Two missions accomplished last evening. We took Contessa Anna out to dinner - she, as many of you know, is the lovely woman who owns the palazzetto where we stay. And we had the spaghetti with vongole (tiny lagoon clams) at Ristorante Riviera of which I have been dreaming for many weeks - Wanda and Gill will remember them and attest to their deliciousness, I'm sure.
The weather was perfect for dining al fresco. The restaurant sits at the edge of the fondamenta (canal-side) near the end of the Zattere with a view over to Giudecca. Glasses of prosecco all around, spaghetti with vongole all around and a nice, cold Pinot Grigio, salad, chocolate mousse and apple cake but best of all was more than three hours of lively conversation. The Contessa, as Marcia so aptly put it "is interesting and interested." We had lots of questions for her, she was curious about us and life in Hawai'i.
She explained the how the local governments work (corruptly), how Venice was built (by cutting down, literally, millions of trees and sinking them like piles into the dirt at the bottom of the lagoon after, of course, conquering the lands where the forests were located), how she is actively involved in her community and her parish, about her father, her late husband and her children - her son Carlo and daughter-in-law Daniella happened to be visiting this weekend so we did get to meet Carlo briefly, and she's very busy planning her daughter's wedding in September and is going to spend a few hours in Rome tomorrow (Sunday, June 14th) looking at the house her daughter and future son-in-law are going to buy. So like I said, we talked, we laughed, we ate and drank. It was a glorious evening in every way.
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