Terzo goes to Venezia & Bologna

Terzo is becoming a very fat and happy sketchbook. (That's pretty applicable to my stomach too actually...) I just got back late last night from a quick trip with a friend to Venice and Bologna. 

Venice is one of my favorite cities in Italy so it's rare for me to pass up a trip to such a lovely spot, especially when the Bienalle is happening too. My friend Jen loves the islands Burano and Torcello too so those were quickly added to the list of places to sketch while up in Venice. Bologna has been on my list of places to visit/eat at in Italy so it was time to check that one off the list. And with an epic restaurant recommendation to investigate as well, the potential for lots of awesome sketching spots and places to eat were high! 

The trip to Venice started very early on Tuesday morning so we could get to Venice as early as possible. We stayed at the house of a sweet little old "nonna" which was a very happy surprise. Our room looked right out over a canal, which made for early mornings of noise and lots of mosquito attacks ma vabbè. Afternoon 1 was for exploring and sketching. Day 2 was dedicated to Bienalle and Arsenalle. And the morning of day 3 we jumped on the vaporetti to get to Burano and Torcello. We found an awesome little pastry shop right by nonna's house but pretty much all the epic food spots were found in Bologna.

Watercolors at sunset on the first day

St. Marks

Night sketches/watercolors

Burano, a lace making island off of Venice covered in rainbow houses.

Torcello, another little island off of Venice

At the end of day 3 we left Venice and headed south to Bologna. We found a neat spot for some aperitivo and hit up a language exchange recommended by our hostel. Day 4 we headed straight for a little hole in the wall shop, Pasta Fresca Naldi, that you can snag a some fresh made pasta for cheap. Polenta al ragu, gnocchi con gorgonzola and tortelloni di zucca. Ridiculously good. We were also given a ton of killer gelato spots to check out, none of which disappointed either...considering we ate about 3 gelato each that day. Unfortunately, it was rainy weather in Bologna so sketching was a bit dismal but we ended the night at an epic restaurant recommendation, da Fabio. 

Dinner at da Fabio consisted of the following:

Antipasti- baked Scamorza cheese, fresh ricotta, giant mozzarella di buffalo, baked tomatos, celery/Parmasean salad, grilled endives, spinach quiche, grilled zucchini

Primo- Tagliatelle with Bolognese

Secondo- Osso Bucco

Dolce- fresh made ice cream, chocolate tart, creme caramelle, FRESH marscapone, mousse/meringue cake, fresh chocolate sauce, apple tart, berry crostata and a bowl of clementines. 

All followed by limoncello. Whoa. And yes, we ate all of it. The happy food stupor that followed was ridiculous.  The entire dinner lasted almost 5 hours too. Double whoa. 

The next day we somehow found room to revisit the pasta shop and get some lasagne verde and fresh tagliatelle al ragu. Then some more sketching around town before it was time to catch some trains back home. Epic food/sketching trip complete. 

Quick rainy day sketches around Bologna

The list of epicness from da Fabio

Late night aperitivo sketches

Neptune fountain in the center of Bologna

Train sketching on the way home to Lucca