My new favorite pass time in Venice was to look at wonderful paintings, and then enjoy a caipirinha while contemplating what I'd just seen. There was a great cafe by the Ponte Dei Pugni that allowed for people watching and Brazilian imbibing. Of course the propronents of AA will tut tut my unwinding endeavor, but so what, I'm a grown person making a choice. This link to Maria's cookbook will give the recipe. I will tell you that the cachaca (I don't have that spiffy "c" character to make the last sh sound) is lethal! But the drink is so tasty you don't realize you're looped until you stand for the first time.
The exotic factors were off the chart. First - I'm in Venice - which to me is one of the most exotic places I could be. OK, I know - it's Europe - Italy in fact - tourist destination par excellence. Well to me, it's as fascinating and different as the dark side of Mars - I'm an American - everything beyond the mall is freakin' exotic - including New York City. Second, Italy seems fascinated with anything South American - there are large segments of Italian desendents in Brazil and Argentina - just as there are here in NY. In fact judging from the wacked out TV shows I saw, culturally, Brazil and Argentina are much closer to Italy than America. There's nothing like watching a rehearsal of Argentine Tangoist on the portico of the Pantheon to amp up one's exotic factor.
Third, Venice is a hodgepodge of old cultures, east and west, colliding together on these wild islands - all influenced and controlled by the changing of the tides. Everything flows with the water. High tide, low tide, acqua alta - whatever - you have to deal with nature in a way cities usually don't. I believe that's part of the charm of Venetian painting and what makes it so visually strong. Venice is a female city - it produces a different sort of artistic experience. After a day at the Scuola Di San Rocco sitting with Tintoretto and having a painting conversation about space, form and composition, my Pugni cafe was a further break into a deeper more physical exoticism. I easily get caught up in the mood.
I keep thinking of the show at the Fortuny. Which was truly wierd. There was a lot of wild work from nearly every era and culture mixed with a heavy late 19th Century sensibility - all of it truly decadent in that Victorian / Freudian way. The palace is a crumbling wonder and has a real thickness to it. If you can - sit on one of the divans and soak up the atmosphere. I normally don't go in for this sort of stuff, but it really was distinctive. The museum had also mixed and matched a lot of new work with old - it worked. Interesting afternoon. I guess on this trip I kept stumbling over really exotic ideas, visions, tastes and experiences. I hope the same happens for you.
