Prior to our trip, I had been through Web sites and magazines reading about the ‘must-see’s, the ‘must-do’s and the ‘must-eat’s in Venice.
For instance, Alla Testiere of the other day was a must-eat. A must-do agreed by many was to buy a mask, from a decent mask maker. That meant, in other words, not to buy a mask from around Pizza San Marco. According to the same sources, there was this one place in Dorsoduro (Ca’Macana on Calle delle Botteghe (+39 041 277 6142) that made the masks for the famous movie Eyes Wide Shut.
So, we walked an entire day looking for this particular mask shop. Of course we were passing several other shops on the way. Some of them good, some of them the standard. The good ones were clearly more expensive when compared to the standard. We had one lady thought that we were insulting her. We asked for the price for one of her less embellished masks and she said 60 euros. When we gasped and commented on the price, she almost kicked us out, saying “those were handmade!”
Having lived an episode like that, I did not think that I really could afford to buy a mask from Ca’Macana. But, I still wanted to find the store. After long hours of walking through some same, some different Dorsoduro streets, we came to our shop. It was more than wonderful.
More examples of their masks can be found at their following web site. You may be amazed to see that they even offer workshops and courses on mask making. I will not go into the prices anymore. I do feel like that may be an insult on the beautiful things that they are making.
By the time our hustle for masks was over, the sirens were already ringing. Once again, we knew “alta acqua” was on its way and the high roads were already set up. We did not mind so much anymore since we had our boots and a set of our oldest pair of pants. We walked over back to the Rialto bridge and happily found a crowd of people having aperitivis in a little Piazza near Campo San Giacometto, also near Ponte Rialto. Around the same place is also another nice bar called Al Marca. We did not go to any particular one, we actually bar hopped and each seemed almost alike. The beautiful part is in anywhere in Italy is that, if you are crowding outside, it does not really matter exactly where you get your drinks from.
After a couple of apertivis, we walked into what seemed like a very nice restaurant around the same area. The name of the restaurant was Banco Giro -also on Campo San Giacometto. I will not talk about the food or the wine. I had one of my worst experiences in this restaurant. The service is beyond rude. The management is beyond managing the service givers. Not European standards and actually not any standards at all. After a certain point in our conversation with the manager, our waiter was behind us making faces and laughing, instead of giving us some apology. No customer relationship management or understanding, service whatsoever. Avoid this place at all costs.
We went back to our hotel sullen for the first time ever in Venice, could not even enjoy the high waters…
You will find on Donuz, everything that is unique to where we have been and where you would want to be. Be it food, be it lodging, be it a special feet massage, a bottle of wine, a person… Be it for 7 days, a day, a week, 36 hours or a single moment. On Donuz, is everything, you will need to make your holidays special. We hope you share with us your experiences.
Thu, Aug 20, 2009
Venice