eatin’ fried rice with a dip sauce and a blammy, crodie,” raps Lamar in the second half of Euphoria, released April 30. Days after, on May 3, Drake released another diss track, Family Matters, with an accompanying music video that was shot inside the restaurant.
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Jeff Gill said on May 8, 2024 at 7:16 am
My non-traveler wife was a faculty guide for a student two week trip to Finland over Thanksgiving 2019, and she’s been wanting to go back ever since.
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linda said on May 8, 2024 at 8:01 am
Good news from Michigan. The west Michigan Taliban —4 of them— have been replaced with independents and Dems. Here’s part of the story:
https://www.woodtv.com/news/ottawa-county/ottawa-county-commissioner-lucy-ebel-recalled-by-voters
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alex said on May 8, 2024 at 8:32 am
Linda, that’s good news and I hope it’s a harbinger for school boards and other governing bodies everywhere that have been overtaken by MAGAts while the public was sleeping.
Mike Braun won the GOP primary for governor, which cost a total of $40 million spent between five candidates, mostly on attack ads full of lies and devoid of any substance. Being tarred with the epithet “RINO squish” didn’t hurt him any. He’s a MAGA squish, after all.
Looks like Stutz the Yutz is going to reclaim our congressional district (he lost the seat in a failed bid for the Senate several years ago). Although he’s a dumb-ass, at least he’s the devil we know. Two of his challengers, Tim Smith and Wendy Davis, sound like Adolf Hitler by comparison, and I’m not violating Godwin’s Law by saying so, while Stutzman is simply an Elmer Fudd. He’s best remembered for blindly going forward with a fight against the debt ceiling after the rest of the GOP House pulled back from its game of “chicken,” earning him national acclaim as the biggest doofus ever.
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Dave said on May 8, 2024 at 10:23 am
I confess to going to my local polling location yesterday, asking for a Republican ballot, and voting for Nikki Haley, only as a protest vote against Trump. She got 21.7% of the vote in Indiana.
My Ukrainian congresswoman won against her opponent who appeared to be even more reprehensible than she is. Her last TV ads showed her with her husband and daughters, she was toting a rifle, and then a picture appeared with her standing with the Orange one. She voted against the last Ukrainian aid package, which generated an article in the Washington Post focused on her birthplace in Ukraine. Might be behind a paywall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/25/victoria-spratz-ukrainian-congresswoman-aid-betrayed/
Banks had no opponent in the primary. Braun, another Trumpian, won the governor’s primary, his runner up was Suzanne Crouch, the current lieutenant governor.
I read yesterday that voter turnout for primaries in Indiana is the second from the bottom of all fifty states, this despite the fact that you can get a ballot for either party without registering as a member of that party, which is why I never voted in a Florida primary, where you are required to register a party.
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Dexter Friend said on May 8, 2024 at 10:40 am
Julie at post 20: EVs are causing angst…where to charge them? Lower mileage range than advertised, and much more.
If your family goes ahead and buys new, try this one, which would be my choice if I bought new cars, which I don’t believe in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPFa-ckCQio
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susan said on May 8, 2024 at 12:26 pm
Or maybe Toyota Camry, Toyota Camry hybrid If I were in the market for a new car, I’d get a hybrid, not an EV.
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Julie Robinson said on May 8, 2024 at 12:59 pm
IF we needed a new car, hybrid would be my choice. But we don’t, the end.
Disappointing but not surprising results from the Indiana elections, but I’m truly happy that the pissant Curtis Hill went down in such flaming defeat.
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4dbirds said on May 8, 2024 at 1:53 pm
I bought a Chevy Bolt in November, and I love it. It is quiet, fast to get to speed, and warms and cools quickly. I don’t have any issues charging it. I charge it once a week at the grocery store next to my work building. I only have to go to the office once a week, so it is perfect. The thing with an EV is you have to plan. If going on a long trip, you must look for charging stations on your way and, preferably, where you will have lunch or dinner. A spur-of-the-moment road trip could land you in some predicaments.
My husband and I have finally started the process of getting his Irish passport. He is eligible through both his paternal grandparents. It is a lengthy process involving original documents from his grandparents, parents, and himself. That will allow him to live in just about any EU country. I have to live in Ireland for 3 years to get citizenship. Neither one of us has any interest in living in Ireland. We are thinking of Portugal, but they have severely changed their tax laws in relation to foreigners. We’ll see once he has the passport. My healthcare, which follows us into retirement, will pay if we live overseas. We also need to live in an area where our daughter can access treatment for her brain tumor and radiation-induced cognitive decline. I don’t think I can live here and be miserable if Trump wins, and I don’t think we’ll ever have a free and fair election again if he does win.
I have a few OCD and ick factors in my personality. I will never eat any ‘inked’ anything. I hate very fishy-tasting dishes and all organ meat. No, thank you very much, not for me. The sandwich you pictured looked delicious.
Dave, I also voted for Nikki in our Virginia primaries. They’re open. My current congresswoman, Jennifer Wexton, isn’t running, and there are eight candidates for her seat. All of them qualified. I can’t figure out who to vote for. How do all of you do it when more than one person is qualified and would be a good opponent against the other party?
