October 24 AMA October edition
From the foothills of the Venetian Prealps to swimming in the Sicilian sea
Most of my month has been consumed with the saga of buying our little Venetian house. The characters remind me of Gilligan’s Island. There is a ridiculous real estate agent, a hapless architect, a very patient bank manager, a calm engineer, and us, who thought we were going on a three-hour tour.
When I am not dealing with tedious house drama (or maybe to distract me from the tedious house drama) I have been doing a lot of traveling. I started the month in Rome with a 24-hour jaunt that was mainly for dinner with pals (and to stock up on proper Laziale guanciale.) Last week there was a trip to Vincenza and Bassano del Grappa where it was very cold and the places we visited were all about Palladio’s restraint and geometry. Today I am writing to you from the tiny island of Ortigia in Sicily where it’s 30 degrees and everything is Baroque and ramshackle. (I am already working on guides to all of these places in the coming months.) Italy truly never ceases to amaze me.
There are some new faces here. Welcome! The way this end-of-the-month newsletter works is that paid subscribers have the opportunity to ask me their Italy questions. I also tell you about a terrific contemporary art show that will cure a Biennale craving, some things I have been reading and watching, and the best thing I ate this month. (In addition to amatriciana and misticanza at Piatto Romano and the bowl of chili that I cooked in my Venetian kitchen on the first rainy cold night of the season.)