Our limited budget determined that the trip to Venice itself would serve as our Valentine's gift to each other, so we decided that our holiday splurge would come in the form of food and wine--as most know, Fletch's favorite pastime.
Our guidebooks had warned us that food is fairly low on the list of reasons to visit Venice, so instead of reserving a seat at one of the luxury restaurants, we opted to partake in the local's way of living and headed to the nearest "bacari", or wine bar. (Well, it wasn't the nearest since I made Fletch walk for two additional hours to find that perfect start.)
In Venice, a bacari is a way of life. Locals crowd the long bar ordering their "ombre" or glass of wine and eating "cicheti" (appetizers to us). We crammed ourselves into the line-up, ordered our token ombres and tried to look as if we knew what we were doing. Used to sitting and drinking a bottle of wine over conversation, we discovered that the Bacari serves as a quick stop for locals to have one drink and conversation with a friend or two on the way home from a day's work. Unlike the locals, we had two ombres at our first Bacari, finally decided it was in poor taste to stay any longer, and headed out to our second Bacari.
Down a hidden alley and close to our hotel we discovered Osteria Candiia. It was here where we broke all the rules and ordered a half carafe of wine, stayed longer than an hour and shared more than a brief greeting with some of the locals. We filled ourselves with olives and various potato appetizers and laughed as we watched the men come and go, enjoying their long-standing tradition. We even spied one group of men, which according to the bartender, had been coming to that bacari for more than 20 years. |