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ROGirl said on May 8, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Maybe this happened to other politicians, too.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/08/robert-f-kennedy-jr-worm-brain?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
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Sherri said on May 8, 2024 at 2:28 pm
Just to add to the weight of the evidence of how bad a person RFKJr is, the brain worm story is from deposition in a divorce case when he was trying to avoid paying alimony to his second wife, whom he had cheated on regularly and who subsequently committed suicide.
That article also fails to mention the hepatitis C he contracted from IV drug use. Remember when a little weed use was considered unseemly?
Something ate his brain, but I don’t think it was a parasite.
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Sherri said on May 8, 2024 at 2:44 pm
Forty years. We now know that’s how long it takes to go from striking a blow against Big Brother, to We Will Crush You.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc&feature=youtu.be
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Jeff Gill said on May 8, 2024 at 2:44 pm
I’m not saying a parasitic worm has eaten a portion of my brain, but it would explain so much.
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David C said on May 8, 2024 at 3:14 pm
I stopped at a rest area while I was passing through Indiana last weekend. Your lite governor’s smile in her official photo looks like someone who had to look up smiling in the dictionary.
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Sherri said on May 8, 2024 at 3:21 pm
If Elizabeth Holmes went to jail for Theranos, I don’t see why Musk should not go to jail for Tesla and his lies about full self driving.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/08/in-tesla-autopilot-probe-us-prosecutors-focus-on-securities-wire-fraud-.html
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tajalli said on May 8, 2024 at 3:29 pm
4dbirds@35: I look at who endorses each candidate to better understand with whom they are already cooperating to accomplish goals to create a strong, functional block of politicians to advance my values. “Plays well with others.”
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Sherri said on May 8, 2024 at 3:43 pm
I think too many people, including the people in charge at the NYTimes, don’t understand what nonpartisan means. Yes, it means that you don’t pick a candidate, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t make choices. You (should, anyway) have values, and make choices based on those values, and if as a result, it appears to some as if you favor a candidate, well, that’s their problem, because you can defend your choice with your values. You don’t make choices based on not appearing to support either candidate, because that serves no one.
The ACLU is nonpartisan, it’s not going to say vote for Biden. It will say, here are the civil rights issues that are important, and here’s where the candidates stand on them. That’s nonpartisan, but it’s idiotic to pretend that the organization should stand halfway between two candidates on civil rights. Neither should the nation’s top newspaper on democracy.
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alex said on May 9, 2024 at 10:22 am
I’m sharing a free NYT article on Milan and its backlash on tourism:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/world/europe/milan-nightlife-crowd-control.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qk0.HVES.wax4CcxDpXLp&smid=url-share
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alex said on May 9, 2024 at 12:49 pm
And the Indiana primary is still generating news:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/07/indiana-primary-unexpected-warning-signs-donald-trump-00156750
Nikki Haley did spectacularly well, and more than $98 million was spent befouling the airwaves in our sleepy little state.
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Julie Robinson said on May 9, 2024 at 3:34 pm
My mom voted for Nikki Haley, because she sounded reasonable to her. I did explain all the ways Nikki isn’t reasonable, but it was a protest vote anyway.
I’m thinking our new neighbors might have parasitic worms in their brains. First they overpaid on the house, now they are putting down new sod on the entire lawn. Grass doesn’t grow well here unless you water, fertilize, and use weedkiller in exciessive quantities. It’s why our yard is almost entirely planted in veggie garden, native plants and flowers with coquina pathways.
It’s also the hottest time of year, 96° both yesterday and today and it hasn’t rained in over a month. If they don’t pay a fortune to water it almost constantly they’ll lose their investment. Even up north people don’t put in new lawns until the fall.
It’s possible I also snooped on the city permit lookup and they don’t have one. That will be very expensive the next time an inspector happens to drive by and notices it. Not that I would turn them in.
Mrs. Kravitz signing off!
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Dave said on May 9, 2024 at 4:45 pm
All that big money, Alex, we common folks don’t stand a chance and no wonder so many people have such uninformed (read goofy) opinions.
Julie, I went and voted for Nikki Haley only as a protest vote and because I could do it easily here. The Democratic primary had so many empty spots, so many Republicans here are running unopposed.
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David C said on May 9, 2024 at 6:07 pm
You need a permit to put in a lawn in the Free (except women) State of Florida?
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Julie Robinson said on May 9, 2024 at 6:16 pm
The Republican Presidential primary was THE only race on the ballot here; Dems didn’t even bother. We have another primary with the other races in August, so three elections this year. It seems a waste of taxpayer dollars, OTOH our church gets rented and provides workers and it’s quite the tidy sum.
We solved our roadside assistance quandary with a quick call to State Farm. $2/month gives us 50 miles of towing, gas delivery, and whatever the guy they send out can fix on the side of the road. Done and dusted.
David C, we’re in blue, big government Orlando. You need a permit to go outside and sneeze.
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Deborah said on May 9, 2024 at 9:36 pm
Stormy gave about a total of 8 hours of testimony today and Tuesday. I had other things going on today so I only read the synopsis on the NYT this evening. I have no idea what the jury thinks of it and of course it won’t make a hill of beans difference to Trump’s base but I wonder about the vast middle. What do they think if anything? Trump’s lawyers are doing what all of his lawyers do, try to delay and obfuscate. It will be interesting to see what happens. I think he’s going to be convicted but he’ll appeal and it’ll go on and on. Whether this will effect his election is the big mystery.
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Brandon said on May 10, 2024 at 1:40 am
Barron.
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