My first day in Venezia! We arrived in the early morning and caught a water taxi to our apartment. We’re renting it from the owners of Oliva Nera, a classic Venetian restaurant very close to the San Zacharia stop off the Vaporetto. The apt is great, well stocked kitchen, new bathrooms, non-functioning Internet, and best of all, situated above the restaurants various kitchens and prep kitchens.

We quickly left the apartment before passing out and got espressos and then went and found some chichetti for a snack. Chichetti are like tapas but better. Okay they’re the same, just Italian and they are typically Venetian, and they are usually different kinds of fish, and that is awesome.

We visited a bunch of churches for my mother’s project and explored our new hood. Later we met our friend Max, who stayed with us while getting his masters in Architecture at Berkeley, and his baby daughter, Margarita. Very cute, loved by all, with a powerful baby-cold.

We had dinner at Oliva Nera and it was incredible. We started with fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and served on top of mushrooms (stiga, not sure what that translates too). Next we had anchovy pasta and cuddle in its own ink served over a creamy pollenta. For a main we split the mixed fried fish which consisted of everything they could find at the market that day, fried, including (not sure how to spell this) schie, my favorite, which are like little tiny baby shrimp (see below on fork). To finish everything off we had panna cotta with raspberry and preserved and dehydrated orange slices served with desert wine. I might put up some recipes but I can’t divulge all their secrets.